Gees is worth a lot more than skill, size, pace or any other attribute you care to mention.
The players who ignite that Springbok gees are Marx, PSdT, Ches, Siya, Reinach and Ox.
We need more.
Gees is worth a lot more than skill, size, pace or any other attribute you care to mention.
The players who ignite that Springbok gees are Marx, PSdT, Ches, Siya, Reinach and Ox.
We need more.
j
,m
nn
I think we are likely too harsh. But they did build up our hopes and then lose key players and turn into a soft side.
We can probably be excused for voicing our disappointment.
Sucks for Francke. He and Venter made a formidable combination, were building nicely, and then suddenly his general was gone and he had to make do with a very inexperienced replacement.
The first post I ever made about Venter was a YouTube short of him running over somebody and I posted "This guy will carry the Boks on his back". He has defos been carrying the Lions on his back., And if recent articles are to be believed, Rassie was gonna make him a Bok regular this year.
I could not be more gutted for him.
The Lions need to leave that shithole Ellis Park. Rather pack 15k into a smaller stadium than 2k into a massive one. Being there is hurting them and it's never going to improve.
Yup, lions were at least 9 first class players short and they have 0 World Class players in their ranks. They have a few that are C Grade or D grade boks and some very young players.
Batho is great at age group but he may run the risk of being another Hilton Loberts, big bruising and can only do one thing.
But that was pretty much the Irish national team, you are not going to knock them over that easy or put up a fight. The need depth and world class players,
BUT
As long as they beat foreign teams at home, I will root for them. We need to make it hard for foreign teams to come to SA. If they win a few away from home, bonus. But they should win all of their home matches and turn Ellis Park back into a fortress
m
The Lions need to leave that shithole Ellis Park. Rather pack 15k into a smaller stadium than 2k into a massive one. Being there is hurting them and it's never going to improve.
klop ... see above
17,229 posts
Maybe. No Renzo du Plessis, no Jarod Cairns, no Ruan Venter, no Etienne Oosthuizen, no Bronson, no Asenati, no Krappies. They took on Leinster with two powderpuff locks who got run over all game, a loose trio that seemed lost, a rookie scrummie (not sure why the vastly more talented Pead didn't start) and Kriel the wing turned makeshift 12.
This side was probably never going to trouble Leinster. Henko was about the only guy who didn't look outplayed out there. Even Quan was terrible. I am disappointed by how uncompetitive they were. I didn't see any fire or physical intent. Prenny didn't take one proper hit all game. At one point Lowe was pinned by a tackler against the touchline. I was waiting for Angelo Davids to charge into him and smash him into touch, make a little statement of intent - instead he just stood off and waited for Lowe to offload.
Leinster was always going to outskill them, but what should concern the Lions is the ease with which they got outmuscled. While the Lions kept getting hit back in contact by the carriers, we saw Doris never giving Batho an inch of ground when Batho charged into him. The same Doris beat a weak tackle by the same Batho to set up a Leinster try.
These guys will need to find a hard edge. They're too nice. Too accommodating. You can't take on this level of rugby with locks that get run over by loosies, with players that let a flyhalf who tossed a pass to nowhere the first time he got someone in his face just run free without sending a beast into his channel running him down every single time the ball goes his way.
Leinster was free to play as they pleased because the Lions let them, by hanging back, waiting for the move to unfold until they found themselves exposed and open. With the way the Lions have bled tries throughout the tournament, I can't say Jaque Fourie inspires much confidence as a defense coach. There was little structure evident. Not a spot tackle worth a damn all game to try and disrupt the flow of the ball in the Leinster backs. Hopefully a lesson is learned from this by these young blokes.
And maybe we are a little harsh on them because we wanted the underdog to do great things, and so much potential was hinted at throughout the season. As Van Rooyen rightly pointed out, there are more test caps in the Leinster side than URC caps in the Lions side.
I don't want to diminish the effort, cause what do I know as a couch commentator. I go on a perception, a feeling you get while watching a game, that sense you get immediately when a side is switched on, there's an energy about them, you see it in the contacts, on the faces. So take my comments here from where they come, but I got no perception of any of that "let's go get them" energy from the Lions last night. They looked passive the whole way through, like they were just allowing something inevitable to happen. And that's the saddest part for me. Hopefully I got it wrong.