Haunted by jersey no10...

I am a bit concerned about a succession plan at the flyhalf position. To add more worry to that, it does not look as if PDV is really worried about that.

If i look at the three flyhalves that are playing in the Tri Nations, it really worries me to realise that we do not compete with the Oz or All Blacks. None of our flyhalves can match the brialliance of either Dan Carter or Giteau. Butch seems to have lost that touch and it will take a while to gain his confidence back. Actually there's no time to allow him to gain it. Meaning we need a solution immediately, coz i do not see Butch playing after the British Lions tour in 2009 (or maybe i'm pushing too further).I do not think Frans Steyn is the answer. He has been tried and tested many atimes and to me i dont see him as a flyhalf. Ruan Pienaar seems not to be KEEN to play there and he has insisted on rather being 4th on the Scrum-hlaf packing order. BEside, he hasnt excelled in that position.

Peter Grant could have been the obvious solution but then he's injured. More so he hasnt justified himself enough to claim that position. As much as he is an excellent footballer, to me he is suited to the midfield than at flyhalf.He doesnt have a kicking game and he battles on defense. Whoelse...lets see...maybe Morne Steyn....But we dont wanna watch boring Dutchmen rugby. He's a typical Houggard, and there's no flair at all. I think our only hope will have to lay on the hands of our youngsters, players like Burton Francis and Francois Brummer. These youngsters have been a marvel to watch at junior level and they have done well at Currie Cup level. We should start introducing slowly into the test arena.

This past weekend i watched Bishops play Rondebosch. There's this centre/flyhalf (Nico Loezedels) from Bishops who reminds me of Steve Larkham. He scored 4 brilliant individual tries and made assists in pther tries scored that morning in the 49-15 drubbing of Rondebsch. This is the third time i've watched he and he has been exceptional. These are players that we need to watch closely so that they are not lost to other nations (like Barrit).

DiV needs to start worrying about a succession plan at flyhalf becase it looks really bleak. Not that other positions are sorted already, but i think the flyhalf one is critical. DiV said he wants to make sure that there's at least 5 good players in every position but i dont think this is so at the PIVOT. Other positions look fine but............we are haunted by the GHOSTS at Flyhalf

1 Butch
2. dont know (maybe Frans)
3 dont know(Percy)
4 dont know (maybe Peter Grant)
5 dont know (maybe Ruan0

THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE and DiV must START acting now!!!!!!!!!

Newlands: Our house of hope

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 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!

Written by Lady Bladen

Moment of truth.......Reflections

Are we really the World Champions? Do we deserve to be the no1 team in the world, if a team like the All blacks can manage to humiliate us like that at the home of rugby. That was just disrespect to the William Webb Ellis trophy that is sitting at the exclusive cabinet next to the presidential suite at Newland stadium.

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.

No comment on FdP. He's first game back, made a couple of wrong decisions.But well forgive him. Our front row was awesome, even in the loose phases. The only shining light was the Beast…….he makes me smile. Best prop since Os. Spies must just go and get more game time at Currie Cup. Bizzy was alright but also doesn’t ever pass the ball. DiV should bring back Big Joe.Conrad on for Percy and Frans at flyhalf. DiV needs to be bold enough to make such decisions. We are the world champions but i havent seen this in a while (even after the win in Dunedin). It about time the players reflect on themselves.

All hail the persistant King Percival

When Percy Montgomery becomes the first Springbok to reach a century of caps when he runs out against the All Blacks at Newlands on Saturday it will be the culmination of a remarkable career of highs and lows.

There was a time in his career that he was ridiculed; he had to leave for Newport in Wales to keep going a calling that seemed to have stalled but, at the behest of Jake White, he returned to set one record after another and become a key figure in South Africa’s victory in the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France and one of the greatest Boks of all time.

Here are some key points from the life and times of South African rugby’s first Springbok centurion.

• Montgomery made his debut, playing at outside centre, in the second test against the British & Irish Lions at King’s Park in Durban on June 28, 1997 and scored a try.

• He played his first six tests in the No13 Springbok jersey and holds the unique record of also being selected to start in the No15 and No10 jerseys and also wearing the No16, No19, No20, No21 & No22 jerseys when coming on as a substitute.

• Across the entire spectrum of career records (caps, points, season, individual nations etc) he holds more than a 100 Springbok marks.

• He is the only current Springbok who can boast two victories over the All Blacks in New Zealand -- having played in the 13-3 victory in Wellington in 1998 and in the 30-28 win in Dunedin in 2008.

• Montgomery's fantastic performances in the 2007 Rugby World Cup rocketed him up the world scorers’ list to give him a total of 887 points after 99 tests (from 25 tries, 150 conversions, 148 penalties and six dropped goals) - well beyond the 312 points Naas Botha scored in 28 tests between 1980 and 1992. Joel Stransky is third on the list with 240 points.

• The first points ever credited to what was to become one of the most accurate kicking boots in the game, his left, were the two he got for a conversion against England at Twickenham in November 1997; in his ninth international. Later in his career he also went through a spell of 11 successive tests with no points from the boot -- apart from a pair of drop-goals in the third place play-off against the All Blacks at the Millennium Stadium in 1999 -- as Jannie de Beer, Henry Honiball and Braam van Straaten took over the kicking duties.

