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Bok No.8 Jasper Wiese backed into corner on overseas question
By Chris Jones
Jasper Wiese has returned to South Africa as a Premiership title winner with Leicester and one of the most destructive ball carriers in European rugby and takes that power into the Springboks first test with Wales.
Asked by local media if he thought a Springbok starting place could have been secured if he had opted to remain with the Bloemfontein Cheetahs franchise rather than join his brother Cobus – who plays for Sale Sharks – in England, Wiese said: "That's a difficult question. You've put me in the corner here! I don't think I could say whether I would've been here or not.
"I can't go back in time and change anything or determine if things would've worked out if I stayed in South Africa or gone overseas. Everyone who is here goes through a selection process and at the end it is the call of the coaches to make, but if you are playing well in Japan, England, France or SA the coaches will see the hard work you put in."
There has been considerable debate over the No8 Springbok jersey Wiese will wear against a Wales team featuring his Leicester team mate Tommy Reffell who is making his test debut.
Wiese, who was uncapped when he joined Leicester in 2020, added:"The coaches and everyone involved in selection process are the people to make that call. If you play well overseas - we've seen it with all the guys - regardless of where, you probably deserve to at least come into contention, but it's up to the coaches to have the final say.
“I hope I can take my form into the Test matches. With fans back into stadiums and restrictions having been relaxed a bit, it definitely helps us a team a bit more.
“I want to take the opportunity this weekend and hopefully make the most of it. I will do everything to the best of my ability for the team. When you have about 60,000 people cheering you on in the stadiums helps a lot. The quality we have among loose forwards is so high that if you don’t perform someone is going to take your spot. You can’t sit back and think the position is yours. You have to continuously work hard to keep your position.”
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Latest Comments
oh ok, seems strange you didn't put the limit at 7 given you said you thought 8 was too many!
Why did you say "I've told you twice already how I did it but your refuse to listen" when you had clearly not told me that you'd placed a limit of 8 teams per league?
"Agreed with 4 pool of 4 and home and away games?"
I understand the appeal of pools of 4, but 6 pool games might not go down well with the French or the South Africans given already cramped schedules. I do still think that you're right that that would be the best system, but there is going to be a real danger of French and SA sides sending b-teams which could really devalue the competition unless there is a way to incentivise performance, e.g. by allowing teams that do well one year to directly qualify for the next year's competition.
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.
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