Time for SA ‘A’ players to stand up and be counted against Bristol Bears

After a disappointing loss against Munster in their opening end-of-year-tour match last week, it is time for the South African ‘A’ team to stand up and be counted in their second and final game against Bristol Bears on Thursday night (kick-off 9:30pm).

It is a very important game for the players and coaching staff, as they look to bounce back from a loss they should not have suffered against an understrength Munster side that has struggled in the United Rugby Championship this season.

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The coaches will want to put things right to save a bit of face, but it’s the players that really have to stand up as a few of them will be brought back into the Bok fold for their final game against England next weekend.

With the England match falling outside of the Test window, the Boks will be missing their English and French based players, which means that Cheslin Kolbe,  Jasper Wiese, Cobus Reinach, Andre Esterhuizen, and Vincent Koch will all be unavailable.

Lood de Jager would also have been unavailable, but is injured in any case, while Pieter-Steph du Toit is also expected to miss the game as he should receive a ban from world rugby after picking up a red card against France.

If you look at those open positions, the Boks are likely to call up a loose forward or two, a lock, prop, scrumhalf, centre and outside back to fill up those positions.

Great opportunity

This is a great opportunity for SA ‘A’ players to make a play for a call-up and a strong performance against Bristol will go a long way towards that.

Utility back Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, prop Thomas du Toit and lock Jason Jenkins should get a re-call, after they were made available to the SA A team, despite being in the Bok squad.

Marco van Staden should also get a recall after he was originally included in the squad but dropped out due to an injury, while Elrigh Louw also missed out with an injury and could be recalled with him in the SA ‘A’ mix.

At scrumhalf Grant Williams made a big statement against Munster and another action packed performance should see him back in the Bok mix.

Cornal Hendricks will be eager to impress as he offers both centre and outside back coverage, while youngsters Henco van Wyk and Suleiman Hartzenberg will also want to make a play.

‘Game management’

In all the team will want to put in a big showing against Bristol and make sure that a number of players are back on the Bok radar.

Coach Mzwandile Stick admitted that the team had a number of areas to address against Bristol and that they wanted to end their tour on a high.

“The key thing for us is to be better than we were last week. We knew the challenges that we faced and that we wouldn’t have much time to prepare. But we have had a few extras days now to build on how we want to play,” said Stick.

“If you look at how we attacked, when we got 22m entries the forwards really had a strong game, with how they carried, the metres gained and how they were dominating the collision point.

“Where we were guilty was the game management. We weren’t able to put ourselves in the right places, we were guilty of trying to play too much rugby in our own half, which the conditions didn’t allow, and we made silly errors that put us under pressure which led to us giving away penalties.

“So those are all things that we have to fix going into the game against Bristol and I believe that this team can turn it around on Thursday.”