..New toy..
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Sexton 1, BB 2
Pollard 5
In Super Rugby and that is not even the world in actual fact as a center Fat Fransie was ranked 32 in 2014 and as a player at 256. That is the useless one you actually wants in the Springbok team.
Incidentally in 2014 De Allende was ranked in Super Rugby as the no 1 center.
Kwagga
Marx = Nelson
Damian has never been a top 10 centre in any year of rugby. Any system which claims him to be so is flawed. I have covered this player extensively and the mythos which surrounds him. Interestingly, he is actually better now than he was was at any point of 2014 or 2015's Super rugby campaign; He is playing at a similar level to his WC showings.
Rugby is not a very well analysed sport. Thi s is where the Americans leave the rest of the world for dust.
Indeed Mike...
We should keep selecting DDA on the basis of his 2014 rating.
Makes sense.
Solves our centre issue...I mean Gerber will be on the bench.
Mike believes José Erasmus is stupid enough to drop Snyman from the squad and start Lood against Wales. Madness.
It is a weird system - since it does not take into account the level on which players play. Some of the higher rated players have not played test rugby and some of the higher rated layers are only occasional test players.
Most of the ratings take into account in series including very weak teams and it is consequently not a merit-based system
Obviously Mozart would enjoy this time of thing - it is in fact a system where misleading info provides illogical results. That is his n ormal view of rugby anyway.
No system is foolproof, but this is much closer to reality than anything I've seen before. A step in the right direction.
This system compares players on lower levels with test players and that makes it unreliable as a real value assessment tool of players.
It is the type of BS that Mozart and AO will thrive in. Imagine a center in Toulon game against Agen - being rated on the same level and ba sis as a center on test level between the AB's and SA.
Willie is ranked 28 in the world...drop him now!
Damian's games in the RC were Vodacom Cup level. Nothing more. It's an affront to these poor players to be compared with this wing hybrid.
It's been a few tests since Willie had a good game. He really isn't thriving under José Erasmus. We see flickers of potential, but too little.
No Mozart
Fact is that one can look only at test teams - but the fact is that it does not include performances in tests only - it deals with the points achieved in club and franchise games as well.
Problem is that it is why so many players are on top in the ratings. Take for instance McKenzie - who was exceptional in Super Rugby matches and questionable on test level still being on top of the ratings.
There are highly rated players who have not played a single test game rated amongst the centers for instance.
Koch 2 Cough, cough!
Mccaw has already worked out how to cheat the algorithm.
McCaw is the glitch in the Matrix.
According to that, SA is a better team than the sum of the parts...means the coach is doing something right..not?
Rassie has d one good, but he has also made some mistakes. He has a powerful group of forwards. Good halfbacks. I'll say that overall, his use of the bench has been very good. I have a collection of stats which show he has gotten quite a lot out of the bench, even if he did blow it against New Zealand. He just has a lot of trouble handling the backs. Our attack is the worst of the top 8 nations. Several nations beneath us are even better.
Our centre's are crap...back row unconventional. ..wings got potential, half backs OK...tight five top notch...Vermeulen's part of the back row is good too...The makings of a great team...one year after the Coetzee disaster...if we are unhappy with where we are now, we are f ull of it!
GO BOKKE!!!
We need less kicking and more ball moving around. It doesn't have to be all about the backs, but we often struggle to put enough phases together to really test a defence and when we do, it's concentrated dead end runs through 12.
I don't think Rassie is involve with the detailed coaching of the backs. That is left to Mr. Stick, but in reality I am absolutely convinced that this is controlled by Swys du Bruyn.
Stick has no role, but he does collect a salary to please the politicians.
The centres are useless, especially the options at inside centre.
Perhaps Nkosi could get some time as an outside centre, and anyone could get some time at inside centre (Except Carthuizen or Duhlande).
I do not think the Boks can be considered contenders at the World Cup until the midfield is sorted out.
The ball just dies in the midfield. It may be a case of playing Pollard at inside-centre in the 2nd half to try to get some thought process into the midfield
Damian is unusable, but the structure of the attack itself isn't good. Rassie went the route of the Wallabies with an identity crisis. A slow developing, clunky attacking structure. Rassie hasn't used the resources he has available to him well enough. He isn't getting the best out of Willie either.
Here's an interesting stat: New Zealand, with their midfield crisis have gotten the ball to 14 for 188 possessions, the Boks? 79. 70 runs and 9 passes. I'd say it's anaemic, but it doesn't quite do it justice. They've gotten the ball to 11 for 170 possessions. The Boks? 107. The passes are almost comparable at 51-33, but the runs are heavily in New Zealand's favour: 119-74. Think of all those runs where Dyantyi had to chip and grubber to get behind the defence, or run out, then cut back inside taking contact. Our wings are having a hard time getting anything going.
6.6% of team possession is run through 12. 67% of that possession is run. New Zealand by contrast concentrate 6.8% possession through 13. 56% of that possession is run. It may not seem like much, but that's a good number of passes to the back three.
The Boks essentially use Willie to feed forwards or centres. Mainly 12. So every road leads to a ruck. Where New Zealand use Barrett or the centres to bring the back three into the game, we have our fullback bringing our centres into the game and very seldom, our wings. It's back to front.
What we've seen from André is a capacity to hit the line far harder than Damian, and also bring other players into the game. Rassie has passed up a solid distributor for a media myth.
McCaw is the glitch in the Matrix.
Hahaha! Good one Aug!!
I think it is fair to say that Stick is the problem with our back line . Our wingers have performed reasonably well this year, but that is mostly because they have x-factor and created tries (with the help of Willie), not because of well structured back line play.
