All the off season myths immediately exploded

Myth # 1 ....Taute is the next Bok fullback. A weak boot, no imagination, inability to beat a tackle and terrible up and unders....blows that one out of the water Mike. Kirchner who still can't tackle missing Habana and Bekker for eventual tries....was way better.

Myth # 2 Habana is done....nope, he was the best back on the park.

Myth# 3 Jean is done....nope he was the best centre on the park. His rush defence saved two potential tries and he was always thinking.

Myth #4 Steyn is done....nope he is still Steyn, which is a whole lot better than being still Jantjies. How many tackles did Jantjies miss....more than his kicks for poles I bet. This choice rivals the disastrous Watson signing.

Myth#5 Hougaard is a world class scrummie.....I saw no improvement on last year.

Myth#6 Kitshoff is a future Bok loosehead......No, he can't scrum.

Myth#7 Kolisi is better than Schalk. All I saw Kolisi do of note was miss Stegman on the kickoff leading directly to the Bools try. His presence at the breakdown was  zero.

Myth#8 Elstadt is a physically dominating player....he was pretty much toothless and that last turnover when he went in like the Eiffel Tower was pathetic.

Myth#9 Spies is a specimen....frankly next to Vermeulen he looked and played like a weed.

Myth#10 Venter is a future Bok centre....Bekker destroyed that myth.

Mozart

You have blinkers on insofar as Taute is concerned - he never made mistakes and was very good in joining the backline - even though Jantjies was passing so far behind the gain line - it really was disgraceful.  That put the whole backline under pressure - even whenTaute did join the line.

If you prefer a kicking flyhalf and a dead backline - you can have Steyn.  His kicking tonight ws better - that is all.  He is still not a qualifier for Springbok selection.

As for Elstadt -he actually had a very hard and good game - is to my mind more a lock than a loosie.  Tht incident you mention was - I believe really Steenkamp that carried the ball upright - not Elstadt.

For the rest I agree with your myths.   I realy have never rated the others and Hougaard was at times poor as well.   Saffex will scream murder - though

 Nice Moz. Tired of these endless calls for players who have a moment or two of brilliance to be shoved into the Bok setup. They all too often are flashes in the pan, cannot hold up physically or are overwhelmed by the big stage. It takes time and patience to develop an international caliber player. The Etzebeth's of this world are the rare exception

Not enough credit is given by a lot of members on this board to the value of experience and consistency.

Thanks matey.... guys like Habana and Jean are invaluable, and deserve to be displaced by stronger talent when it emerges, not dumped for a callow youth movement.

With regard to Taute ....Mike I don't think I have blinkers on. I see a biggish youngster with his socks around the ankles. He is certainly ok under the high ball, but he has a powder puff boot, hell it looks like he hardly moves the pill 25 metres. And all those kicks straight down the middle, with no chase in sight....pretty awful really. This is what Rugby 365 said:

"The Bulls' kickers were far more effective than their rivals - especially the Stormers' loan players - Springboks Jaco Taute and Elton Jantjies"

 

To me his mind works slowly, he has no explosiveness on the run, hardly beats a tackle....no vision.

I can't for the life of me see what makes him better than Hennie Danniller who plays a similar game.

 I actually agree with you mo! Omg!  Apart from one I just want to know why you think hougard had a poor game? Cause I think it was slightly better than his bok start at 9, however I didn't see the last 30 ,mins as I had to run out did he mess up in those 30 which ruined his otherwiese solid start? 

Hougaard wasn't bad, but he was  no more than a neutral. His kicking is still not in Pienaar's league, let alone F du Preez's league. And the lightning acceleration and deadly defense seem to have left his game. Groom who is no world class scrummie seemed more alert.

Keagan amd Mozart

I know Mozart despise the fantasy team selections by members - but there is one element of that game which is really an eye-opener.   That is the point scoring system by which points are allocated to players.   It covers all aspects of a player activity on the field of play (both in attack and defence)  and is in fact a very reliable system of really evaluating player performances.  

None of the participants selected Jantjies and he probably would have had minus 60 points.   However. the player with the least points on the scorecard after the Saturday games was in fact Hougaard who had 1 point only in respect of his performances in the game last night.

