As is the usual with any rugby-related post, I shall begin by reminding everyone that we are just 93 days away from the sport’s showpiece, the Rugby World Cup taking place over there on Mud Island. No excuses for having a poorly-stocked fridge or grubby braai when we pop by unannounced, consider this your warning.

Now not to sound all doom and gloom but we might just need that liquor if the news from the past week or so is anything to go by. Saturday saw rugby fans bid farewell to the du Plessis brothers, both of whom are leaving as they share a brain cell between them and must remain in close proximity at all times to maintain breathing. Yes they will play in the Cup but once that final whistle blows (semi-final perhaps if our Super XV form is anything to go by) the exodus to overseas shores and far more lucrative contracts begins en masse. Thanks crummy exchange rate, you’ve only gone and done it again.

Then there’s the latest man to jump ship, current Bok eighth-man titan Duane Vermeulen, poached on a three-year deal by French team Toulon. Here’s Rob Houwing venting on Sport24:

Vermeulen is the cherry on top, in many ways, of a fresh wave of once staunchly SA-based players quitting the domestic landscape…

He is one of the most precious elements of the current Bok mix, and if you consider him foreign-based henceforth – along with several other seasoned internationals on their bikes imminently – then it is quite feasible to argue that the cream of coach Heyneke Meyer’s intended first-choice Test XV will suddenly be drawn from foreign climes.

Now it is true that our players have been plying their trade overseas for quite some time (Habana, Jaque Fourie, JP Pietersen to name a few) but we are set to see the landscape change completely post-World Cup. Houwing has put together a home-based XV versus an overseas-based XV and it doesn’t look pretty:

Home Boks: 15 Willie le Roux (Cheetahs; Sharks soon), 14 Cornal Hendricks (Cheetahs), 13 Jean de Villiers (Stormers), 12 Damian de Allende (Stormers), 11 Lwazi Mvovo (Sharks), 10 Handre Pollard (Bulls), 9 Cobus Reinach (Sharks), 8 Warren Whiteley (Lions), 7 Oupa Mohoje (Cheetahs), 6 Marcell Coetzee (Sharks), 5 Victor Matfield (Bulls), 4 Eben Etzebeth (Stormers), 3 Frans Malherbe (Stormers), 2 Adriaan Strauss (Bulls), 1 Tendai Mtawarira (Sharks).

Overseas Boks (including those going soon): 15 Zane Kirchner (Leinster), 14 JP Pietersen (Panasonic Wild Knights), 13 Jaque Fourie (Kobelco Steelers), 12 Frans Steyn (Toshiba Brave Lupus), 11 Bryan Habana (Toulon), 10 Morne Steyn (Stade Francais), 9 Fourie du Preez (Suntory Goliath), 8 Duane Vermeulen (Toulon), 7 Schalk Burger (Suntory Goliath), 6 Francois Louw (Bath), 5 Andries Bekker (Kobelco Steelers) 4 Flip van der Merwe (Clermont), 3 Jannie du Plessis (Montpellier), 2 Bismarck du Plessis (Montpellier), 1 Steven Kitshoff (Bordeaux).

They can keep Morne Steyn (despite his impressive showing for the French Top 14 final) but that loose forward trio would be a massive loss for any team in the world. It doesn’t look pretty Bok fans, you might want to add some real hard tack to the booze cabinet for the post-World Cup blues.

[source:sport24]