Another Saturday

Another Saturday and another occasion where the "tiny" Lions pack out-scrum, out-tackle, out-pass and generally out-play their opponents. 
Jantjies finding some confidence and making some excellent kicks and passes. Still a mistake or two.
Marx looks like he was born to wear the Bok 2 jersey. 
Whitley making vital tackles leading the team well as usual.
It's only half time so I've probably jinxed them.

 Lions look like they should win this one but the score is too close with only 54 mins gone. Lions get a scrum penalty to get them out of trouble.

 It's those last 20 mins JW. The Force do look reasonably fit though.

 Scrappy but its in the bag. 
Not bad considering the travel fatigue. 
Stretching that SA conference lead. 

And so Plum, what do we do with the Boks.....maak die leeuwe almal Bokke?

Name a better way to get the Boks on the right track Mozart? Pick players who aren't performing at SR level and hope they find form and synergy come June?

Plum u are not convincing any of us, except u know who my friend.
A better idea would be for the SARU to cancel all test for the Goats until such time that we can field a team selected on merit.
Another idea would be to select a team of color (similar to the M.... squad in NZ) and let them play other countries like Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Congo, Ghana etc. as and when available.
No more TESTS until NZ stops playing rugby.

Well it's a tough one. In all honesty they scraped home against the Sharks, Stormers, Jaguares and Force. That's admirable but does it suggest they can bear NZ or France for that matter? . One way to go would be to write down the Lions team and only change players where there is a clearly better alternative...the Lions plus Etzebeth? Mostert is better than Stephanie.

 Sh!t, you beat the Farce, the Keengs almost did too.

That's what I'm saying Moz. 
Build on them. 
Lol AJ, we're talking semi-realistic here not totally bogus. Tell your awesome bro in law I say "Lekker my bra. Leaker!"

"The Lions myth is over. Virtually every Lion has been discredited on the Intenational Stage.....they will finish mid pack. The Sharks will finish higher, but not make the playoffs.

Sharks 5

Stormers 8

Lions 10

Cheetahs 13

Kings 18"
Lions 10, Stompies 8! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

 The Lions are to be commended for utilizing the talent they have and playing good rugby.However, they miss players like Redlinghuys, Kriel, Van Rensburg and Combrink.
Imagine what Ackermann & Co could have done with the budget the Bulle have! Lions have a squad lacking depth so we hope injuries will be very few.

 I think that the Transvaal - Lions teams have always been the best-funded sides in SA rugby since gold was discovered.
Perhaps the 1948 - 1992 era - Northern Transvaal (Bulls today) teams got funds from fellow Bond sources plus the Defence force and Pretoria University supplied the talent.
But never has any other union had more funds available than the Lions, ever.
NOT EVEN THE KINGS.
Louis Lyte-Black Label poured millions into to Transvaal coffers.
Poaching of top players in so-called amateur days was their forte.
But I will concede that the Lion's gel as a squad at CC and Super rugby but have yet to produce players that can deliver at test level since the last WC.
Do not forget that the squad that is the nucleus of the Lions today were all chosen by the ex-manager, not Ackerman.
Yes, I agree it was money well spent to produce a CC-Super rugby but they are no match for the ALL BLACKS for starters.
As stated previously the captain should make the Springbok squad but from the bench. Marx is in for sure a starter but the others I would start on the bench.
Mostert, Kriel would also make the squad as bench players.
But I really do not think that Springbok rugby has been so weak....ever.

 Worst crop of players ever....not necesssarily in terms of physical ability, but in terms of resolve.

 Strangely enough it was and to a certain extent still is the case that most of the ABs played so-so Super rugby but went up a peg or two when back in black .Prime case being Maa Nonu .

 
So who are these Stormers that the Lions scraped past?

You aren't perhaps referring to the rout that they gave the Stormers ... from the Western Cape ... in South Africa ... 3 weeks back, are you?

The one where they were bullied into submission ... despite Etzebeth's funny faces ... with 4 trys to 1 ... are you?

Thought not. Just checking.

 
Beandip ... I hope your not suggesting we fill the rest of the Goats squad up with Stompies?

A 7 try average scored against us is not something we should strive for ... you do lnow that ... right?

We have talented players in every team across the country. It's better that we select the best of the lot and rid ourselves of the Kolisis and Paiges of the world.

At this stage in time I would say that the only Stompies who qualify are Pieter Steff Du Toit and Funny Face Etzebeth.

 AJ
"But I will concede that the Lion's gel as a squad at CC and Super rugby but have yet to produce players that can deliver at test level since the last WC.
Do not forget that the squad that is the nucleus of the Lions today were all chosen by the ex-manager, not Ackerman.
Yes, I agree it was money well spent to produce a CC-Super rugby but they are no match for the ALL BLACKS for starters."

