Springboks Blend Old and New for Wales in the Perfect Mixture | Weekend Wrap

Welcome back to The Weekend Wrap, our Monday version for a little weekend previews. Remember, Friday's weekend previews, Monday's weekend wrap, and I do it with my good friend Ari Elgharter. We have to check our language at the door. What are we talking about? What language are we using today?

So, yeah, today's English. Welcome back, Ari. Yes, thanks, Mbert. Yes, nice to talk rugby. Lots happening over the weekend.

It was quite interesting. Again, lots of games and a few interesting ones as well. The Springboks kept us on the edge of our seats, so to speak, till deep in the game. So that's a few things we can talk about. But mission accomplished.

It's a win. And taking into consideration who played and who could have played, I think that's definitely mission accomplished. But there's definitely a few things that I think Jerry Flannery will be a busy assistant coach this week. So probably as we speak, he's busy doing a few things with the Springboks related to defensive lines. But I can't remember if I ever seen line breaks like that for a Springbok game, even though it was late in the game.

But if there's something that happened, maybe good it happened, then you can be a bit more wakey and prepared in games to come in that area. So that was the one area that's maybe a bit of a flag that went up. A few other small ones, but as a whole, mission accomplished. They did well to beat that Scotland team that is extremely settled and probably 95%, 98% their first choice team is quite impressive as well. So I think it's a big tick, mission accomplished.

I think we spoke to Harry about it this weekend that Pillar and Post, which I got a good grounding in now, the gap was between Pillar and Post and Ruan Oki and Tune looking at each other kind of a thing. I think it's a lot to do with the fact that they're not used to playing with each other and Tune in his first test, I think, if I'm not mistaken, or one of his first, sorry, I can't remember off the top of my head just now. I think they will probably be able to fix that quite quickly. I'm not that worried about it. But if I was Jerry Flanning, like you just said, I wouldn't have slept a week since Saturday night.

I would have been at it since then. Yeah, there's a few video sessions that's going to be a bit embarrassing, but they need to do better. So I understand and respect there's players that don't know each other, et cetera, but they've had quite decent time together. And even in the franchises, they used to systems that address second, third, fourth phase when it's a bit more challenging to get everybody in the right position. But when it happens once, it's kind of a wake-up call when it happens twice.

But if it happens three times, then it's a bit of a red flag. So I think that's what happened over the weekend. So I think it's a little bit more about one or two guys struggling with communication and not sure who's taking the player. But I think it's something they can fix. I'm quite comfortable that it happened now, comfortable saying in inverted commas that it's better that it happened now in this scenario and it didn't cost the Springboks the game.

But it's definitely something they would need to get in place. And if it's about players that's not used to a system or not used to communication with other players, that needs to be addressed. But you would think at national level, those players would be able to adjust quicker than they did. So it didn't look good. It looked sloppy, actually, but at least they survived it.

So I think the defence for Wales will be a massive step up in that regard. So I'm OK with that. But yes, really friendly is the defensive coach. So he's got lots of work to do. But there's always questions asked all over the place.

But I'm more concerned leading up to the All Black test. So something that the All Blacks would have seen is that, OK, so you can put the defence under pressure and you can create line breaks. and it was lots of inside passes. There was short passes and inside passes. So many inside passes that did that.

And also, Tulani Center came back inside quite a lot as well. So it seemed like there was space on the inside the whole time. Teopalutu. Teopalutu, yeah. Sorry.

I think even when I spoke Afrikaans, I would have battled with that one. You would have stumbled over that one. But anyway, yeah, through Scotsman. Yes, he is. But so there was on the inside, many passes on the inside, they created momentum, not always line breaks.

But the short passes, it was those line breaks were really passes just off the shoulder. So they need to just make sure that they plug those gaps, the spring blocks. But that's definitely, that could be something that Flannery will work on. And I'm sure that every player will be a bit more wary about that as well, aware of that. But there's lots of different components of the defence.

all components needs to be in place, but that's just one of them that was kind of showed up. But that was like the worst thing that we saw. I think otherwise they did well. They did well when they needed to. They did well when they're under pressure.

They did well when they were 14 men on the field. Scrumed well when there were seven in the scrum, and Don will be happy with that. That's also, Peter Stetutri also alluded to that. So I think it's more mission accomplished at least for me than other way around. The things that's a challenge can be fixed.

All right, let's talk about this team now, and I'll put it on the screen here. And the one that stands out for me and jumps out for me, and the guy who did not have a good game on Saturday, Apalele Farsi, back at 15 in the starting team. Is that maybe a ploy to maybe give him a bit more playing time, you know, get him to eat his traps again, because he's a much more talented player than what we saw on Saturday. He looked out of sorts a little bit. Is that maybe thinking to get him to start again?