• In his 99 tests he has a 66.67% win ratio. In the Jake White years, from June 2004 to October 2007, he scored 612 points in 43 tests (Average of 14.2 per game).

• During the 2007 Rugby World Cup he attempted 44 place-kicks and goaled 39 of them. At the Stade de France, in the the pool game against England, the semifinal against Argentina, and the Final against England he aimed 18 kicks at the posts and goaled them all.

• One of his greatest pieces of control was in the Final when he was sent slamming headlong into a television camera behind the Springbok deadline by a shove in the back but he did not react, coming straight back onto the field to catch a difficult up-and-under and signaling to his teammates to keep their focus. The player who committed the foul, Toby Flood, was not carded.

• After the Final it emerged that he had played out the match, including kicking a crucial penalty, with seriously damaged knee ligaments.

[Supersport]

Transformation: The game of NUMBERS......

Eish, it seems it never rains, but pours for Little Napoleon, lil'DiV. I'm sure most of you have heard about how he's come under fire from the Government with regards to the Springbok composition.

To get to the bottom of the matter, DiV is being labelled a RACIST...........Reason being he dropped coloured (Ok.......maybe black) players (Ricky and Conrad) for the supreme white okes (Percy and FdP). The government, according to the furious statements by Cedrick Frolick, vice-chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee for sport is NOT impressed by DiV, the team selected to play the AB at Newlands does not show proper representation of the race groups in South Africa.

To a certain extent, i agree with cedRICK froLICK. Having gone back to my drawing board to find out the accuracy of the statement, i came up with some interesting STATS to formulate COACH'S THEOREM. According to statistics the population of South Africa consists of 76.6% Africans, 9.1% Whites, 8.9% Coloureds and 2.5% Indians. So with a starting line-up that is representative of the country’s population the team should more or less consist of 11.49 Africans, 1.36 Whites, 1.33 Coloureds and 0.37 Indians. Presently there's 1 African (Beast - i wonder if he is black enough), 3 Coloureds (Habana, JP and Adi), 11 Whites (All Afrikaaners i think except for Butch) and no Indians........Sorry i forgot to include the Chinese in my stats,...my bad.

The imbalance seems to be existing according to Coach's THEOREM, there are more white and coloureds than the balance ratios, and extremely few African players, zero Indians. So YES, DiV is very RACIST. As much as he has dropped Ricky and Conrad, there's still too many coloureds playing than the ratios should show (1.33). So at least one more coloured player needs to be dropped. As for the white players, 10 pf them need to be dropped....there is no transformation in this SpringBok team and he needs to be fired. And yes,Mr Frolick please select this team. You know exactly what you are talking about.

On a more serious note, i feel that sometimes people like FroLICK are just there to spoil South African sport. And we wonder why players like Kevin Pietersen, Clyde Rathbone and Bradley Barrit decided to leave SA. Okes like this make the decision to leave somewhat easier. Cedrik FroLICK VICE chairperson, is entitled to his opinions but quite franKLY they SUCK. He should just stick with politics. We are playing winning rugby with winning players - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Let the public decide. This is a great team that PdV has picked for the and I wish him all the best over the next four years. Monty should be praised for everything he has achieved - he did it the hard way and deserves everyone’s respect, like him or not. Boks forever!!!

Transformation should not ONLY be a numbers gane, but making sure we build the proper structures at the bottom to make sure everyone gets that opportunity to compete. It’s just like in the US where the minority population (people of colour) has a majority of the playing population in the NBA, we don’t hear them bleating about not enough players of non colour being played…. NOOOOO they are happy that their teams are winning with the best players being picked regardless of their colour.

Finally, lets not get carried away but my sentiments i've shared. Dont get me wrong, I SUPPORT TRANSFORMATION and it would be good to see 15 EXCELLENT players of colour WINNING us MATCHES. And as much as we want balance, to some of us the PRIORITY is to WIN FIRST. I have always been a Ricky fan and i love his style of play more that FdP, ever since. But then again with the kicking game plan set to be deployed by DiV at Newland which suits FdP better, we should send "HORSES FOR COURSES". I see nothing wrong with the FEROCIOUS Ricky coming off the bench to terrorise and finish off the game for US. Go Ricky, you Beauty! Dont let these statements affect you. The same goes for Conrad.

Go Bokke!!!!!!

The Year of Nick Koster........

At last........Nick koster gets his first Currie Cup start at his favoured position, no8.

1999-2000, That position belonged to one of the most stylish and skillful rugby players to ever grace the Cape Rugby, Bob Skinstad. Fast track that, 2003, Schalk Burger made his debut for WP as a no8....and the rest is history...he went on to win the IRB World Player of the year in the following year. Big Joe also played brilliantly in that same position for the Stormer before injuries and the Cape hot chick distracted him. Double fast forward that , and now its the year of none other that Nick Koster......All these players have a similar charactersitic.....QUALITY.

