Am and Esterhuizen to start

I just heard Rassie in an interview saying that the above will be the starting centers for the first test against the Argies . Got to say .I did not see that coming. 

Let's see how they go. It will be good for Esterhuizen to get another shot because right now everyone is judging him on his performance next to an imploding Jantjies on a soggy pitch.

Soggy pitches do not mean deficiency elimination in defense and ball carrying capacity showed by both..  

No, but nor does one test under those conditions define a player's ability. So let's see ho w he goes.

Am I the only one who thinks Clever Mike sounds like English translated into Tagalog, into Gaelic, into Chinese back into English, on a mid- 00s Google Translate? 

The selection of the centre combo has been the worst kept secret of the week.

Againdofdoos

I am glad you make a comment on me and not on rugby - you have zero-intelligence in both cases though.

Againdofdoos

I am glad you make a comment on me and not on rugby - you have zero-intelligence in both cases though.

Lol we are happy to give Kriel and DomLinda both four years produce nothing but barely want to invest in Am and Esterhuizen for a few games.

The former have done zero to retain the jesrsey, much like Jantjies, who at least was successful in SR.

I'm happy to run both Am and Esterhuizen until we're sure if they're good enough.

Their collective IQ is probably 100 points above what we had before. That's a start.

I'd settle with anyone who looked like an actual centre. Damian and Kriel are like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Damian needs to go back with the 9 years old and learn the fundamentals. Maybe see Sharon Calder, the eye gym expert. 

Againdofdoos

Where did you get a degree  in advanced stupidity -  your serious stupidity level iro rugby cannot be attained naturally - there must be at least intense study by a person with a IQ of 60 involved  

I know you are only angry because you can't verify your opinions. You don't know enough to change my mind, and the twaddle you spin with the people you surround yourself with has no affect on me. So, you stew in your wrath. All while I sit here and laugh. 

I'm prepared to give both centres the benefit of the doubt...Esterhuizen has improved since he played in Japan strangely enough...the game in Japan is faster with less tactical kicking, they tend to run the ball even from their own 22 and Andre has changed from a crash-baller to a player who has learnt to off-load and pick gaps...Am and him, know each others play and together in the Sharks where they have been effective...I think he and Am are good together.

Well lets see...I think that's Rassies way of thinking and yes I think Rassie is experimenting and I like that...he's prepared to put all the irons in the fire to build a team for the WC and the future even at the expense of the Championship...which he sees and so do I as the lesser priority.

Careful Chabal, Clever Mike said only a doffdoos says such things about Japanese rugby.

I all seriousness, that is completely correct. I'm willing to see what they can do too, because we know the alternative is n ever going to produce. 

The Japanese are superior to South Africans in technical things. There's a vid of YouTube showing some of the tries they've been scoring over many years. Their backplay is very good. Against the Boks in the World Cup I foresaw that there were going to be problems, and I warned many that Japan should not be underestimated. Yet even I didn't expect they'd actually win. If they can get parity up front they can be a nightmare. They also lack height. Pity. But I like our players going abroad to these countries, it expands their minds and exposes them to more detailed coaching. The running rugby is a great environment for our backs.

The most embarrassing Bok performance, for me, was the 2001 Bok vs All Black test in New Zealand. Aside from Butch, the rest of the team played worse than a tier 3 nation; New Zealand weren't great either, but they didn't need to do very much . I've never seen anything like from the Boks again. 

A loss against the AB's is reasonable and I was at the Italia game in Durban and the reception after the game.

A loss against Japan was the lowest point ever in Springbok Rugby/   Refuing to recognize I the "most experienced Springbok team ever" could lose was an extreme embarrassment and AgainsBSter would not recognize is the fact that his favourite players played in the test and mostly buggered up badly.   He is too embarrassed and cowardly to admit it and used the Mozart excuse to blame Kriel only.   

Honesty has gone out of the window in their case     

The loss, given the ability of the opposition, was not the worst. The 2001 test was a significantly worse performance. Your only defence is that the All Black game was against New Zealand. Mine was an evaluation of the performance itself. The most embarrassing loss, as far as status goes, would have to be Saracens or Leicester. You know, those substandard Northern Hemisphere teams. Two loses in succession in our best year. We almost lost to Namibia before the Lions tour. There have been many worse games than the Japanese loss. 

Mike why do you harp about this...Japan (new boy in the block) defeats old boy...simply because jones read meyers game plan like a book and hurt us against our biggest weakness ( our over confidence and disrespect for opposition)...same strategies that France hit the AB's twice in WC's.

It's going to happen again, perhaps different sides altogether...but it will... thankfully perhaps not in your life time or mozarts or mine but the younger guys in their 20's and 30's will see it believe me.

USA will enter rugby in a bigger scale and so will China and Russia...these are enormous countries with huge supplies of men that have never heard of rugby now but will one day play it because it's an attractive game and marketing fundi's will promote it.