Architects of the game plan......the facts

Pienaar got the ball 61 times.....Morne 18 times....Fransie 12 times and Jean a whopping 5 times.

I'm tempted to say this gives Jean a bit of a pass. Of those 5 times he kicked the ball twice....once to set a lineout right on the AB line out, that in the old days could have rung the cash register. But I'm not a great believer in this starved player stuff.....Habana got the ball more because he was looking for it. Jean needs to up his game....but with that litle ball he was scarcely an architect of our game.

Fransie got more ball...he got it 12 times in all. He passed three times and ran 7......the ball died a lot with Frans Steyn. I think we have a serious issue here....Fransie is a selfish player, his natural instinct is not to set up the next player.

Morne got the ball 18 times....a bit more than Fransie. But he passed it 10 times.....he was less of a ball block than Fransie. He only kicked out of hand 6 times....low for a flyhalf. In fact Cruden also had the ball 18 times and kicked 6. It was the timing and nature of those kicks that looked so conservative.

Then we get to Pienaar.....who had ball in hand 61 times and kicked 11 times. The NZ scrummies had the ball 62 times and kicked, you guessed it, 11 times!!!!!!

The supposed  vast strategical gulf just isn't there....the two teams kicked,  ran and retained the ball almost exactly the same number of times in the half backs. Even Nonu and Fransie's stats were very similar.

The differences appear to be the running effectiveness..... the NZ inside backs produced gains. Except Cruden who gained zero metres. Was Morne all that different to Cruden? The numbers don't say so.

Al Smith's 26 metres were the key and the fact that Conrad Smith found the ball 9 times to Jean's 5, even though Nonu only passed the ball twice and then made 44 metres to Jean's one metre.

It all comes down to beating tackles....not excessive kicking, even if we all cringe with the next up and under.

Someone doesnt know how to add up. Pienaar kicked a great deal and pathetically. He is also no threat as an attacking player. Was poor at the WC.

Change the half backs.

Wow more crap about Frans, the only centre to make a clean break beating 2 defenders. Once again he was by some distance the best of our 10, 12 & 13. Morne was yet again pathetic, kicking valuable possession away and providing nothing on attack - what a useless player.

Did Jean play???

Hats off to Habana, he had a good game.

Hougaard is completely wasted on the wing. Pienaar was average at 9, he provides no zip at all.

Funny thing is we were better than the AB's today and had useless Morne actually kicked his kicks and had we scored that easy try we should have taken it, despite poor team selections and that bloody pathetic tactic of kicking the leather off the ball.

Flip once again proved he is a test quality lock, all this bullshit about him being a flip flop is bullshit. Bekker was far better than Kruger. Strauss had his best test of the season. Alberts looked a little better than his usual awol self and Vermeulen had a useful test. Greyling is one stupid fool.

Get rid of Morne and Jean and move Hougaard back to 9. Play Bekker ahead of Kruger and get Coenie back on the bench as the sub prop.

To me our two locks are Etzebeth and Flip. Bekker on the bench as lineout insurance. The whole front row looked more fired up. Our loosies add huge grunt to the pack and should continue. Vermuelen and louw were outstanding and should get better. Alberts was good but faded a bit.

Man what a great pack of forwards is in the making! 

As usual Dave you totally miss the point....the inside centere is occasionaly supposed to set up the outside. One Fransie break in 6 tests doesn't suffice. Nor was he able to stop Nonu. 

Hasbeen, Bekker was by far our most effective lock today.  Flip Flop had his best game as a Bok though.....Kruger cant cut it in tests. I would say Bekker and Etzebeth to start and why not Alberts to shift to lock later....as the Sharks do it.

Wrong Frans has been good but for one average test this year. He was good today........Nonu did squat, Frans had the better of him.

Jean again was a non entity, Morne a disgrace.

Agreed Bekker was good.......our locks have to be Etzebeth and Bekker with Flip on the bench

Fransie ran over four All Blacks, was the only back to offload in contact (something Jean never did) and was a rock in defence. Your beloved Jean passed directly into touch missing Hougaard by miles when he could have been through for a try and that kick you worship was a screwed up misunderstanding when an overlap was at hand. Even he exclaimed his gaff. This is getting embarrassing Moz, you don't know how to call good centres. So far you called Adi, Jean,  JP Pietersen, Habana as centres. None of them got the pass mark from anyone in the position. Jean gets a break because he is a Stormer and is untouchable as far as Keo is concerned, and everyone in SA follows Keo. Just admit it, Jean was a disaster. He is the floundering fool in the centre parternership that is bringing nothing. It's Meyer's seventh game and already Jean has been run over six times. Not even Adi Jacobs of all people can match that! I know you are defending Jean out of nothing more than pride, because for years you bleated how much of an improvement Jean would be to Jaque Fourie. You kept overhyping it, now that it's finally happened, Jean has been exposed and once more you have to pave over the cracks.  