Today, as i predicted last weekend, he gets his first start for WP against the Sharks....who knows, he could be the next 2009 IRB World Player of the Year......i put my money on that one.

2008.....the year of Nick Koster

Is it time to fire the coach?

Yet another sad outing by the Spanners Rugby Club as they went down 12-0 to the Internal league perenial giants, Ubumbo FC. This was the first game of the second-leg season in the Group A fixtures. The Spanners were a pale shadow of the resurgent Spanners team of the first half of the season as they struggled to show their flair and character that made them one of the best rugby playing side of the first round of the group stages.

Having won 3 of their 4 games in the first round group stages, Spanners topped the log and were dran in the Cup competition group of death with the Tornadoes, Cobras and Ubumbo, the top three side of the competition. As much as the Spanners were underdogs, they still produced sterlingperformances against these side and went down fighting. But last nite's game against Ubumbo was very dissappointing. Disappointing in the fact that the Spanners failed to capitalise on their territorial advantage, having dominated Ubumbo for much of the time. They also conceded two stupid tries due to poor defensive errors by the disappointing backline ( it may made me think of calling young and hard tackling Tchedu to the Spanners side). This was a combination of poor handling errors, missed tackles and lack of communication. Credit however must go to the forwards for their outstanding play, as they crushed their oppositon in the scrums and in the rucks.

After the loss, Coach Taru had mixed emotions. If ever anyone would come to ask for his head, then at least it has to be aftyer hearing his defense. As coach, i have a number of reason why i think we didnt win that game. Firslty i was missing about six regular starting players on the day, due to injuries and other varsity commitments, so the team didnt jel well together. Secondly, the season break seems to have affected the player's fitness as they struggled in the second half. I had a limited bench due to player unavailability. Finally, I think that the game plan i had in mind did not work as i expected bad weather on the night, so my players where not able to execute to the present conditions.I take the blame for that as i had misread the weather conditions.

One question needs be asked though? Should the board and management FIRE the coach? I say, no...please give me time to sort out my team's fitness and commitments. If i can select the best team i want from the whole pool of players i have available, then you can judge me from the results. A full stregth Spanners side can outmuscle any team in the UCT Internal League.

The rise of a future star

Do these names ring a bell in your ears, Ralph Nicolas Koster? Or maybe when i say, Nick Koster, then maybe you might have a rough idea on who i"m talking about. The ex Bishops headboy and No8 who made SA schools in 2006 and 2007, the first ever Bishops boy to make it since the days on Herchelle Gibbs in 2004. At 110kg, this fellow runs 100m in 10.8seconds and was the fastest in this event in 2007 in the whole province. This young bloke was the top try scorer in the province, with over 38 tries in the 2007 SA school's season.

What a great turnaround. Last year, this fellow played for Bishops against Paarl Boys in a curtain raiser match for WP vs Bulls at Newlands. Fast forward that, and six months later, he actually made his provincial debut for WP against Boland last weekend, in match that Bishops and Paarl were curtain raising. This time he was watching that game closely sitting next to AJ and Bobo on the WP players suite. What a fairy tale, especially if u consider that he"s just turned 19 and already he"s being earmaked as the next big thing in the region after Schalk Burger, but with more flair and pace. Nick Mallet and Jake White have pinpointed him as the next big thing in South African rugby, having signed a provincial contract at a tender age of 16.

I first heard about this youngster in 2006 when he made the SA schools side but only got to watch him last year at the craven week in Stellies. All i could see was this bulky no8 running a 60m dash from his 22, bulldozing through the Border defence to score a magnificant try. Thats when i began to watch him closely.

A good friend of mine, and renowned rugby analyst and talent scout, NK indicated last week after the WP vs Boland game that Nick Koster would be playing Super rugby next year for the Stormers. Rassie seems to have already worked out where this youngster will feature in his plans. With Ross Skeate leaving for France and Francois Van Der Merwe having left already, the Stormers will lack depth in the no5 position and therefore with the new ELVs in place, the 1.98m stalwart maye used in that position at some stages in the game at that position, even though his prefer position is on the loose trio. This already closes the door for the vastly talented and hardworking UCT lock, Rito Hlungwani who has been battling to command game time in this year's Currie Cup campaign. Too bad coz WP will soon lose him to other franchises in the country.

Nick Koster came on the bench in the WP defeat to the Lions yesterday and scored and brilliant try. The handling was spectacular and the support play was awesome. This was his first try in the Competition and was reminiscent of Schalla 4 years ago when he burst into the scence as a try scoring machine for WP in this same competition. Schalla later on went to win the IRB Player of the Year in 2004. Nick has similar physical presence as Schalla and he's got good breakdown skills, good hands and pace, which makes him more lethal. This youngster is really destined for great things and he's lucky to be under the great guidance of the DJ Rassie. I see him in the Bok team soon, actually he could be in the end of year tour if he plays well in the Currie Cup season.

As much as we have talented no8s in Spies, Kanko, Duanne etc., Nick is a special player with special qualities....this youngster is a real MONSTER.........watch the space.....