A gulf between AB and Bok performances

 NZ defanged the Frogs, well if frogs have fangs. Our naive fans may not get this, but they did it with kicking. Pinning France in their 22 was the key.....combined with ruthless punishment of the turnover. I did enjoy some of the hits on Nonu, by the scrummie in one case. I think he should be Nonu and run over people, not a poorer version of SBW. Reid had one special bust, and Savea  was excellent. - -

That TMO reviewed try was a disgrace though, that ball ended up 5 metres ahead of where it was thrown. There was also that Frog maul near the NZ line at the half, which was obviously pulled down. _ _

For the Boks this was a discouraging performance. Our loosies were killed at the breakdown, our centres were dominated and Scotland gave this away with illegal play that was mostly not needed. The sense of what to do was palpable from the ABs, while the Boks were confused much of the game. - -

On the player front the Willie experiment continues to pay dividends, but one wonders about the RC. Habana and Basson were negated. Jean was not at his best. JJ may have scored a try, but he donated one by getting out of line again. The kid Serfontein is the right centre to play with Jean....this will become apparent.  - -

Morne and Pienaar were mediocre. Our front row continues to look impotent. The locks were fine and Etzebeth showed pleasing restraint to avoid the double yellow. - -

Earth to Spies might be the call as one watched the Bok 8 sleepwalk through another test. What a pity about Arno, Coetzee is hyper but just a journeyman. - -

Lots of work to do. We need Vermeulen and Louw back. And frankly Bekker who was lost without any real objection would make a huge difference. - - One final point. That field was unacceptable, with it's compressed in goal area and leg destroying surface. How many players had inexplicable knee injuries. Not good enough in a professional sport.

 There is alot mot e wrong with that tteam than to have Vermeulen and Louw back.  We need to look again at Morne Steyn - he was very poor today and the Morne who flopped last year in the tests are back with us - he cannot handle pressure and that is it.

Kruger was poor and so was Du Plessis.   The whole performance was utterly unconvincing and poor.  I agree with you about your descripyion of Engelbrecht as well - he is and remain a defensive liability.   Maybe the answer still is to play him on the wing.

Poly I agree....the Boks vs NZ would as always be competitive, with the Boks negating NZ skills with physicality . The trouble is that doesn't yield dividends often enough. Too often your chaps find a way to unlock the Bok physicality. We need to up the skill level, especially in the inside backs. Based on this game, that looks a long way away.

The trick according to some on here was to front up with fifteen Bakkie Botha's with another seven on the bench.....that way the Boks would outmuscle any team, finish and klaar. Don't worry about a gameplan, don't need one when all that's needed is to kick the leather off the ball and hope for the best. As for any backline play, don't hold your breath, with a backline coach of zero credibility there ain't going to be any.

Kind of think we revisiting the same old circa.

Our future centre combo is JJ and Serfontein. Defense issues can be sorted out. Time for Jean to say good bye.

Its time Meyer rethinks his loosies. Kolisi had a good debut but needs to turn into a 7 if Flo is part of the future setup. Maybe it is time to reconsider Minnie for the bench. Minnie will bring some mongrel to the loosies as well as another lineout option.

How many more matches for Spies to proof himself? We can only hope that Vermeulen will be back soon. Meyer will not go wrong if he brings Philip van der Walt in as backup 8. Note: I did not mention Alberts because we have had enough of his 'stampkar' rugby.

With Kolisi coming into the loosies, Meyer will have the room to bring in Coenie at 1 and move Beast to the bench. He might even consider to drop Beast and bring Nyakane in via the bench. It is also time to reconsider Adriaanse at 3.

Mike, Lappies is a bit of a lightweight and I think against physical teams like Samoa and the ABs he might struggle. He should be fine against Oz (which is not as physical as the ABs and most Northern Hemisphere teams.

Moz,

Point is Castrogiovanni destroyed Beast, Strauss and Coenie, but the video clearly shows that Beast caused the scrum to rotate anti clockwise, thus indicating Coenie held his position. When Nyakane came on for Beast, the Boks got a penalty for an early hit and in the very last scrum of the match we managed to push the entire Italian scrum back. Coenie is also far more active in the loose than Beast and although I must still look again at yesterdays match, I suspect that part of our problem in the lineouts could relate to our props not lifting, holding and finally stabilising our jumpers. Given a choice, I would select Coenie everytime ahead of Beast. There is not a single S15 front row that could dominate Coenie, Strauss and Adriaanse/Nyakane thus far.

I accept your take on JJ, but I still feel defense is a fixable issue. The Cheetah backline was horrible last year and it took their new backline coach Hawies Fourie just a few sessions to improve their defense a lot. Jean's defense drives me crazy everytime he tries to intercept a pass or physically block a past and the opposition then just lob-pass the ball over him into the outside centre or wing's hand thus creating an overlap 90% of the time. Jean might be street wise, but both Serfontein and Engelbrecht are much faster than him (and I suspect also more physical).  

to be fair to meyer, hes done pretty well all things considering, trevor nyakane, willie le roux, jan serfontein, arno botha were all nice and well deserved inclusions to the Bok family, with the latter three looking like they have the potential as Bok incumbents, ontop of that he  futher establishedthe Bok credentials of 2nd year rookies in jj englebrecht coonie, m coetzee and lady elizabteh, so the selections meyer hasnt been too shabby.

u can say what u want about morne, but theres no flyhalf in SA that comes close to the form hes been producing all year, the attacking game of lambie which i once admired a lot has turned into a twilight movie, by which i mean its complete shit, meanwhile morne has made inroads and developed his game so to speak.
yes he went back into his shell against the scots, but who wouldnt when thier own forwards can barely gain parity???

the scotland game was an anomoly, Boks should have dominated, even with that 2nd string team, but they didnt, not the first time a rugby superpower has been in that position and not the last time either.

watching how meyere handels the pumas in the 4nats will be better indication of the progress meyer and the Boks have made or are making.

Spoony since when were zones employed in rugby and which 3 would that be.

In short, Meyers game plan is the kick and chase.......ie win possession and kick it away in the hope that the opposition cock it up. Its short sighted and flawed