With first choice outside centre Justin Geduld’s withdrawal from the SA under-20 squad so that he can join the Blitzbokke for a Sevens trip to New Zealand, good money should have been on Westville old boy Tyler Fisher to slot into the starting line-up. It’s not the case. Coach Dawie Theron has opted to go with Sylvian Mahuza instead. As a result Fisher who had an extraordinary 2012 season finds himself warming the bench once again. In fact all the KwaZulu-Natal schooled players (Sithole, Coetzee, Ungerer, du Preez) will be wearing jerseys numbered 16 or higher when the Baby Boks take on the Maties at Markotter, the home of Paul Roos Gim in Stellenbosch on Wednesday morning. A concern for Fisher is that is that the squad is officially still 35 players strong. Chances are that not all second choice players will make the trip to France to play at the Junior World Championships in June and certainly third choice squad members have no hope of realising that dream.
The Maties game will be massive test for the under-20’s and should they not perform to expectation, it will be interesting to see if the coach hits his panic button at the end of the week. Fullback Cheslin Kolbe and wing Seabelo Senatla are also shipping out with the SA Sevens team. This opens the way for exciting Tim Swiel (15) and pacey JP Lewis (11). In the pack, massive unit Justin Forwood (1) replaces the other Westville alumni Sti Sithole at loosehead, while Stoney Steenkamp is in for Kwagga Smit at openside and Roelof Smit takes over from Lavene Dames at the tail of the scrum. So six changes all-in-all for what should prove to be a test of note for the age-group team.
Baby Boks: 15 Tim Swiel, 14 Luther Obi, 13 Sylvian Mahuza, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 JP Lewis, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Hanco Venter, 8 Roelof Smit, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Stoney Steenkamp, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Irnè Herbst, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Justin Forwood
Replacements : Kwagga Smit, Sti Sithole, Dries Swanepoel, Tyler Fisher, Robert du Preez, Stefan Ungerer, Leneve Dames, Jurie van Vuuren, Dennis Visser, Andrew Beerwinkel, Neethling Fouché, Marnè Coetzee, Devon Martinus, Mornè du Plessis, Eugene le Maitre
@QC86: They become senile a lot sooner in the WC than elsewhere. When did you say is that supplier of yours bringing the next delivery?
@Ploegskaar: what flavour
@QC86: RV, I will be keeping an eye on you…. With regards to BOG’s purchase, sad that you sold him pumped c-grade rump and roo biltong, but then again, at BOG’s age where teeth is a novelty and chewing is but a a distant memory, anything will pass if you are just required to suck the flavour out…..
@BOG: no problem,if you are early you can get all the road kill you need, before the crows get at it,lets call it even then,i paid 10.50 for those 100 cases of legQ
@QC86: Thanks for that meat that you sold to me at such a bargain price. Dont know how you do it. Rump @ R15 a kg and biltong @ R20 a kg Sjoe!! Should have bought more.
@Ploegskaar: Verkyker op n hoenderstellasie as jy agter op n draai gesit het. Jou kniekoppe was langs jou ore en as jy gelukkig was(selde) het n mooi blonde voor jou gesit. Dan het jy jou kniee aangebied as armleunings. Maar dit was die dae- geel gras, regte rugby gespeel deur regte manne.
@QC86: Jannie Els! And then he still got up to slot the penalty, first pro-rugby player in SA IMO. BTW, some tsotsies skimmed leg quarters out of one of my loads in December on the way from QT (Kei c/s) to EL, did you get offered any cheapies for cash?
dont forget that a coach often learns more from a loss than a win , not a bad thing during warm up games !!
@Ploegskaar: watched Naas getting KO’ed sitting on the scaffholdings,of that ground ,while in the army
@BOG: And long forgotten are the ramshackle scaffholdings of the FS stadium of the 80’s……
@beet: i saw the score on sw thus have no detail but at first i was shocked,then i thought about it and i must agree with you,maties must be in their final stages of prep for varsity cup and they would big and much older than the bb so ja did well i think
@QC86: If I was offered 26-17 before the game, I’d be inclined to take it. I don’t know what the quality was like or who started for the Maties but the score suggests to me that the Baby Boks did fairly well.
baby boks lost 26 17
Nothing should be read into the “starting” line-up. Just as well that they are playing at the Danie Craven stadium where the pavilion should just be big enough to accommodate the “replacements”