A time to learn....I swear it's not to late

The lesson was there for us to see in the S15 semi....Lambie and Reinach were unable to provide any impetus to the Shark's effort. Hard working, support players like Coetzee became irrelevant. We had no dominance. Yesterday was the same....a feeble un Bok like performance.

Contrast that with last year  where a fresher Vermeulen, Louw and Alberts dominated the breakdown. Apart from the Welsh test last year....where we had Lambie playing a very similar befuddled game at flyhalf....we cruised in our matches. Wales was rescued by a beautiful long strike Habana try.

The Boks need to dominate up front. To do so we need Willemse/Flip a blocky lock and one more power loosie, Alberts if he recovers from injury. It would be sheer madness to rely on Coenie and Coetzee is a sub.....he is neither a fetcher, nor the power runner we need at 7.

Leaving out Pollard, the one Bok back that worries opponents is a mistake. This Lambie experiment which is now in its 5 th year has to cease.....he is a fullback and quite a decent one. We also cant continue with Hougaard at all....the man is a wreck. Reinach can be used as a sub providing a late match running option.

Yesterday saw all the legitimate fears come true.....time to get real again. It was so obvious with the departure of Schalk, Habana and JP we had a very vulnerable team. Something else to lose....the fear of using overseas players. We are not the ABs.

The difference between this and last year is for me:

The Boks maul has become very porous lately. We do not have strong enough players (locks?) in there to seal it off which then allow the opposition to create a turnover or to regain a potential turnover for us. Oupa and Victor seems guilty in this endeavour.

We are too slow to get enough players to the breakdown to compete for the ball on the ground and this is where we need a player like Jaco Kriel. Schalk Burger would have been the ideal player but age has caught up with him and he has lost a lot of speed. Alberts has never been a fetcher and will probably never be one. He prefers to play from the ball and not to the ball.

Our scrum has gone backwards despite the fact that we still have the same starting front row in Jannie, Bismarck and Beast. Jannie and Beast are no longer what they used to be. Their replacements Coenie, Guthro/Nyakane are not up to the task. Coenie showed some improvement yesterday, but I do remember a scrum where we were pushed back quite seriously. I fail to understand why Meyer just bluntly refuse to give the props of the Lions front row a chance - what more does one want in Schalk van der Merwe and Dreyer or Redelinghuys?

The deterioration in our lineouts is worrying. Victor has lost some of his mojo and it is further noteworthy how often he calls for the ball to go to Etzebeth and not to him.

The arrival of Pollard has resulted in our backline standing very shallow, but the grubber or chip-kick has not been utilised because we do not have enough speed or ball handling skill to recover the ball from such kicks.

There has been a serious decline in Willie's game and we keep on playing scrummies like Hougaard who has lost the plot completely. Faf de Klerk's injury may serve as an excuse, but from what I saw this far, Meyer will not select him and will rather again go with the now too slow Fourie du Preez.

An early exit at the RWC is on the cards if Meyer is not prepared to gamble and drop those that can no longer deliver. 

I have no issue with Matfield's ability in the line-outs, its as good as any other lock out there.......but that's where it ends with the old man.

A liability of the highest order in contact......evidenced again yesterday  

As I said Matfield is no better than any other lock out there in the line-outs, so what he is doing in the side is beyond me given he has been so exposed physically.