The Lions beat a host of NZ's SR teams last year. Teams which in my opinion are better than the vast majority of national sides. Only the ABs are better. England 50/50 and Ireland at a stretch. The SR final was played away from home and in conditions that favoured the home team. And the Lions by no means got thrashed in that game. 
Nobody is saying that the Lions teams as it is will beat the ABs. But show me a present squad in SA that have a better odds than they do, last year's Boks included. The Bok team should be built from this Lions team, with as Moz said, Lions players replaced when there are clearly better players. Only they should not simply be better players. They should be able to perform better within the Lions type of play than the given player that they are replacing. To my mind that puts a guy like Cloete firmly into the frame while putting Eben and PSDT far down the list of contenders. 
Saturday's Lions game being yet another example of how the tiny Whitely and the even tinier Mostert played a full 80 minutes, made tackles all day long and were right on the money until the 80th minute...despite travel fatigue. Playing for each other and for pride. That's what i perceive a Bok to be. A "never say die" fighter. Cloete is the type who gives you that. Eben, PSDT, Duane, Strauss etc etc do not. 
One a side note, the commentators mentioned yesterday that Lios and a the least run meters conceded against them last year. Surprising isn't it. Granted they conceded a good amount of tries, a lot of them from counter attacks. 
Yes it's a simplistic approach, but we are stuck between two worlds. One where we move forward, ride  the wave of innovation and break away from the idea that each player in a  certain position must fit a specific mould or one where we try move forward while constantly looking over our shoulders at what we were. Here, some players in the Lions pack...
Whitely - Too smallMostert - Too smallKriel - Too small not a fetcherMarx - Too big 
Yet those guys, each one not what is traditionally considered to the be ideal size/shape for his position are the very guys that bring back the win every week. So what's the problem? Are they the problem or are we the cynical rugby public the problem? Evidence points to us rather than to them.
The national side do not play together enough for us to simply take the best perceived players in each position, chuck them together and think that they'll do well right after a host of our regular Boks retire. And not when all our clubs play different styles of rugby. It just won't happen. Man for the man the Boks have better personnel than everyone but the ABs. Yet they got beaten by everyone and their dog last year. Not that i need to tell you but obviously synergy in rugby is far and away paramount. No synergy = you'll be beaten by the Italians.
We try to use last year as an example and say that there were so many Lions in the Boks yet they still Lost. Its pretty obvious though that they were not playing Lions rugby. Anyone could also see that most of the vital Lions combinations were not present. The one that was IE Faf/Jantjies was constantly under pressure due to the forwards not giving them the type of service that the Lions pack do. Then we said that Faf and Jantjies were not up to it because they could not perform well behind a pack that was constantly being rucked off the ball and/or being pushed backwards. Well, show me a combination that could work under those conditions. Wood, trees...i dunno.
Find me a better way to hit the floor running than to pick a team comprised of mainly Lions players and slowly draft in more talented individuals over a period of two years and i'll happily change my mind. 
I am actually waiting for someone to offer a better solution. Unless i missed something, as yet there have only been chats about individuals and who is a better player than who. To my mind, those types of discussions don't provide solutions because last year we did pretty much at one stage or another have our best individual players on the field, and look how that turned out. Granted again, the game plan was a bloody train smash if ever i saw one.

Plum name your players and subs and then let the folks comment on the selection and put forward alternative players.
Fair and constructive.

No question the Lions should form the core of any Springbok side chosen this year.
Just let them play Lions rugby and not this sterile and conservative crap that Allis ter Coetzee dishes up.

"Plum name your players and subs and then let the folks comment on the selection and put forward alternative players.

Fair and constructive."

I'm not Plum but assuming this is open to anyone else . . .
15 SP Marais14 Madosh Tambwe13 Lukhanyo Am12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg (Harold Vorster while Rohan is crocked)11 Courtnall Skosan10. Curwin Bosch9. Faf de Klerk8. Warren Whiteley (c)
7. Jean-Luc du Preez6. Jaco Kriel5. Pieter-Steph du Toit4. Franco Mostert3. Trevor Nyakane2. Malcolm Marx1. Beast Mtawarira
There's a Springbok team that would not only compete on the international stage but appease both the politicians and the Lions supporters as well!
Not one overseas based turncoat in sight!
Lion
Black

There are two ways to go.....you start with the Lions team, infiltrate some players who are clearly better and as Plum says, also capable of integrating into the playing style. That way you have an instant team, which is what we have lacked since the WC. But many of the Lions players would not make the ABs, Poms or Irish test teams. We would be relying on team over individual excellence. . The second approach is to go back to a small core of guys who actually remember how to win tests....Bismarck, Vermeulen, Louw, Frans, Habana, JP and Willy. To reset the team and then draft in the best of the limited new talent we have. Trouble with that approach is it has a short fuse and I'm not sure there are enough of these guys left to make it work, although the short term results could be better. And crucially the public will have no patience. . So if approach 2 is not viable, I would prefer the instant "team" the Lions provide, but the prospects are still concerning...if better than selecting a totally new team from talent that is being horribly exposed in Super Rugby.

This from the egg-faced clown who predicted that the Lions would be mid-table mediocrity this season, behind the Hapless Stompies!
Waaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha!

Is that your Springbok team or your EEO team....LMAOFY!

I don't even know what EEO stands for. 
I do know that "LMAOFY" was a typo that you were too proud to admit to!
LMAO . . . FY!

What a dunce ....well never mind. But lets keep this team of your's, one of the most naive I have ever seen......it should be good for a lot of laughs.....LMAOFY!

More laughs than Dylan Hartley for British LIons captain . . . or the "Leins" (sic) to finish mid-table? 
I somehow doubt it!
LMAO!