An awful Bok stat

11 of our starting 15 are 30 or over, with two of the under 30’s being 28 in Willemse and Nortje

This is a sad state of affairs, made even more ridiculous with the addition of Deon Fourie to the squad

Are we going to be defending the WC with this team - add Kolisi ahead of de Villiers and we have 12 of the 15 at 30 plus

NZ on the other hand have 11 of their 15 under the age of 30

Dave, I'll always vote for bringing younger guys in, but there are only a few older chaps that are questionable for the WC.

Kolisi, Eben, PSDT and DDA.

Of those guys, who can you really drop without causing massive uproar?

DDA would be the easiest to chop.

PSDT's removal will be made a little easier by the fact every rugby fan, and all their pets, are head over heels in love with Cam.

But Kolisi and Eben? I don't envy Rassie the task of managing their exit. They're both huge personalities, and have walked a long and successful road with him.

Reinach slipped my mind, but he's only still there because he did so well in the URC last season.

Over all, I'm not too concerned. We do have replacements for all those guys. Divvy for Siya, Cam for PSDT, RG/Wiese/Venter for Eben...and Roos for DDA hahahahahaha.

Actually the DDA replacement is the bigger issue. Selecting from our URC sides we have Nel, Mills and Stokke. Also note that Pakie has messaged me privately and punted Richard Kriel for Bok 12. He used the word "yster". Mills being the only real candidate but he has a lot more to prove before he enters the conversation. And then there is nobody else really, unless Willemse is forced into 12. Weird, considering the abundant amount of athletic loosies we have.

Seems a tad strange that members here have for years been saying that DDA is central to the Bok game and yet no understudy appears to have been groomed despite so many experiments in almost all other positions.

Perhaps, in Rassie's mind, he knows that Hooker is next in line and good enough to slot into other positions while he waits for DDA to exit. The counter to that would be that we've never seen Hooker at 12 for the Boks a single time, even against minnows.

Just some ramblings.

One of the great things about the Bok schedule this year and particularly the Greatest Rivalry series is how well older Boks do. Are there any Boks that need to be scrapped.
We saw Eben play a very good 80 minutes against a tough Argies pack. We saw Deon Fourie play brilliantly against the wee abs at close to 40 years old. He played like a world class 6. Graham Henry just said Marx is the best hooker in the world and of course Du Toit is the best number 7.
What the oak are missing is the detail Rassie has on every member of his squad, How they perform in matches, the battle stats and how they go in training.
Another factor the oaks are missing is that modern training diets etc and better managing of players by creating greater squad depth has extended the careers of older Boks. You see this also in tennis were when you reached 30 in prior years you were thought old.
Unfortunately once again the mamparas are missing quite a lot and one can only say they are very consistent!
Oaks there is no need to worry. If older players are not up to making the world cup next year this will be revealed by the Bok playing schedule. No better sifting of the squad could have been arranged.
My guess is that your genuinely world class players like Marx, Eben, and Du Toit will make the RWC.
Some like Reinach need a good performance against the Kiwi Ballarinas. I sometimes get the sense he looks like he is coasting in matches. Lets see what he can do.
The anti Allende group have been making full blown Mamaparas of themselves for many years now. They believe at some point Allende's performance will taper off as we have seen with the vey fine Bok Willie Le Roux. The Mamparas will then claim they have been right all along regarding Allende.
Beeno reading the Mamparas like an open Book. Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha

Opines the arch Mampara Pakster.

For me the only 30 year old’s and plus that should be retained are Kolbe, Arendse, Pollard, Williams, Ox, Marx, Thomas, Wilco, Eben, RG, Kolisi, PSDT and Wiese - that’s more than enough

For the rest move on