Selection grumble

I have a grumble .... Was just reading on Sport24 that Brad Barritt has flown in to fill in for the Sharks at centre. This follows injuries to Frans Steyn, Waylon Murray and Adi Jacobs have robbed them of their experienced players in midfield.

Remember that Barritt was lured overseas earlier this year with promises of a big money contract at Saracens.

Now suddenly injuries are hitting the Sharks' setup and instead of going through their existing structures they are going to pull a player from another club to fill in.

The Stormers did a similar thing earlier this year when they called up their old hooker Tiaan Liebenberg from France to come fill in.

Now I don't argue that either Liebenberg or Barritt add value - hell anybody to save the Stormers from Schalk Brits - but it does make a mockery of selection policies and talent development within your own setup.

Yes they will probably know many of the calls and moves, but surely they've made their bed and picked which side they want to play for?

• Is the player motivated to play for you considering he is been treated as little more than a hired-gun for a few weeks?
• What message does it send to other players in your setup? Something like you can train as hard as you like, put in all the extra hours etc... but at the end of the day if we need somebody we're going to pull from outside ranks

Any thoughts on the subject?

English squad announced

Martin Johnson has announced the names for his English team that will be taking on the Southern Hemisphere sides later this year.

They are:

Forwards - S Borthwick (Saracens), T Croft (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), N Kennedy (London Irish), M Lipman (Bath), L Mears (Bath), T Palmer (Wasps), T Rees (Wasps), S Shaw (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Stevens (Wasps), P Vickery (Wasps).

Backs - N Abendanon (Bath), D Armitage (London Irish), D Care (Harlequins), D Cipriani (Wasps), H Ellis (Leicester), T Flood (Leicester), R Flutey (Wasps), U Monye (Harlequins), J Noon (Newcastle), P Sackey (Wasps).

Flyhalf dilemma

While I appreciate it is something of an experimental squad, the selections for flyhalf for the Bok UK tour are baffling.

The logic of picking a scrumhalf (Ruan Pienaar) who has said he doesn't want to play flyhalf as your first choice and a guy who battles to make the first choice for the Lions (Earl Rose) as his backup his curious to say the least.

I appreciate that Eddie Jones and Jake White both believe that Pienaar has what it takes to be a world class flyhalf and we have a lack of any real depth in the position but if you want him as a flyhalf, the player and his province have to buy into it.

Peter Grant and Morne Steyn might not be the next Dan Carter but they're the kind of players who COULD fit the mould of a make shift Bok flyhalf. Steyn in particular has played his part helping the Bulls to the finals. Maybe he should have been rewarded for his efforts.

Well I guess we'll have to see what the team produces on tour....

The squad is as below:
Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez, Bryan Habana, Chiliboy Ralepele, Danie Rossouw, Pierre Spies, Gurthro Steenkamp, Jongi Nokwe, Juan Smith, Andries Bekker, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers, Conrad Jantjes, Ricky Januarie, Brian Mujati, Heinrich Brussow, Jaque Fourie, Earl Rose, Victor Matfield, John Smit (c), Odwa Ndungane, JP Pietersen, Adrian Jacobs, Bismark du Plessis, Frans Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Tendai Mtwarira, Ryan Kankowski.

Earl Rose

I’ve been reading a lot of commentary about Earl Rose in recent weeks. Specifically about how he has the ability to combine the sublime with the ridiculous and how his ball skills have made him a shoe-in for the end of season Springbok touring side.

At present, Rose is currently the top points-scorer and he has been part of a Lions squad that seems to have rejuvenated itself since the start of the season. The question is – how much has Rose contributed to this revolution and how much has he cost the Lions this season… and ultimately is he good enough to be the Springbok flyhalf?

Upfront I’m going to make it clear – I didn’t like Rose when he was at Western Province / Stormers and I personally believe that Rose cost the Lions in the Super 14. Do I think he cost the Lions yesterday against the Sharks in the Currie Cup? ABSOLUTELY…

That try for the Sharks where Rose aimlessly kicked it into the charging Sharks backline should be enough to confirm why he should not be selected to play for the Springbok side.

Of course mistakes happen and players make the wrong choices – but with Rose they seem to happen too often in the big games. The choices to run from behind his own goal line or attempts to try and outmuscle some of the worlds’ best flankers or kick into some of the worlds best backline players are mistakes he makes on a regular basis – composure is everything for a flyhalf.

One also has to look at the way Rose plays when considering whether he would be suitable for a Springbok place. I know that Pieter Devilliers is a bit of a fan of his, but ‘Div’ also needs to consider whether or not Rose will actually get a backline firing or not.

Whoever ends up being the Bok flyhalf will be fortunate to have two of Jacques Fourie, Jean Devilliers, AD Jacobs and Frans Steyn outside them – muscular, game breaking centres…

They don’t need a flyhalf who is going to try and be a picture of creative flair. This is why Butch James and Peter Grant fit so well into this system. Both are solid defenders and can take the contact and both (in theory) try and do the basics right.

At the end of the day, as a coach, you have to use what you have. If you don’t have a Dan Carter in your backline to get it firing but you have some super creative centres – then this is where your backline play can come from. There is no point trying to make a player fit a game plan that isn’t there.

Experimenting is great but rather experiment with what you have rather than move away from the game plan that plays to your strengths.