Who should be the new Bok captain?
Heyneke Meyer has a crucial decision to make this week. He must decide on a new Springbok captain, with Jean de Villiers out of the picture.
De Villiers, who was injured at a World Cup yet again and will return to South Africa on Monday, has announced his retirement from international rugby.
So who must captain the Boks for the remainder of the World Cup?
AussieBoer will pick Damian De Allende at inside centre and at outside centre the young Jesse Kriel for all the remaining games.
Give Jan Serfontein his only starting chance against the United States.
Who do you think should captain the Boks now?
Victor Matfield: He has captained the Boks in 22 Tests, with 16 wins – which gives him a 73 percent success rate. While Lodewyk de Jager has been so impressive in the Tests this year; will it be another John Smit/Bismarck du Plessis episode – like the one we had at the 2011 World Cup? Yes, critics will quickly tell how many balls Matfield took in the line-outs against Samoa. Let us be honest neither Japan nor Samoa are line-out specialist.
Schalk Burger: He has one Test as captain a lost that. He is part of the current leadership. However, will Burger make the starting XV? Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts and Francois Louw has been the trio in most of the Tests when available.
Fourie du Preez: He has a brilliant rugby brain and has proved himself as a leader even during the Pieter de Villiers era. He has not captained the Boks at Test level yet.
Bismarck du Plessis and Adriaan Strauss will create selection problems and dare we go down that road – of John Smit keeping better hookers out of Bok team due to his captaincy position. Du Plessis' track record with the occasional disciplinary issue counts against him.
Duane Vermeulen: He must have been a favourite to take over the captaincy next year; if he had not decided to leave the Republic after the World Cup. Now is his big chance!
Francois Louw: He is an outside option as he captains Bath and knows the conditions. However, that is not enough to be ahead of other candidates.
The question is: Will Matfield and Du Preez last and survive all the games?
The problem is that – with the exception of Adriaan Strauss – none of the above will be able to lead the Boks towards the next World Cup and play all their rugby in the Republic.
I still don't think that the captain now has to be the captain when the next four year's building phase starts next season.
AussieBoer will appoint Duane Vermeulen as captain for the rest of the tournament.
He is a certainty of his place on merit in the starting line up!
AussieBoer (Kevin D)
@rugby365com
Vote on poll for who should captain Boks now at World Cup.
