Bok Barometer

Saffex

Last week you made a song and dance about the Bokbarometer selections and especially about Francois Steyn and Hougaard.  There was disagreement about the two mentioned selections.   I saw the abrometer for this week on TV - and it is evident that the compilers are determined to make fools of themselves.

This week they have Paul Jordaan as their no 13 - that after Jordaan had an iffy game against the Kings.

Hope that takes the steam out of your engine insofar as the usage of the so-called barometer is concerned.  

Arena Sport editor's Bok Barometer....I don't agree with much of this, but interesting comment on Steyn:

ArenaSport editor David Moseley’s Form XV
15 Joe Pietersen – Despite a few mid-air fumbles, the wee man was in superb attacking and kicking form against the Chiefs.

14 Akona Ndungane – Although there were good wins for three SA sides against New Zealand teams, not much was seen out wide. Ndungane cracks the nod purely on visibility (and he played pretty well too).

13 Paul Jordaan – Limited opportunities to attack in a muddled Sharks performance, but when he did get his hands on the ball, Jordaan was sublime.

12 Damian de Allende – It’s strange that nothing’s been said of Frans Steyn being jerked at the 60 minute mark against the Kings. Was it tactical, an injury? That being said, the new man in the Stormers midfield produced his best performance of the year. Running hard, breaking tackles and generally looking a class above.

11 Raymond Rhule – Again, not much was happening on the wings this weekend, but Rhule is looking better and better.

10 Pat Lambie – Improved performance from Elton Jantjies (lovely inside pass to Gio Aplon for the try), but when the heat was turned up the Stormers coach turned to the calm hands of Peter Grant – what does that say? Morne Steyn was superb, while Johan Goosen came to the party in the Cheetahs thrilling win. Lambie still looks the best of the lot, though.

9 Nic Groom – Jano Vermaak was great again this weekend, as was Sarel Pretorius, but Groom really got the Stormers firing.

8 Jacques Engelbrecht – Big games from Duane Vermeulen, Pierre Spies and Ryan Kankowski this weekend, but the Kings man ran himself into the ground in a battling performance at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

7 Lappies Labuschagne – As Craig says above, almost every candidate for this spot is red-hot right now. Lappies just clinches it.

6 Siya Kolisi – A quiet start to this season, but he exploded into life with an all-action performance against the Chiefs. And those guns? Siya, have you been working out?

5 Andries Bekker – Did everything on Saturday. Dabbled in the midfield, produced a few stunning breaks, won lineout ball, pinched opposition lineout ball, made the team flapjacks at halftime, rescued a kitten from a tree, put out a fire and ended government corruption single-handedly. SA’s top all-rounder. After Jacques Kallis, of course.

4 De Kock Steenkamp – Flip van der Merwe is playing great rugby at the moment, no doubt aided by Victor Matfield’s words of wisdom, but Steenkamp and Bekker made a solid combination against the Chiefs.

3 Jannie du Plessis – Not too many challengers for Jannie, so he looks set to continue his impressive run of games for the Boks later this year (if he stays injury-free).

2 Adriaan Strauss – Bismarck is the benchmark, but he’s not yet on the park. Strauss was excellent yet again for the Cheetahs.

1 The Beast – There were some strange calls at scrum time from the ref. That being said, Mtawarira looks back to his barn-storming best. In the early minutes of the Kings game he looked intent on running over every single player on the park, even some of his own. Encouraging signs after an indifferent end to 2012.

I am happy with the comments made. Most of them at least. Regards Lambie. I have no doubt he is still our best option at 10. As I said about Goosen. When his team is firing, he is great, when they are under pressure, he can sometimes go missing or go very quiet. Cheetahs unfortunately are way too hit and miss. Sometimes they can go 3 or 4 games before another big performance and thats not good enough to be a threat in this competition.

You will always see Lambie. Whether Sharks are dominating or under the pump. He is that type of player. I watched the Kings game again and really concentrated on Lambie and Steyn. Lambie really does very little wrong and he looks sharp when he takes off with the ball. He gives it off to Steyn, who to be fair, is not doing much "wrong" but the expectations on the man are way higher than what he is delivering at the moment. He is just looking bog ordinary and unexciting. Its like he thinks people want to see him being this big battering ram.

My question now is, we all hope Frans "comes right" so to speak and shows those touches he delivered for the Sharks and Boks in 2007 but is he capable of that these days with his weight and the rest. Reminds me a bit of Piri Weepu. He was phenomenal, then he got fat and he just looks ordinary now. People keep expecting massive games from the name "Piri Weepu" and AB's still select him based on the name "Piri Weepu" but in between 1 really good game, we witness many ordinary, unexciting games.

Is Frans Steyn following in Piri's footsteps? Is Steyn being selected on the name in the hope he can "come right?" Is Frans Steyn ever going to be the player he was or is what we witnessing now the extent of his abilities? I am starting to think that this is Frans Steyn. This is all he will ever be going forward. Sure he will do some great things at times or make a break or offload ala Piri and we will all get excited but these will be amongst a lot of crash balling and "dying" with the ball!

