Rassie Erasmus, the new GM of the Springboks. Wonder who he has his eye on in the draft?
The South African Rugby Union have just appointed Rassie Erasmus as the Springbok general manager. ESPN Scrum.com reports that “The former Stormers coach will take on responsibility for the high performance teams and will also be involved with the Springboks when they are in camp.” Continue reading
The Mole fancied this Boks team, long on experience and short on expectations, to make a big dent in the tournament, lining up against their age-old rival New Zealnd in the semis to give them a big fright. Continue reading
... and that's about it. Of course, on the day there'll be a bunch of other guys in front of us, but I reckon we can take them.
Has the World Cup thrown Australia’s first Tri-Nations win in a decade into a different perspective? Yes. Do their back-to-back victories over South Africa in that tournament have any bearing on the upcoming RWC11 quarter final between the two teams? No. Continue reading
Bismarck Back for Boks. Bish Bash Bosh*?
Crazy Piet has made a few headlines over the years with his post match comments. You know the kind. As with many appointments in post-Apartheid South Africa, there was some consternation that he had been appointed partly because of his colour rather than his ability. However, PdV is no fool. Continue reading
When Willem Alberts heard his opposite number was Jacques Burger, all he could think of was the next meal. At Fergburger.
South Africa just put an eighty-burger on the hapless Namibians. Continue reading
The corresponding fixture in the last World Cup was a belter of a game, played on a sunny Marseille afternoon. South Africa won 37-20 en route to their second World Cup but with the scores tied at 20-20 after an hour, every neutral was willing the islanders to an unlikely victory and wishing that Caucau was playing. Continue reading
Wales really should have taken their chance when they had it. The Boks were missing some key figures through selection or injury and are pissed off and on the rebound for the match against Fiji on Saturday. Continue reading
Huge performance, no result
When the Mole is wrong, boy is he wrong. The Welsh tore into the South African pack from early on in the game until about the hour mark, and were the dominant team for much of the match. Continue reading
Anybody Home McFly?
Haven’t we heard this one before? Blond kid goes straight from school into the Natal Sharks starting lineup, gets picked for the Springboks within the season and then is a vital player in their world cup campaign as a twenty year old. Continue reading
Bloodbottler, Childchewer, Meatdripper, Maidmasher and Gizzardgulper Make Cut
Colour me shocked: Pieter de Villiers has gone and picked very close to the best South African squad available to him. There’s an argument for the inclusion of the crafty Adie Jacobs over the more athletic Juan de Jong, and maybe the untrammeled running ability and pace of Lwazi Mvovo over the experience of Odwa Ndungane, but they’re very close calls. Likewise Flip van der Merwe’s youth and aggression gave him a good shot, but de Villiers has opted instead for the lineout skills and leadership that Ulster’s Johann Muller brings to the cause.
Tri-Nations underperformers Ashley Johnson, Jean Deysel and Deon Stegmann are all axed from the backrow to make way for the return of Schalk, Heinrich Brussouw and somewhat surprisingly, Bath-bound Albert Louw. Juan Smith had to withdraw from selection last week due to his failure to sufficiently recover from injury, and while a player of his calibre would be a loss to any team in international rugby, it could mean that we see Schalk take on the South African No7 blindside jersey [they just had to be different] in a Brussouw/Burger/Spies backrow that looks very tasty. Then again, the wrecking-ball qualities of the Sharks’ Willem Alberts might well be employed on the blindside, or ironman Danie Russouw – who started all three of South Africa’s knockout wins in their successful RWC07 campaign at No8 – could be called into play, in what is an area of tremendous depth for the Boks. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 