Springbok squad for end of year tour

[Fiekus]

LOL @ Bob Skinstad "he's been out of sorts ... Ruan Pienaar"
You don't say

 

[Fiekus]

all over. Pity we couldn't do it but not the end of the world. Leicester got away with murder at the rucks though, entering from the side, falling over the ball, but hey, it's done.

 

[Zenbaas]

...and yet most of what he has done tonight has been good....

Good for him is just another way of saying that he hasn't fsked up yet. Not actually "good" like you would expect to describe other players that actually are playing well but more like an acknowledgment that he hasn't been as pathetic as expected.

He will never deserve to be there with players who are light-years ahead of him with respect to talent and ability.

It was a rather pathetic display of rugby from our side tonight but thats what happens when you don't pick on-form players in your teams.

 

[LancelotSA]

Fiekus, try and provide a balanced view on the performance of all players next time. It will add more weight to your opinions.

I thought Ashley Johnson had a strong game. He looked keen to play. Francois Hougaard also looked very sharp when he came on but I do wonder what they are planning to do with him in terms of position. Earl Rose seemed to silence most critics as he had a pretty good game. Can't think of any bugger ups. Jean Deysel was his usual strong self when he came on. He always seems to get across the gain line. Juan de Jongh also looked keen to look for work. Will be good to see him get the ball and be able to stretch his legs. He hardly got it on attack tonight.

 

[LancelotSA]

It was a rather pathetic display of rugby from our side tonight but thats what happens when you don't pick on-form players in your teams.

Nothing to do with a team being thrown together a few days ago and playing against a team that has had a full season, or more, together?

 

[Zenbaas]

Nothing to do with a team being thrown together a few days ago and playing against a team that has had a full season, or more, together?

You can all you like Lance, the fact of the matter is we are an international team that represents our country that are playing against a team which according to the commentators also have a lot of young players in their team and still we pretty much had our asses handed to us.

There are very few "positives" to take from this game other than the players you mentioned that had a good game excluding rose of course

 

[silent_shadow]

That was just humiliating. No surprise our scrum was destroyed considering that should really be our 3rd choice front row. Is there any reason Jannie du Plessis gets picked? You can't blame quotas for him. He's just a bad player.
Pienaar was terrible, once again proving he's not a flyhalf. Ashley Johnson actually annoyed me. Why did he spend most of the game standing at inside centre? Most of the time he just bashed into them and we lost all momentum. Our centres never got the ball because Adams and Pienaar spent most of the time with silly kicks and when they did pass Johnson and the overrated Deyesl were jammed in the backline.

Rose wasn't bad. Of course our performance was so bad that he was relatively good.
I bet WP Nel, Wicus Blaauw, Wian du Preez, Tiaan Liebenberg and Adriaan Strauss are shaking their heads at the terrible scrums.

I wish de Jongh had gotten more of the ball. He impressed me just by his tackles all over the park and how he helped out in the rucks. He was one of the few committed players.

 

[Creag]

Eish! We just never looked like pulling off a win there tonight. And why was there such a huge effort, great ball retention in the last 2 minutes of the game and diddley-squat in the earlier 78 minutes?

They let themselves down badly there!

Bigger effort next time. And maybe a game plan of sorts?

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

and the overrated Deyesl

followed up by this

Rose wasn't bad

makes me think you know extremely little ........ unreal

 

[APoc184]

Naas and co showed clips of Raubenheimer (?? our no.7) not scrumming at all, but looking over the scrum. Johnson (no.8) was doing the same ..... so could that explain the pain we're feeling in the scrums?

It is very difficult for the back-row to scrum when they go back half a meter from the initial engage because the front-row and second-row can't take the hit. That's what I saw.

Ashley Johnson actually annoyed me. Why did he spend most of the game standing at inside centre?

I actually think he carried the ball up nicely and had a few good breaks. But yes, I think if he can off-load more it would open up more possibilities.
In the same breath you can ask why Bekker, Rossouw and the rest of the forwards were standing at wing and centre. Our game plan was flawed. No numbers committed to the breakdowns.

Rose wasn't bad.

