Consistency has always been our prime downfall and we have always struggled to put-down the foot and let the world know that we are the no1 team in the world. Roger Federer has been no1 tennis player in the world till this morning, and as much as he may have taken a huge slump, this man actualy showed what consistancy was about as he took the n01 spot for four and a half years, playing superb and dominating tennis.Micheal Phelps is clearly a world champion and he showed that steadiness as he swam through eight gold medals in Beijing. Consistency is the primary character that any sporting individual team should be able to demonstrate. Even the Auto& General Lions have been consistent in being the the whipping boys of Super 14 Rugby for the last couple of years.
The Springboks played 'shite' against the AB on saturday. All the seniors played kak, Matfiled, Juan, Schalla, FdP, Percy, Habana and Butch all included. To me the only standout players in the Boks were BEAST and Andries. This is a game that the Boks should quickly forget about and it should bring DiV back to the drawing board. We have been patient with Butch and i think its high time we need to urgently find a new flyhalf. He has done nothing this season. Same thing with, Percy, thank you for being a loyal and brilliant player of the Boks, but i think his time is up. Jantjes - brilliant, if he doesn’t start on Saturday then I don’t know. But probably he’s going to have to play wing if Habs is injured. Where was our super lock, Matfield? Nowhere, did nothing, tried to play wing. He has failed to be John Smit's deputy. He cant bring the Boks together when the chips are down. I say he be dropped when Bakkies comes back. Jean for Captain
But the biggest disappointment was our much vaunted back row, who, when it counted, were invisible. Schalk tackled like a demon, but we were pathetic at the breakdown. Schalla is not as effective at breakdown in these new ELVs (totally outshined by Mccaw). He's a got defender and tackler, but i think we need a specialist fetcher in the mould of Baywatch or Brussouw. Watch Ritchie McCaw play. He is a master-class in fetching. He doesnt contest unless he's sure that the ball is winnable. Otherwise he backs off and focuses on the next engagement or tackle. His bridging techniques is impeccable. Too may loosies attempt to win the ball and lose their footing but still continue to contest. McCaw is very smart in this area.
2 comments:
Disappointing perfomance no question. The problem is not only consistency but discipline. At the breakdown instead of being all over that ball we tackle and then bloody 'roll away' (much like an obliging wife)- rules yes! But did you see how aggressive the AB were when the ball was on the ground. We were too worried about Matt Goddard. FdP, instead of picking up the ball wanted to put on Matt's kit.
I do not like Francois Steyn-singizwile about how levels of maturity,hee dropkicks kwasha kwa cima.He sucks - DECISION MAKING. The last try shouldn't have been. How do you throw in the ball like that when the men are already on site and if you are throwing it in as F.Steyn who do you expect is on the inside to kick it.
The AB didn't necessarily play a superb game of rugby but they crushed us. No two halves are ever the same. They came back in the second half and had more steam than we did. Tit for tat. We humiliated them at Dunedin and in turn we got immensely embarassed at Newlands. I am dusting myself and moving on. Mara bo Percy bona should call it a day. No magic for his 100th cap instead he was not going to be outshined by Dan Carter's misses. Pathetic!
Lady Bladen
I totally agree with you with regards to discipline. Which brings about questions with regards to Matfield' sleadership attributes. We absolutely made the wrong decisions at the wrong time, like Matfield said. He actually was found wanting.
First half when we got full-arm penalties, instead of kicking for post we tried to getting of the line ouit (thrice in a row). He should have opted to go for post at least after realising that we failed to capitalise on our first line out in their 5m (not sure if Percy was gonna kick it over).
Never saw much of Frans when he came on (was downing those beers hard at Springbok Pub). I think we need to make-do without our Awesome-Foursome (Matfield,Percy,Butch and Juan). Their days are numbered. Even aboSchoeman and Ryk figured out the hard way.
As for Percy.......he father time has caught up. "he was not going to be outshined by Dan Carter's misses"....hahahhahhahahaha. thats a good one.
I'm glad Lady Bladen that we boith realised that the breakdown was 'shite'. We cant blame the ref.....
As long as we persist with the Gruesome Foursome, we'll continue to lose matches. They need to realise that their posistions are not guaranteed.
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