Sale Shark among three more players added to Springboks camp
Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber has added three new players to the Test squad on Monday - with Rosko Specman, Dan du Preez and Johan Grobbelaar joining the Boks camp in Cape Town.
It is the first time that hooker Johan Grobbelaar has been involved with a Springbok side, while winger Specman and flanker Du Preez return after being included in the wider squad for the Castle Lager Lions Series.
“We have a tough Castle Lager Rugby Championship series ahead after Saturday’s series decider against the British & Irish Lions and given the strict COVID-19 protocols we have to adhere to, we have decided to bring the players in sooner rather than later,” said Nienaber.
“This is Johan’s first senior national call up and we are looking forward to seeing what he can do at this level after showing his class and consistency at the Bulls.
“Rosko played against Georgia and we know what he has to offer having worked with him for several weeks before he was released from camp.
“Dan was one of the unlucky players who didn’t get game time due to COVID-19 in our first few matches, so we are looking forward to having him back and giving him a chance to show us what he can do again.”
The three will join No.8 Duane Vermeulen and halfback Jaden Hendrikse who joined on Sunday.
Grobbelaar has been a key figure for the Vodacom Bulls in the last few seasons, and he also represented the Junior Springboks in the World Rugby U20 Championship in Georgia in 2017.
Specman, meanwhile, made his Test debut against Georgia last month as he establishes himself at international level in the 15-a-side code after a successful career with the Blitzboks.
Du Preez, in turn, was one of the unlucky few who missed out on selection for the Test against Georgia and the South Africa ‘A’ match after Testing positive for COVID-19.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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