An interesting thought has been through my mind again this week. You see the Springboks lost again, albeit after what I thought was a very bad call in not seeing the forward pass before the lack of evidence try for Richie McCaw, and my thought is if ever there was a time to try some youngsters out it would be now. If the full strength Boks lose on Saturday morale will be at an all time low and though some will say look at our season in 2006 when we got annihilated, yes, but there were also some players rested. If we selected some fringe players and they lost a close game it would give hope. Some youngsters who have impressed me in the currie cup include Elton Jantjies from the Lions, Coenie Oosthuizen from the Cheetahs and Pat Lambie from the Sharks. Please note Province and Bulls fans, I only watch the highlights for your teams unless you are playing Cheetahs. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Robert Ebersohn given a chance and we all know Lionel Mapoe (Sharks or Cheetahs, who knows!) is definitely in the thinking of P-Divvy. I also think we would have been justified to Aplon and De Jongh in the starting line up, but Im just a blogger not the national coach. All I do know is that come Saturday, whoever is in the springbok team will get my cheers.
On a similar note, as an Arsenal fan we have under Arsene Wenger become a team who believe that if you are good enough you are old enough. Case in point is the obvious Cesc Fabregas who played regular first team action from the age of 16. This is being shown again through the likes of Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and even Nicklas Bendtner. You see Mr Wenger does not look at age, but rather quality. This worked wonders with Sir Alex and his boys in the early 90’s. The reason i bring this up is simply due to the new home grown ruling in England. I like the rule and the way it benefits youngsters. I really see more young stars coming through, I mean two 21 year old Englishman scoring hat-tricks this weekend is testament to this. However what this will do to the established players is one place the system still needs justifying. Craig Bellamy at Cardiff, doesn’t sound right.
I recently attended the South African Under 16 Boys Inter Provincial Hockey Tournament, or Nationals for short. I was the manager of the Southern Gauteng B side. In the A side we had a 14 year old boy who I wish I could have had this player in the teams I was coaching a few years back. At the age of 14 (turning 15 this year) the youngster made the South African Under 16 Team. He is good enough, therefore he is old enough.
A quick recap of the big sports on the weekend.
The Springboks lost and New Zealand regained the tri nations that they last held in 2008. The Currie Cup saw two humdingers in Bulls – Griquas and Pumas – Lions, while the Cheetahs showed the hapless Leopards are out of their league and the Sharks became the first team to beat Province. I would still venture as far as to say that will be the final this year.
We also saw 38 goals in the premier league second weekend with some scores resembling tennis more than football, 6-0 6-0 6-0! Speaking of tennis, Fed Express won his first tournament since January and quickly people are proclaiming him as US Open favourite, but I think he will fall short again!
Caster Semenya continued her brilliant return by remaining undefeated with a scintillating time. The MTN 8 also happened with Sundowns losing the most ridiculous penalty shootout i have ever seen. Chiefs and Pirates have been drawn in the double legged semi and yet another Soweto derby serves to undermine the value of this derby game. I mean they are now guaranteed to meet 5 times this season with two cups still to play! Seriously!
Jabu's Sports star of the week
Andy Caroll. The newcastle number 9 produced a performance that the previous number 9 would have been proud of (Alan Shearer) in scoring a hat-trick against Aston Villa in the Toons comfortable 6-0 win!
Jabu's Picks for this weekend
Lets quickly look at last week, I got the SA vs NZ game wrong, but the Sharks and Kaizer Chiefs victories correct. So can i better 2 out of 3 this week?
Chelsea to concede for the first time this season
Frans Steyn to kick a 55+ metre penalty as the springboks finally get a win
Red Bull Racing to qualify in pole position in Belgium.
Closing Note
To all those that have nominated me for the SA Blog Awards thank you very much. To those that haven’t, if you enjoy the blog please do so. Just follow the link in the top right corner. If you don’t like it, thats fine too. May i recommend you go onto the SA Blog Awards website and see some of the other great blogs there. I will give a personnel recommendation to http://www.paddlesweep.net/ it is truly a great read!
Until next week,
JABU!
On a similar note, as an Arsenal fan we have under Arsene Wenger become a team who believe that if you are good enough you are old enough. Case in point is the obvious Cesc Fabregas who played regular first team action from the age of 16. This is being shown again through the likes of Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and even Nicklas Bendtner. You see Mr Wenger does not look at age, but rather quality. This worked wonders with Sir Alex and his boys in the early 90’s. The reason i bring this up is simply due to the new home grown ruling in England. I like the rule and the way it benefits youngsters. I really see more young stars coming through, I mean two 21 year old Englishman scoring hat-tricks this weekend is testament to this. However what this will do to the established players is one place the system still needs justifying. Craig Bellamy at Cardiff, doesn’t sound right.
I recently attended the South African Under 16 Boys Inter Provincial Hockey Tournament, or Nationals for short. I was the manager of the Southern Gauteng B side. In the A side we had a 14 year old boy who I wish I could have had this player in the teams I was coaching a few years back. At the age of 14 (turning 15 this year) the youngster made the South African Under 16 Team. He is good enough, therefore he is old enough.
A quick recap of the big sports on the weekend.
The Springboks lost and New Zealand regained the tri nations that they last held in 2008. The Currie Cup saw two humdingers in Bulls – Griquas and Pumas – Lions, while the Cheetahs showed the hapless Leopards are out of their league and the Sharks became the first team to beat Province. I would still venture as far as to say that will be the final this year.
We also saw 38 goals in the premier league second weekend with some scores resembling tennis more than football, 6-0 6-0 6-0! Speaking of tennis, Fed Express won his first tournament since January and quickly people are proclaiming him as US Open favourite, but I think he will fall short again!
Caster Semenya continued her brilliant return by remaining undefeated with a scintillating time. The MTN 8 also happened with Sundowns losing the most ridiculous penalty shootout i have ever seen. Chiefs and Pirates have been drawn in the double legged semi and yet another Soweto derby serves to undermine the value of this derby game. I mean they are now guaranteed to meet 5 times this season with two cups still to play! Seriously!
Jabu's Sports star of the week
Andy Caroll. The newcastle number 9 produced a performance that the previous number 9 would have been proud of (Alan Shearer) in scoring a hat-trick against Aston Villa in the Toons comfortable 6-0 win!
Jabu's Picks for this weekend
Lets quickly look at last week, I got the SA vs NZ game wrong, but the Sharks and Kaizer Chiefs victories correct. So can i better 2 out of 3 this week?
Chelsea to concede for the first time this season
Frans Steyn to kick a 55+ metre penalty as the springboks finally get a win
Red Bull Racing to qualify in pole position in Belgium.
Closing Note
To all those that have nominated me for the SA Blog Awards thank you very much. To those that haven’t, if you enjoy the blog please do so. Just follow the link in the top right corner. If you don’t like it, thats fine too. May i recommend you go onto the SA Blog Awards website and see some of the other great blogs there. I will give a personnel recommendation to http://www.paddlesweep.net/ it is truly a great read!
Until next week,
JABU!
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