Not too bad. Give credit where credit is due. That first kick that led to Nokwe's try was very nice. He also took the high balls reasonably well and at least tried to run the ball instead of kick aimlessly like our 9 and 10.

I wish de Jongh had gotten more of the ball. He impressed me just by his tackles all over the park and how he helped out in the rucks. He was one of the few committed players.

Again. Where was the forwards? Standing on centre and wing.
Every time we carried the ball up there was no supporting runners or numbers committed to clear the ruck.

 

[LancelotSA]

You can all you like Lance, the fact of the matter is we are an international team that represents our country that are playing against a team which according to the commentators also have a lot of young players in their team and still we pretty much had our asses handed to us.

There are very few "positives" to take from this game other than the players you mentioned that had a good game excluding rose of course

This is the problem any Bok coach has when it comes to the South African public... they cannot shake this win at all costs mentality. In a months time what is this loss going to mean? Nothing! In the interim we are now grooming a whole bunch of new players and getting them familiar with touring as a Springbok. Nine new players given a run in last night's game. Would you rather they got a run against the French and lost the test match?

Even with new players in the Leicester team, they have been playing and training together. A lot of those Bok players last night have only ever been on the team as opposition to each other.

We really need to see the big picture.

 

[Vrotappel]

Quite a ****ty performance. Once again PdV should have listened to advice.

 

[Fiekus]

Fiekus, try and provide a balanced view on the performance of all players next time. It will add more weight to your opinions.

Sorry buddy, I don't give a hoot what you or others think when I post, it's MY opinions so why should I change it to be balanced or acceptable to the masses.

I say it as it is, and what I see, if others don't see it that way, good for them, we are all individuals with different viewpoints. And besides, I'm not a reporter dude

So.. sorry to disappoint... oops, scratch that

 

[CHURCHILL]

Nothing to do with a team being thrown together a few days ago and playing against a team that has had a full season, or more, together?

Same with Leicester Tigers, not their full strength side, actually there B to C side considering they had to use 2 young players from the Leicester academy, and 1 guy from a lower tier club in northampton who was only told he was playing that morning.

Actually now that i think about it, That Leicester (without the 7 of the main players who are playing for England today) B team beat a very talented bok B team.

 

[I am Penguin]

This is the problem any Bok coach has when it comes to the South African public... they cannot shake this win at all costs mentality. In a months time what is this loss going to mean? Nothing! In the interim we are now grooming a whole bunch of new players and getting them familiar with touring as a Springbok. Nine new players given a run in last night's game. Would you rather they got a run against the French and lost the test match?

Even with new players in the Leicester team, they have been playing and training together. A lot of those Bok players last night have only ever been on the team as opposition to each other.

We really need to see the big picture.

Blah, blah, Blah! A loss is a loss and PDV was the Boss! So much for his own selections, seems to me the Jake White "syndrome" looks more like fact!

 

[I am Penguin]

...................
Pienaar was terrible, once again proving he's not a flyhalf.........

I know of one great fan of RP and PDV that will dissagree, wonder why he does not comment on that RP performance? To busy posting excuses like usual it seems?

 

[The_Techie]

Shocking performance yesterday

 

[silent_shadow]

followed up by this makes me think you know extremely little ........ unreal

Deysel is overrated. My opinion: I think there are better loosies around.
And I don't like Rose, but he wasn't BAD. How is this hard for you to comprehend?

 

[I am Penguin]

Shocking performance yesterday

I realy hope he improve's, else he should be relegated from the bench to the province (If they still want him, as he cost them the CC.)

 

[silent_shadow]

Pienaar just isn't a flyhalf and never has been. I feel sorry for him as he clearly doesn't want to play there anymore. Scrumhalf is his best position.

His decision making is poor, he can't handle pressure, he can't dictate games like a proper flyhalf. He also doesn't have that vision a flyhalf should have. I was annoyed at Deysel and Johnson standing in the backline, but Pienaar shouldn't have passed to them all the time especially when there was a wall of Leicester defence standing in front of them. A proper flyhalf would have thrown some long passes over to the centres to open up gaps and get the backline going.