After looking at the game again - I noticed similarlity in the circumstances when Pienaar kicked the ball and believes that he was playing according to strict instructions given to him.   Some of Pienaars kicks were very effective and caused significant territory gain by the Springboks and even turnovers.   Not as bad as I initially thought.

After looking at the game again - I was appalled by the poor kicks of Morne Steyn and I mean not only his atrocious kicking at goal,  One of the kicks was so aimless that it was even called rubbish and stupid by the commentators

After looking at the game again - I noticed similarlity in the circumstances when Pienaar kicked the ball and believes that he was playing according to strict instructions given to him.   Some of Pienaars kicks were very effective and caused significant territory gain by the Springboks and even turnovers.   Not as bad as I initially thought.

After looking at the game again - I was appalled by the poor kicks of Morne Steyn and I mean not only his atrocious kicking at goal,  One of the kicks was so aimless that it was even called rubbish and stupid by the commentators

FRom 3rd party perspective.

A Lot to like about boks performance. Louw was close to man of the match - shows why you need a true open sideflanker - he was harshly dealt with by ref on numerous occassions too.

Goosen.... why didnt he start...?

Out centre as captain too far from the action especially when McCheat is in the ear of the ref every five seconds - with backup from his hier apparent Kieren Read.

GReyling..... well the shot was worth the card. The two kickable penaltys and drop ball a metre from the line.... little harder to take.

All in all Bok fwd pack won the competition Morne pretty much cost the bok - not greyling.

Fair comments from Redsman. A game we should defintely have won and one that showed up the abs.

Flip played a rugged hard grindng game at lock in the bakkies mould. Give me that any day.

As for jean he was fine and I appeal to you Card to drop all this nonsense about jean and really bad name calling. Snapster also thinks Jean is a problem, wrongly in my view, but at least does not use bad insuts.

Very disappointing stuff from Card. You have intelligence, knowledge and  a passion for the game but get mean about it too much. That is not necessary. Come on lighten up a bit and moderate the tone a tad. Many guys here were looking forward to you return and you can be a great poster if you moderate a bit.

 Many people are looking forward to him returning to the bridge he crawled out under from.

fair comments but one cant lay blaim at the players when the game plan is that of direct play. that method of playing develops horse chessnut style sindrome of being selfish and not being spacialy aware. frans made a line break and offloaded to whose you have seen franna play in france and in the RWC he is capable of that style of play but he generally is being left to either kick the ball or setup phase play. he is being told to perform a role instead of being allowed to play it as he sees it.

at the rwc 2011 he played  more as a linking role to his outside backs with huge massive wide passes ext. that backline tactics were different now he is being told to be the olivier style bashup style 12. at the sharks franna played like another player but people tend to forget he is playing as per the coaches instruction.

Jean has been very flat the champs but it has been a long season and i do think meyer needs to change a few players around to rest them. jean has not had a decent game in over 2 years but when he was moved to 13 he looked a lot better. he has at most a season left in him so we need to look at the future and staring blooding other players

Jean was rated the third best player of the some 40 players who contested the RWC QF against Oz. That was more than a decent game. He had several very good S15 games......but is dying on the vine at 13, with ball in hand 5 times.

I agree he is getting to the end of his tenure, but this fall off coincides with playing outside Fransie. I'm surprised by how ineffective the whole thing has been.

Jean's best and only satisfactory performance over the last few years at least was against Australia, who were quite poor, in fact, it was the worst Aussie performance I have ever seen.

Jean doesn't have any playmaking skills, no sense for that sort of play and his pass isn't very good. Never was. He is a wing struggling to be the centre that over zealous saffers have hyped him up to be. It's a shame that Fourie wants to stay in Japan, as he had no trouble whatsoever playing outside Frans.  

The Cat

Are you talking about De Villiers being poor - the same can applyto Morne.  He is a flyhalf that lost the art years ago and was a disaster on Saturday.   Both are not really the best around -- but I still believe De Villiers has ball sense - and know Morne has NONE.

The bigger problem with a failed backline is Morne - so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Jean gave us a chance to win the RWCQF....Fury lost it by bungling tries and never backing up breaks.

Fourie always was the better of the partnership. Jean managed a few breaks but was still a big reason why the Boks backline stuttered. What killed the Boks before the game was losing Frans.