{"id":103263,"date":"2015-10-28T10:53:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T08:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/103263\/give-the-youngsters-a-run\/"},"modified":"2019-09-18T02:55:34","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T00:55:34","slug":"give-the-youngsters-a-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/sports-news\/2015\/10\/28\/give-the-youngsters-a-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Give the youngsters a run"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>David Rush, South Coast Herald<\/h6>\n<p>THE game against the Argentinian Pumas this Friday night (at 9pm) will be interesting perhaps mostly in the sense of who coach <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heyneke_Meyer\" target=\"_blank\">Heyneke Meyer<\/a> decides to select.<\/p>\n<p>All Black captain <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richie_McCaw\" target=\"_blank\">Richie McCaw<\/a> is 34 years old. In my humble opinion, that should be the absolute oldest age limit for an international rugby player, unless you are Os du Randt.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>Even 34 is pushing it, but McCaw is a legend of the game, one of the greatest ever, not someone fighting for his place in the team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It&#39;s our last week together as a team. Unbelievable journey so far with a group of friends that I can call brothers. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lE0OT8f9Gq\">pic.twitter.com\/lE0OT8f9Gq<\/a><\/p>&mdash; JP Pietersen (@jppietersen14) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jppietersen14\/status\/658792651253260288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 26, 2015<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n<p>So, while the game is important of who finishes third &#8211; and also not losing twice in the same year to Argentina &#8211; it can provide an interesting look at what the future might hold.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the Boks under 30-years-old team, with an eye on the next World Cup, in four years time.<\/p>\n<h3>Backs<\/h3>\n<p><strong>15<\/strong> Willie le Roux &#8211; 26. Is a quality player but needs more consistency.<br \/>\n<strong>14<\/strong> JP Pietersen &#8211; 29. Makes the grade now, just, but will most likely be too slow in four years&#8217; time.<br \/>\n<strong>13<\/strong> Jesse Kriel &#8211; 21. Jan Serfontein is 22, and will be knocking on the door.<br \/>\n<strong>12<\/strong> Damian de Allende &#8211; 23. Growing in form and confidence all the time.<br \/>\n<strong>11<\/strong> Lwazi Mvovo &#8211; 29. Bryan Habana is 32 and slowing down it seems. Mvovo not really a realistic longer term option.<br \/>\n<strong>10<\/strong> Handr\u00e9 Pollard &#8211; 21. Pat Lambie is 25, so things look healthy at fly-half.<br \/>\n<strong>9<\/strong> Rudy Paige &#8211; 26. Fourie du Preez is 33 and Ruan Pienaar 31. Not sure either of this trio is a long-term option.<\/p>\n<h3>Forwards<\/h3>\n<p><strong>8<\/strong> Duane Vermeulen &#8211; 29. Scrapes in, but will he be injury free for a good length of time? A captaincy option. But do we want yet another &#8216;ageing\/passenger&#8217; captain?<\/p>\n<iframe src='\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rVH2grDxLn8' height='360' width='640' allowfullscreen='' frameborder='0' loading='lazy'><\/iframe>\n<p><strong>7<\/strong> Willem Alberts &#8211; 31. There&#8217;s no other loose forward in the squad under the age of 30. Schalk Burger is 32.<br \/>\n<strong>6<\/strong> Siya Kolisi &#8211; 24. Francois Louw is 30, so could arguably still make it for the next World Cup, maybe even as captain. But will he be good enough then?<br \/>\n<strong>5<\/strong> Lood de Jager &#8211; 22. Great to know he will be around for a while. Will have to keep up his form to keep Pieter-Steph du Toit (23) out.<br \/>\n<strong>4<\/strong> Eben Etzebeth &#8211; 23. A powerhouse. Glad he&#8217;s in our team.<br \/>\n<strong>3<\/strong> Frans Malherbe &#8211; 24. Jannie du Plessis is 32. Time to let the younger powerhouses play.<br \/>\n<strong>2<\/strong> Adriaan Strauss &#8211; 29. Bismarck du Plessis is 31. Could possibly still make one more World Cup.<br \/>\n<strong>1<\/strong> Trevor Nyakane &#8211; 26. Beast Mtawarira is 30 and not the force he once was.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously there are players back home, who after seeing our performances, will be champing at the bit to get into the squad.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest opportunities are on the wings, among the loose forwards, and at tight-head.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a big question over the captaincy. We really need someone who will be around for a while.<\/p>\n<p>There are also question marks over Heyneke Meyer and whether or not he will continue as coach.<\/p>\n<p>Time will tell. Never a dull moment being a Bok fan.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/RSA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RSA<\/a> have one more outing in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/RWC2015?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RWC2015<\/a> and it&#39;s important to deliver <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wsbwonCuWN\">https:\/\/t.co\/wsbwonCuWN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/RWC2015?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RWC2015<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yJJ5TjgyQn\">pic.twitter.com\/yJJ5TjgyQn<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rugbyworldcup\/status\/658663226939428865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 26, 2015<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-below-post-content\">\n<div class='tenancy_slot tenancy_slot_1 jannah_ad' style='display: none;' data-query-id='18c56183fec98f313a693912d7276fd0'><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every Bok game matters but sometimes an out-of-the-box approach can work wonders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5696,"featured_media":103266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":".","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8428,3],"tags":[8509,1122,7566,8510,1767],"class_list":["post-103263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby-world-cup","category-sports-news","tag-heyneke-meyer","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-world-cup","tag-rwc","tag-springboks"],"amp_enabled":true,"category_labels":{"Category":"Sport","SubCategory":"Rugby World Cup"},"tag_labels":["heyneke meyer","rugby","Rugby World Cup","RWC","springboks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5696"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}