I think there's quite a few that needs a few more minutes. And I think what's encouraging is that Rossi trusts the players that's in the system, even though they had maybe a five or six out of ten game leading up to this game And I think maybe an example is that Paul De Valle against England was not too bad but it wasn't really, it wasn't a great game. But the moment he got a second game against Scotland, he was way better. So sometimes you just need that one game just to kind of get used to that pace of test rugby and what's happening and all the things you're meant to do. You're playing into different systems, again, like we alluded to last time as well.

You know, you have in your franchise a way of playing, and now it's a little bit different at times. But we know what Fassi can do, especially on the attack. And so it's under high ball is nice and tall. So he's meant to be able to handle that quite well as well. It's often decisions when to kick it back and when to run it back and things like that that comes into play.

to know when to be a little bit more conservative and when to trust what's in front of you. So he's an exciting player. So he needs a bit of game time. He was kind of in and out with injuries as well. So I think he needs time.

And it's exciting to see players around him. He will know Jakku Williams next to him. That's exciting and fast. Not the biggest wing ever, but definitely a player to watch out for. Another speedster that we have that we can kind of put into the international fold.

And then, yeah, settle the center, center pairing. So it's the best centers you can pick. And with a very inexperienced new Fusimoyo going into number 10, that's really exciting. But then again, you have massive experience in nine, Reinhardt. So both sides of him, he can't ask for better assistance.

He's kind of eased into that. And I think he will get good position as well. I don't think he'll be under pressure much. So sometimes you give somebody a debut. We all remember the Dave Van Hussland and Gafi de Tue moments against New Zealand and how tough it was for them to get all those balls on the back foot.

But Wussi Muiu will get good possession. He will get front foot ball. He will be able to play tactically. He will be able to play attacking rugby. And Reinhardt will protect him.

Reinhardt will be a good player that will know when to play him and when not when to play it short. So it's exciting to see. Really a massive talent, Vusi Moyo. So for him to make his scat is well done to him, thinking about his age. But he looked at ease when he did play against Barbarians.

I think he played against Barbarians. So he looked at ease. So we'll see. There's a big step up for him. But he's got good players around him.

So hopefully that will work out. Let's talk about Debitant. You just mentioned Vusi Moy, but of course he's not the only one. You mentioned Jakob Williams as well. But Ruben van Heeren at last gets his shot.

He had to move to France because that seems to be the golden ticket. You know, don't play in South Africa. He's only going to play. He hasn't even played there yet and he's now got to not. I suppose also because we have a lock crisis.

We talked about that last week. And then of course, Carlos Sadi, a guy who we thought his career was over and signed for the Bulls, got injured, and then Bordeaux brought him back. as far as I know, and then rehabilitated, and now getting his chance to sign this Charnier, those S's got me out there. So yeah, talk about those debutants. Yes, it's great to see, and I think it's just what you just said, I think it's frustration for Pretoria and Cape Town, Cape Town losing Van Yeren to France and the bulls not signing, being able to sign Carlos Sadi.

So maybe in time things will change, but it's a pity for them, or for specifically for van hierden not playing in south africa now making his debut but um it just goes to show i know there was lots of injuries but it goes to show that that um it's not being held against players that go overseas if you're good enough you can get into the team but there were massive amount of injuries at lock so van hierden's been doing great um ever since he came back i was a bit nervous when he came back after three months he dropped the first kickoff he got against conor in Cape Town and that kind of led to them beating. So they're beating the Stormers there. And I thought for a moment there, I thought he's not really switched on. He's like half a foot in France. But then he played really well against the Warriors in that big win.

So I think he earned it with great performances. And like I said before, you can always take a lock from Afis and put him into the Springbok team. there's something that's in the DNA of those tight fives that come from there so it's great to see and Karrusari he comes from Belleville High School here in Cape Town so he wasn't in the Paul gym or the Paul Roos and all those so it's great to see that a player from maybe not the biggest rugby school in Cape Town, Belleville High School can provide well interestingly enough, David Evolius came from Belleville as well, and John Follett as well, and Werner Grijf. So there's a few springboks that come from that same school. But, yeah, so it's another one.

So for Carlos Saadi, well done on getting that cap. So it's exciting. He's got strong players around him, and so that will help a lot. So they're not going to battle in the scrums. I just want to get back to the team in front of me quickly again.

It's Malcolm Marks next to him in Gerard Stenakamp. So that's quite strong. Vista, I'm glad to see that his injury wasn't too serious. He was really impressive for those 30 minutes he was on against Scotland. That's Kruber's Vista, so that's great.