To my mind Hougaard has not got over his really bad performances of last year as yet and that is confirmed by his performance yesterday. 

 While obviously Jean and Habana were the best backs on the field some career defining comments are being made here!!!! The worst is Kitshoff cant scrum. Man some of the penalties could well have gone the other way.  Simple fact - watch the Stormers scrum when Tiaan is at hooker.

We saw Taute looking much better on attack when playing for the Lions. However as I have said he has serious competion from Joe. Taute and Hougaard were nothing special.

Kolisi is not as good as Deon at 6.

But its round one. Not too much should be read into this game. If the Stormers and Bulle dont improve markedly on this the will contest the wooden spoon. However one knows they are better sides than they showed yesterday.

The trouble with Kitshoff is not just a question of yesterday. After a promising start last year, which put him on my list of 5 likely young Boks....he has made no progress.

In today's rugby, you need loosehead pressure, because against the top teams your tighthead will be under the cosh. Kitshoff in his best matches is a neutral, more often than not he is leaking penalties.

Nobody is denying he is well coached and makes some nice contributions in general play.....but if he can't learn how to be a power scrummager, he will never progress beyond S15.

 Wow what a load of absolute rubbish.

Taute had a good game, looked good with ball in hand was let down at times by lack of support runners. Solid start to the season.

Habana was good

Jean did absolutely nothing, he was neither good nor poor. I liked the way de Allende runs.

Venter was the best of the centres, about the only one to break a tackle.

Morne kicked well and thats all he did.

Hougaard's service was brilliant best of all the SA scrummies by some distance.

Kitshoff was wrongly penalised for hinging, this when the Bulls tighthead had his knee on the ground - poor call by the ref. But saying that the Stormers scrum was poor with Cilliers at 3 and Steenkamp at 4. Fourie at 2 does not add grunt. To blame Kitshoff is laughable, the weak link was Cilliers at 3, who was subbed early on. Morne Mellett of the Bulls at 1 should have got MOM, for working Cilliers over and his general play was excellent.

Kolisi had a good game, broke tackles and was far better than Stegman

Elstadt was better than Dewald Potgieter and but for going upright once and being taken out by two players he was good

Spies had a good game.

Venter was the best centre on the field

 Taute ran 19 times and beat one tackle. As Planet rugby said, his kicking was poor.

Venter had the lowest metres per run and missed Becker for the try.

Morne made substantial running metres.

Hougaard was very flat

Kitshoff  was hammered

The rest is just flat wrong

Saffex

You hould know by now that Mozart will always find fault with younger players and would look at a single mistake by such players and go on a campaign against them with the slimmest of reasons.    Eklsewhere he was carrying  on about his campaign against Coetzee and in support of De Jongh.   Standard tripe to my mind.

However, there is a problem with two players that Mozart omiited from his list,namely Kirchner and Jantjies.  They were really atrociously poor.

Jantjies

He showed all the deficiciencies I have alwats seen in his game - completely absence of defence, standing too deep in the pocket and a poor pasiing game.  Aside from that his strategic kicking was aimless and the one good point in his favour (kicking at goal) wenr AWOL.   I have never seen a flyyalf of the Stormrs or even WP playing as badly as he did on Friday. 

Kirchner

Was extremely bad - he has no idea about what a full back is supposed to do - a player with a void in ball sense.

Hougaard

He was by a proverial mile far from being the  best SA scrummie this round.   Reiinach was far better than him.  Hougaard still has the problems that bedevilled his performances in 2012 - he has a long way to go before he is rid of them.

Personally I think Francois  Steyn did very well  - De Villiers came third in my estimate of performances as no 13 center - he is not suited to play at 13.

Taute was good, he looked to beat defenders with a step, much like de Allende did. Both these runners impressed me - while they did not always succeed with beating defenders at least they looked enterprising instead of just choosing the direct route.

What was wrong with Taute's kicking?

Venter was the only centre to bust a tackle, he was better than Olivier and Jean. Did Jean play?

