A more adventurous Springbok selection

Jake White's comments to the Rapport about things he would like to try made me very excited. He talked about trying Habana at centre. So I thought based on that and two more matches, I'd propose a slightly more adventurous Springbok selection than my last.

Photo: Sasol Springbok Images

Here's my second selection with second choices in brackets (bold indicating a new selection, bold italics indicating a positional switch from my inital selection).

First Choice	Second Choice
1. JD Moller - Stormers	[Lawrence Sephaka - Cats]
2. John Smit - Sharks	[Schalk Brits - Stormers]
3. BJ Botha - Sharks	[Eddie Andrews - Stormers]
4. Bakkies Botha - Bulls	[Johan Ackerman - Sharks]
5. Victor Matfield - Bulls	[Ross Skeate - Stormers]
6. Luke Watson - Stormers	[AJ Venter - Cats]
7. Schalk Burger - Stormers	[Juan Smith - Cheetahs]
8. Pedrie Wannenberg - Bulls	[Joe van Niekerk - Stormers]
9. Ruan Pienaar - Sharks	[Fourie du Preez - Bulls]
10. Jaco van der Westhuyzen - Bulls	[Meyer Bosman - Cheetahs]
11. JP Pietersen - Sharks	[Odwa Ndungane - Sharks]
12. Jaque Fourie - Cats	[De Wet Barry - Stormers]
13. Bryan Habana - Bulls	[JP Nel - Bulls]
14. Akona Ndungane - Bulls	[Giscard Pieters - Cheetahs]
15. Percival Montgomery - Sharks	[Bevin Fortuin - Cheetahs]

So this is based on an entirely different logic to my last selection which tried to mix Jake's policy of selecting the incumbent and then thinking of form.

My changes start with selecting Schalk Brits ahead of Gary Botha as backup to John Smit. This is a selction based on sheer excitement value - I agree with Jake that Brits needs to firm up on his basics, specifically his lineout throwing.

My next change brings AJ Venter in as a loose forward backup. My loose forward backups don't correspond directly to where I'd play them. I would clearly not play AJ on the open side, but with Luke Watson and Schalk Burger in the starting line up and both possible opensiders, a number of possible combinations are possible - including picking either of Luke or Schalk as the starting opensider with Juan Smith or AJ as the closed side flank.

After being delighted that Jake would consider Habana as a center, that has made selecting the rest of the backline a bit difficult. Habana is an outside centre, so finding him a partner means a rejig or dropping Jaque Fourie. The latter cannot happen, and something about Jaque Fourie at inside centre and Habana at outside centre is very exciting. Bringing Habana in at centre means we would need a new left wing. In the spirit of being adventurous, I think picking JP Pietersen has tonnes of potential and is a pick for the future. So I've picked him. There is a real problem as backup left wing - no one outside of Habana and Pietersen has shown international class. So I'll assume that Odwa Ndungane can handle the switch - as I did in my initial selection.

Moving Jaque Fourie inside, has meant that I've relegated De Wet Barry to the bench, dropping Wynand Olivier. I thought Olivier's performance against the Crusaders (crabbing across the field, etc) was worrying enough to warrant this anyway. I've kept JP Nel in the side giving him the benefit of the doubt.

In the spirit of adventure, I've dropped Breyton Paulse from my line up and promoted Akona Ndungane. I've brought in Giscard Pieters as the form right wing behind Ndungane.

I've continued to leave Jean de Villiers out based on his shocking defensive performance at 12 this season and his spoilt brat reaction at being moved to the wing.

Do I think Jake will select anything like this side? No. But it does show how difficult moving Habana into centre will be as a disruption. Exciting though.