Deon Fourie

So experience and, like you say, lesser caps.

The groupings, like Jan-Hendrik Wessels, you don't s- I don't see him being chucked in with Poorteen and, and he gets chucked in with, uh, a Thomas du Toit and a Ox, and then Poorteen comes on and a Deon Fourie goes to Hooker.

That kinda d- Would you see that kind of playing around with those combinations?

Well, look, I, I can honestly see Rassie starting a Deon Fourie at Hooker with Mark van Staden coming Hooker off the bench.

Like, I could see that.

With Pollen even as a 12.

And then, and then guys that are borderline, if you, we speak about Cobus Reinach, uh, he, he's kind of, um, uh, uh, jumped up to the number one position scrum-half wise, but if he goes down, do you just bring in another young guy, or do you bring in a guy like Faf de Klerk, um, who, who hasn't played a lot of test rugby? So maybe that's why he's on the borderline.

Um, a guy like Deon Fourie, maybe he's on the borderline, but I would say based on what he's, uh, done this, uh, series, he's really put his hand up, but it's just a case of he's gonna be 41, uh, at the next World Cup.

Is his body gonna be able to handle seven intense weeks? So those are the kind of questions you have to address.

And a guy like, uh, we spoke about Frans Malherbe as well, a- and those guys coming back, the older guys.

Uh, right now, All Blacks would probably like to have Ethan Hooker.

They might pick Ethan Hooker [laughs] over everybody just to solve their one problem.

Um, but when you get into, say, the Marx thing, that's where Deon Fourie's hybridness helps you.

And I think, you know, when I looked at the, in Captain's Run, who was practicing their lineout throws, Bouldevilliers, Deon Fourie, Grobbelaar, they are literally s- seen as that hooker group, right? So I think that's what keeps Deon Fourie at 41 in the picture because he's got such special hybridity, and he's a coach on the field.

Um, and that's funny.

It's fun to see Deon Fourie being 4-0 against the All Blacks at 40 years old.

You know, like, "Hey, guys.

This is simple.

You should've called me up earlier." Um, and it's funny because all the nicknames are funny.

Deon Fourie is Pranis, Brandy.

Uh, Morné van der Berg is Krappies, which is basically crab, and if you know Baltimore at all, the only thing they're proud about eating is crab cakes.

And I thought, "Oh, and that's why the fourth test was in Baltimore." Krappies takes the stage [laughs] and, uh-

Yeah.

We, we didn't see that in the first 40, was it? Way- Like again, on blind side, not set, but still Deon Fourie could've just come up with it.

First- Leroy Carter gets so much time ... first turnover in 60 minutes.

Yeah.

Trevor, Malcolm Marx back on the bench, back in the Bomb Squad.

It was a bit, it's a bit tricky with, with Deon Fourie because Deon Fourie's an unbelievable player, but having maybe Malcolm start, and this could also be one of the reasons why, uh, the team got changed in the way it did because if Malcolm gets injured we don't have a specialized hooker on the bench.

Do you reckon, uh, with- Deon for replaying 35 minutes, sending Malcolm on just before halftime, back in the bomb squad.

That would've been one of the, the reasons why Rassie did it, and, uh, Malcolm actually just knowing that he can last that bit longer because now instead of playing 80 minutes, he only has to play 55 minutes or 45 minutes.

They are the ones that are leading in front and influence a game into an extent where you can go on and say, "You are my man of the match."

And just, uh, latching onto to Malcolm, um, talking about influencing the, the game and being a, a nuisance, uh, as a, as a six flanker with the two on the back, Malcolm made two crucial turnovers, uh, in the game that actually got the, the box opportunity to get points from there.

So, um, having a guy like, like Malcolm, Deon, uh, Paul de Villiers who didn't play this weekend, uh, Eskom, these guys, as you rightfully say, they, they become influential players even though Malcolm is the, the, the hooker, uh, Deon Fourie is a backup hooker, but there's also Jan-Hendrik Wessels, there's also, um, uh, Marco van Staden.

There's a couple of guys that can fill that hooker role, but there's only, there's only Malcolm and maybe Bongi when he gets back from injury that is the current specialized hookers with, with Grobler.

Uh, so there's that, um, as well.

And then, uh, bringing Deon Fourie back onto the bench, it's a great story, um, you know, o- off the back of that Stormers, um, game.

But it does kind of raise a question about, like, the main, the main talking point back in New Zealand has been, wait a minute, haven't, aren't the Springboks supposed to have, like, all the steps and-

Mm

Like, we've tried, you know, Nkunzi.

We've tried, um, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, who are great around the field, probably not, you know, best at the, at, at throwing in the line outs, at scrumming in some s- senses, at just being able to make those decisions as when to go for the ball, when to fetch and when to not.

So now it's Deon Fourie being given the chance.

So I, I would es- expect Deon's gonna play...

Yeah.

I think we saw in the World Cup that the lineout struggles that happened a little bit with Deon Fourie, didn't it? Like, he just, he's just not a specialist at it, so they will take Mark deep if they've got the chance, Brinner.

Yeah.

And why would you not? He's the best player in the world, and a 79th-minute Malcolm Marx, and there's no disrespect to Deon Fourie, but is a better version of him.

Do you know what I mean? So anytime you wanna have Malcolm on the field, he'll end up playing, you know, bar whether it's through injury or not.

Hopefully it's not injury for the South African supporters.

But again, if you do wanna try and get f- um, you know, Deon Fourie on in a, in a pilfering role, maybe in whatever period of the later stages, then yeah, of course.

And you can always go to short man, and Tony Brown has shown that he will go to four-man, five-man, so you are able to, to get around it if you don't wanna use a four or six-man lineout as it with the South Africans.