Morne never beat a tackle, he just passed the ball and kicked

Hougaard's service was pin point and sharp, his first few box kicks were good. Did nothing on attack but we know thats a strength and that will come. He had a good first game - great service to Morne

Rubbish, Kitshoff was fine, wrongly penalised and the issue was Cilliers at 3 who's was subbed at halftime because Mellett worked him over.

The rest is not wrong at all. Kolisi was better than Stegman, Elstadt was better and Potgieter and Spies had a good game - Vermeulen was no better

This is what Planet Rugby said about Taute's kicking:

"The Bulls' kickers were far more effective than their rivals - especially the Stormers' loan players - Springboks Jaco Taute and Elton Jantjies"

 And they were right, Steyn line drives controlled the game. Taute's weak kicks up the middle just surrendered possession.

Morne Steyn gained more metres than any other Bool. More than Goosen who never beat a tackle in spite all the hype:

Note the two zeroes to the right of his 36 metres....no clean breaks, no defenders beaten. Morne beat no defenders either but gained 60 metres. And that 3 to the right shows how many times Goosen gave the ball to his opponents.

Stats have to be interpreted, but occasionally they provide insights. With Bobbie and co raving about Goosen one could have sworn he broke the game open.

Now look at Kolisi versus Stegman:

Stegman carried the ball twice for 12 m and beat 3 tacklers. Kolisi 7  times for 18 m and beat no tacklers.

Stegman produced an offload....Kolisi none.

Stegman made all his 11 tackles. Kolisi missed 2 including one off the kickoff that led directly to the Bulls try.

How in the Bloo Blazes can kolisi have been better than Stegman?

 I'm not bothered with Taute's kicking as he is a running fullback and his kicking was fine really. 

Stats dont tell the full story, I saw nothing of Stegman and Potgieter, both of whom I rate. Kolisi and Elstadt were better as both showed more of a physical edge. I dont need stats to tell me that.

A quote on Kolisi....'Siya Kolisi was the best of the Stormers loose-forwards but with the Bulls, as a unit, the more cohesive and impressive up front.'

 A running fullback who beat 1 tackle in 19 runs. He is a lumbering , slow runner with no guile, little pace and ordinary power

 No he is the player who made more breaks, more metres gained and beat more opposition than most if not all other SA backs last S15 and happened to miss a few games. Not bad considering he was playing for the Lions.

This kid is the real deal, quick, great step, swerve and plenty of physicality. He had a good first outing for his new side - certainly more prominent than Jean who was a no show

Well Jean saved two tries when the Bulls had big overlaps, by shooting forward....one was almost an intercept. And he scored a try with quick reflexes. You obviously saw none of this.

I just hope they bring on Pietersen for Taute early, or even better they choose him to start.

 Yeah I saw Jean flop over the line and rushing up on defence as Habana does is not the mark of a noteworthy rugby moment. Yes its effective but it hardly has one gushing over the guys performance.

Joe and Aplon will play very little rugby for the Stormers this year. There is no place for these little guys.

Taute will play for the Boks again this year

When you have a 2 on 1 or a 3 on 1, the only way to stop the move is to rush up. That's one of the things Fury did well. Jean's timing on Friday was superb, but according to you "it's not the mark of a noteworthy rugby moment". That's news to me, I thought preventing the tries was useful....but apparently not.

No I dont rate that as noteworthy moment - it does not take skill - its effective and serves a purpose and credit to Jean for doing it but that is not what has me rating Jean's performance. I want to see a 13 do something with ball in hand, not just crash it up.

Jean was not poor, he just seemed to be missing. Why they play him at 13 is beyond me. If he is to play then play him at 12 with the younger quicker and illusive looking de Allende at 13.

Didn't you see Wynand leave de Allende for dead on that clever Jean kick ahead, prompting Joel to make his usual comment about too much gas. De Allende looks extremely slow.

Moz that had nothing to do with de Allende, he was not involved in that move at all. Its Taute who chases Olivier, starting a good few metres behind Olivier, starts catching him then changes direction to go on the outside of Olivier.

 Taute was unimpressive - 19 runs and one tackler beaten, as a fullback thats miserable, and reminds one of his ineptness in the Bok test. Give me Aplon or Pietersen back there all day over him

Hougaard seems to have put it into cruise mode much like Spies did after his breakout year.