Vusi Voetsek: It’s hard to make sense of Bok picks at 9 and 10

It’s been quite a week, with so much to be pleased about, especially with regards to our sporting women who’ve done so well all over the world.

From Banyana Banyana making it to the round of 16 at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, to our hosting of the Netball World Cup, it’s been a thrilling time for our women in sport.

There have also been downsides to these achievements, but more on that in a bit.

Also, after weeks of speculation, the 33 players who’ll represent South Africa at the Rugby World Cup from next month were announced to much fanfare on Tuesday, but that, too, had a downside.

And that’s where I’ll start.

World Cup Boks

I’m a big Bok fan and like every other South African I’ll be 100 percent behind the boys in France from next month.

But hell, I think Jacques Nienaber and Rassie have made a few blunders with their selection. I don’t want to get personal, but come on, why do we need four scrumhalves at the tournament?

I know they’re all good players, but it seems like the coaches just didn’t know how to separate these four guys. The only one who lost out is Herschel Jantjies, who was there in 2019.

And then, they’re ok with going to the World Cup with only one proper flyhalf, Manie Libbok. How? Why?

And the Bok bosses have put nine guys on a standby list in case of injury or illness in the squad, but the experienced Elton Jantjies isn’t on that list. But an injured Pollard is. So, what if Libbok gets injured in the first game — does that mean Jantjies or someone outside of the standby list can’t be called up?

For me this is a big risk, but maybe I’ll be proved wrong in the coming weeks.

At least a proper hooker in Joseph Dweba is on the standby list because it’s also a big gamble to be going to the World Cup with just two hookers, and a guy who has played hooker a bit but is actually a flank, Deon Fourie, is the back-up.

Anyway, let’s hope everyone stays fit and it won’t be necessary to call anyone up. Heck, that Bok team has been hurt enough by the absence of Am, Pollard and De Jager.

Women’s coaches

I couldn’t help but notice that our very own Desiree Ellis was one of just 12 women coaches at the women’s football World Cup — out of 32 teams!

That’s 37.5%, the same as in 2019 when nine teams out of 24 at the tournament in France had a woman in charge.

I know the women’s game isn’t professional in all countries and there are not as many opportunities for women to coach, so there are generally not a lot of women coaches, but it would be great to see more women coaching in future.

Netball World Cup

While it was great to have the netball girls in Cape Town over the last few weeks for the World Cup in a tournament that really got the country’s sports fans excited and interested in netball, I can’t help but feel our Proteas could have done better.

They were so good at times, especially in their draw against New Zealand, but the losses they suffered, most especially against Uganda in the playoff game, were disappointing. They’re better than their sixth place finish … and I’m sure they’d all agree.

Let’s hope they take big lessons from their performance and bounce back at the next World Cup in Australia, where the hosts will be the defending champions and very much the team to beat.