'A no brainer' - decision to leave Serfontein out of Springboks squad questioned
South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus has taken his first step towards building a squad for the World Cup later this year by naming a 26-man alignment squad.
This is the bare bones of the squad heading into the Rugby Championship next month, as it does not yet include Bulls or Sharks players, as they are returning from New Zealand and Australia after their Super Rugby quarter-final losses.
However, the squad is still interesting, as it has seen the recall of a number of overseas players such as Cobus Reinach, Marcell Coetzee and longtime exiled 2007 World Cup winner Frans Steyn.
Steyn has been plying his trade with Top 14 outfit Montpellier for the past three-and-a-half years, part of a sizeable South African contingent in the south of France. While Steyn has received a call-up, his teammate Jan Serfontein has not been so lucky, and this has shocked many fans on social media.
The 25-year-old centre has been in wonderful form during the past two years with Montpellier, and many had previously thought that South Africa’s loosening of their selection policy regarding overseas players would have opened the door for the 35-cap international.
However, it is not to be for Serfontein, and while this is not the definitive squad for the World Cup with many to return, it is hard to see where the former Junior Player of the Year will be able to impress Erasmus.
While Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel have been the favourite centre partnership under Erasmus, a lot of fans thought that there was still a place for Serfontein in the squad, particularly with squad rotation being paramount at the World Cup.
This is what they said:
The fans seem particularly surprised that the 32-year-old Steyn has been chosen ahead of Serfontein. It may be Steyn’s kicking and ability to play as a back-up fly-half which has earned him his place in the squad, however, the power and attacking threat posed by Serfontein is far greater, and that is why so many fans wanted to see him in a green jersey again.
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No because if it was a 1:1 correspondence it would have been 10 top14, 3 URC and 3 Prem. I did arbitrarily put a max limit per league at 8 because for me if half of the teams are from the top14 it will make no sense. I genuinely didn't think the discussion will go that way tbh as for me it is a details.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.