Dendarii
International Debutant
Casting an eye over the South African team:
Props: It's almost unfair to have that front row as a replacement. I do wonder if it might have worked better the other way round as I think that Kitshoff and Malherbe are the better scrummagers while Nche and Nyakane are more mobile and perhaps better suited to come on when the game has opened up and the opposition has tired. But in reality, any way round would work.
Locks: De Jager was preferred over Mostert as a starter in the World Cup, but he has only recently come back from injury, so that's a fair call. And as with the props, any combination of locks will be quite formidable.
Loose trio: Vermuelen is a big loss, and Smith isn't a like-for-like replacement, so that changes the balance a bit. However, in a recent Squidge Rugby video he pointed out how Vermuelen plays a bit role in organising the defence, and that Smith's analytic abilities are quite highly rated. So in that respect his selection makes sense over other options like Jasper Wiese and Dan du Preez.
Bench: I'm not a big fan of Elstadt but he does offer cover for both lock and loose forward, so having that flexibility does help given that they've gone back to a 5/3 split.
And while there has been talk about doing that given how well the 6/2 split worked at the World Cup, I think people have forgotten that they started off with 5/3 and it was only as the tournament went on that they hit upon the notion of the Bomb Squad. But given the COVID cases in the squad, I can understand why they might have wanted the extra back for this match, and we may very well see 6/2 for at least one of the other matches as it does look like they might be grooming Willemse to take over from Steyn as the cover for multiple backline spots.
Props: It's almost unfair to have that front row as a replacement. I do wonder if it might have worked better the other way round as I think that Kitshoff and Malherbe are the better scrummagers while Nche and Nyakane are more mobile and perhaps better suited to come on when the game has opened up and the opposition has tired. But in reality, any way round would work.
Locks: De Jager was preferred over Mostert as a starter in the World Cup, but he has only recently come back from injury, so that's a fair call. And as with the props, any combination of locks will be quite formidable.
Loose trio: Vermuelen is a big loss, and Smith isn't a like-for-like replacement, so that changes the balance a bit. However, in a recent Squidge Rugby video he pointed out how Vermuelen plays a bit role in organising the defence, and that Smith's analytic abilities are quite highly rated. So in that respect his selection makes sense over other options like Jasper Wiese and Dan du Preez.
Bench: I'm not a big fan of Elstadt but he does offer cover for both lock and loose forward, so having that flexibility does help given that they've gone back to a 5/3 split.
And while there has been talk about doing that given how well the 6/2 split worked at the World Cup, I think people have forgotten that they started off with 5/3 and it was only as the tournament went on that they hit upon the notion of the Bomb Squad. But given the COVID cases in the squad, I can understand why they might have wanted the extra back for this match, and we may very well see 6/2 for at least one of the other matches as it does look like they might be grooming Willemse to take over from Steyn as the cover for multiple backline spots.