And amazing lose to you. So if you, I mean, you've got Jasper Vista, Peter Steff, and Paul de Villiers. And I'm sure that in the anthem you're going to find the two Vista brothers hugging each other and being next to each other, singing the anthem loud and clear for Uppington to hear So that is something to look forward to I saw a picture of them the other day when they were still little boys on the beach and they looked like just skinny little young boys standing on the beach you know, arms around each other and now they're both Springboks. And of course there's a lot of noise now about that incident where Wieser was lifted above his head by Juan Fenton. He had to keep hold of him but apparently that's now illegal to drive forward and then sort of, you know, throw him ahead because then people say yeah it's impressive but it needs to be outlawed and then somebody showed a clip from i think the junior springbox doing the same thing is that maybe a bit of a worked out move or simply magical that he could hold him up his head you know above his head and not drop you yeah i think it it was playing the moment um i remember beast had a few of them in the past as well i remember from from holding up or getting locks that were kind of went behind his shoulders and keeping them up.

So I think that one was by chance, but it often happens when you catch the ball and you go down, the players kind of sense the defense is not really on you and you often find it that fours or fives or locks taking the kickoff do take that chance to immediately go forward. But yes, to throw him like that, like you said, I didn't know that there's something in the rulebook that prevented that, but it kind of looked impressive. I must say, it must wake up all the thoughts in Europe and even in New Zealand and Australia. If you look at that game, watch that game, and you see Visa charging down the field after that. And the way that it did it, it looked menacing.

So I think that is impressive. It's a kind of a statement in terms of physicality, to think that there's so many other locks that still need to play. But I think there's exciting, maybe the good in the bad MVA with all the injuries is that you have a Vise and a Van Jorden are getting their chances to play. And that's probably, we must remember, we've got great locks, but many of them are way into the 30s. I mean, we're talking about all of, most of them, like the Itzebet and Mostert and Luit, all of them in their 30s.

that is. At here, getting closer to that as well. So we need to look at what's next. But we're blessed with great locks in the country. So I don't think we'll have a challenge there.

Norcia is doing great as well. Just on the players not getting any chance to rest. And Jesse Krils jumps out at me. Ben Jason Dixon jumps out at me. Damien Willems jumps out at me.

And Peter Steff the Toy, most importantly. I mean, that guy is a machine. But playing week after week after week, Why not play Ben Jason in the starting lineup? Cameron on the bench, maybe, and make Jesse captain it. I wonder what the thinking is behind that.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. And I think they would have looked at minutes, and maybe it's got to do with him being out that long with his shoulder. Maybe that's a little bit in his ease. Almost like not really a Lister engine, but he keeps going like a Lister engine, and he's one of those that always play lots of minutes. So I think on that map where they list minutes played and they take it back, obviously, for the last 12 months probably, you'll see that Peter Steff was not in action at all.

So little, really, not much. So maybe that's the thought. I would have thought that also rest him now, play him again against Argentina and then play him against the All Blacks. So it might be that they rest him against Argentina, but that's a game they're going to really need him as well. So it depends on what Rossi is going to do for that game.

I don't want to look forward too much, but that's in Argentina. So that's just before the All Blacks. So it's a good chance for them to kind of play as much of a starting 15 for the All Blacks if we look that far ahead. But that's their last chance to put 23 on the field that will face possibly the All Blacks. But when I look at even today's team that was announced against Wales, there's enough combinations that will definitely play against the All Blacks.

So you can see, like the centre pairing, you can see in the loose, you're just missing kind of for Kulisi. That will come back for Davilius probably. And then we know that Ox and those players will probably then come back in two different locks. So that will be the forwards for the All Blacks if everybody stays healthy. And at the back, there's not massive changes.

You'll have a new fly-off. The centres will stay the same. Kirtley will stay the same, and you'll have Damien Willemse and Colby coming in. So that will be probably if everybody stays healthy. But, yeah, I think it is a bit concerning to play Peter Steff too much and you want to protect him in a way as well, Envia.

So you don't want to put players in to protect them too much. But he's really important for the Springboks looking forward to what's happening the rest of the year, especially against the All Blacks. So I would maybe give Ben Jason Dixon a few more minutes in seven as well, seeing that he might be the backup looking at it now. Also, it's a pity envy. I think Riley Norton, if you look at him, that he got injured, I think he would have had a big look in at number seven.

But that's injuries. and we'll see how that plays out and how long it's going to be out with at Amstreet. But yeah, it's a pedestal if I would have rested a little bit maybe, and Jesse Krill as well. There's many others that could have played 13, but maybe it's got to do with Rossi wants to give the combinations minutes. And so that's important maybe for Damien and Jesse just to get another game going and hopefully pull it through to the rest of the season Okay Ari just in closing 5 bench Herschel Yankees and Marnie Lovock and Damien Valens.

Herschel Yankees getting a look in first time since 2023 and the likes. What type of game do you expect this team to play? Because, you know, a bit of an unknown. What are you expecting? I think they'll have their plans, but as always, in the Test rugby, you kind of see how the game develops as well.

You can't just go out and say I'm going to just throw the ball around and just going to run them off their feet from the get-go. I think they'll kind of, in talking about cricket terms, build a little bit of innings against Wales. I think they're professional enough just to do the right things. They will definitely kick for the corners early on and get that momentum. There's a good chance they'll have scrum penalties coming their way if they have some scrums on their own put in as well early on.

But it's a team that will play you, that can play you. So I think it's exciting outside backs. And so if there's momentum, the Spinbox will definitely try and play them a little bit more. But I think for Russi, all along, he's been kind of thinking ahead a little bit. So he'll be trying a few things and make sure that systems are in place.

And you're not always going to have the momentum and the space that you will have against Wales. So, yes, it's an opportunity maybe to test a few things on the attack, first phase, front football, et cetera. But I think they'll make sure that they just build innings. Just make sure that you get in the right place of the field. Don't do silly stuff.

Don't run from your own 22. Get in the half. Be a bit more conservative. And maybe if it opens up a little bit, you've got players that can have that freedom then later on. but I'm a bit I must say that Wales should be a bit more concerned if you look at this team this team will get you good position and this team will get you front football and momentum and so if that happens it's going to be a long long afternoon for Wales and I don't want to be overconfident for the stream box just to blow them away but if this team gets momentum it's going to be a long long afternoon for Wales so they need to be wary of this team So the spring was getting better.

And they showed against good defenses like England and Scotland. I mean, they put up 40 points plus against England and Scotland with very settled defense systems and strong teams. So it could be a little bit more against Wales. Well, just briefly touching on Wales. For one weekend, they let the northern hemisphere point stable because they beat Fiji.

But they didn't do too badly against Argentina as well. I mean, we should once again not maybe underestimate Wales, definitely on the, I wouldn't say on the rise, but a little bit of a comeback trail, I suppose. Yeah, I agree with you. I think many of us, me included, kind of stuck in those many games in a row that they've lost. They've in the new coach definitely made a difference.

The Six Nations was a lot better. So, yes, I think the travel will kind of will challenge them coming all the way from South America. It didn't seem to challenge the Scotland too much, but they were quite good in the second half, actually. So maybe it's not as big a factor as we think, but they're definitely better. And they've got, in the franchise rugby, they know they're South Africans, so many of them know they're South Africans as well, so it's not as intimidating to play.

Many of them have played the Sharks many times in Durban as well, so it's not an unusual place to go and play. But, yes, I agree. Don't underestimate them, But I'm seeing that they've lost quite a bit, not too far, but they've conceded quite a bit of points against the Pumas as well. So it's going to be tough to keep the Springboks out for 80 minutes for them to not score many tries. But then again, you can't get too far ahead of yourself.

I think the Springboks will, like I said earlier, build that innings in cricket terms and just make sure that they do the right things. And then they're not going to chase the score. I think they're going to try and do the right thing. So it's an exciting team. Can't wait to see Wissi Moyo at 10 in action and a few others and to have those brothers.

I talked about Belleville High School. How proud is Uppington High School in the Northern Cape? Two players, two brothers standing next to each other singing the anthem on Saturday. So that's a proud moment also for Uppington. Okay, Ari.

We'll talk again on Friday when we know what the Wales teams look like, But also we'll be keeping an eye on the All Blacks because that's the one that matters. All Blacks Island is a big one coming up, I suppose. Probably almost the game of the weekend. So we'll talk about that again on Friday. So looking forward to that.

Thank you for making time for us. It was fun as always, even if it's in English. Yes, it was fun. We searched for a few words this time, but it was fun as always. It's Monday morning.

Rugby is still rugby in Afrikaans and English. It's the same word. But, yeah, have a nice day. Just before I go, I want to show you someone that's been visiting me and sitting in here. And here we go.

My friend Paul Avernant. He was at the game. He did a live reaction for us after the game on Saturday. So he can't hear you at the moment because the earphones are in my head. So just wave at him.

I'll wave at Paul. And I was very impressed from that first chat you had with him in Wales, I remember. He was blessed to be there and close to the Spimbach team as well. So nice to have you in South Africa, Paul. and don't make him, don't give him too much blue bull exposure there.

No. I know that he's maybe leaning towards the stormers more. No, he's a stormers man, but to me, it's now 50.1% stormers and 49.9% blue bulls.

Just give me one more day. I'll have him converted, I'm telling you now. Awesome. Thanks, Ari. It was good, man.

Appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Nice talking. Bye-bye. Bye.

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