 No boklogic get this into your thick skull that the best we have at 12 is Frans Steyn. Hell have you seen the right Bok Barometer? It is Lambie that its not performing at 10 and should be playing fullback for the boks and Sharks with Goosen the best 10 in the country. Only an idiot would not be able to understand this. You Praat.. you idiot. you fool you idiot. *!"%**&&^^^%.....**!"%**&&^^^%.....**!"%**&&^^^%.....**!"%**&&^^^%.....  need I say more.

boklogic

If I was Francois Steyn I would be a very worrried person with some real nightmares tonight.   I watched the Sharks game against the Kings tonight and even while he was on the field of play - he did nothing.   He walked into tackles and did not even crashball.   His face was like thunder when he walked off and it told another story.

I think he was told to up his game against the Kings and he failed badly.  If there was deficiencies in his previous game - there was none this game - because he vanished forom sight for the 40 minutes he in fact was on the field - and kicking away a ball - when the Sharks shouldhave attacked with their backline was the final straw - or so I believe.   You do not kick balls away when you have your whole backline in line and the opposition defence is in disarrry - now do you?

I really think Plumtree wants to sleep over the team selection - but I have a distinct feeling that Steyn is out and that Plumtree sent Bosman on for the last 20 minutes of the Kings game to give him some game  inme and see whether things went better when he was on than the case was with Steyn.   And it did believe there was a noticable improvement.  

I think Steyn can count himself extremely lucky if he is selected forthe game on Saturday.   .

I think that Damian De Allende had a poor start to Super 15  because Jantjies had such poor games.   Jantjies on Saturday showed some noticeable improvements.   Jantjies is still not my idea of a good flyhalf - but at least he did show improvement. 

De Allende I always said was one to watch for the future.   He is really a very good player and could be the ideal 12 in years to come.  He is very strong and is speedy as well.  Mozart at one stage mentioned that he was - but he clearly showed on Saturday that he is not.   He has one thing that Steyn has not shown at all - and that is ball sense.   

I think that the Stormers will keep him at 12 and may even move De Villiers to the wing as a result of Habana's injury.  That is if they want to play the useless De Jongh at 13. Would not at all be surprised to see a center pairing of  De Allende and De Villiers - as a more pemanent situation.

De Allende could be our version of Roberts....he is looking far more incisive than Fransie. The Lambie vs Goosen thing may never be clearly decided....they potentially both offer a lot, but in different ways. We have no test calibre 9 playing in the S15. The lock pairing is Etzebeth and Bekker.....not Steph du Toit. Coetzee is not a test starter.

Mozart

The one player that stood out so far in Super 15 was Labuschagne.   He was very good in the Sharks - Cheetahs game and scored a try that day as well.   In the game against the Chiefs the commentators mentioned him repeatedly and the summing up of Marshall in the Highlanders game sums it up  exactly.  He said near the end of the game :   "Labushagne - VOW".  He said he looked like the new version of McCaw - that first try Pretorius scored was made by his run and shaking off a defender - sorry you did not see that game. 

I still believe that the 24 tackles he made in that game against the Highlanders  is probably the highest ever recorded in a Super Series game by an individual player - and that was not all - he won a line-out on the throw in of the Highlanders and made a crucial turnover in possession - when the Highlanders was five meters away from the tryline.   He was 10 tmes better in that game than Coetzee was in the Kings game.

I agree with you - we have a serious problem at 9.  I was hoping for an improvement in Hougaard or that Reinach will come through - none of those two hopes materialized and that remains a problem. 

There can be no argument bout the lock situation -is in full agreement with you.

 Mike I was using the Bok Barometer to make a point. Frans made the side in week 2 and then went on to make the team of the week in week 3. That does not happen to a player playing poor rugby as some of you clowns will have us believe.

Frans was not good last weekend, but then none of the Sharks were.

Jordaan as the 13 is the wrong call, he would have been the second best 13 on the weekend behind JJ.

Saffex

This just show what I always say - that you use dubious comments of sources to justify your point of view.   I said the barometer was wrong with Steyn and I proved my point.   Now you say the barometer is wrong about Jordaan - and I agree with you - but what did Engelbrecht do to be in line?   Was it his presence as you call it?   He did very little to justify selection.   

Facts are -

*    Engelbrecht played opposite Ranger and did not do as well as he should - Ranger being a top player may count in his favour though; and

*    Jordaan played outside of Steyn - who by far was a disgrace in the Kings game and was replaced - after which the Sharks backline showed some life.

Both players mentioned had serious problems - the one because of opposition strength, the other because of the weakness of his center partner.   

Crap Mike, the Bok Barometer got it right with Frans in week 2 he was head and shoulders better than any other 12 in SA that week, it was not even close.

The Jordaan vs JJ call was a close one and once again you speak complete shit as JJ did do what he should have done, he had a good game

Saffex

I can put it in capital letters - STEYN WAS CRAP THROUGHOUT ALL MATCHES PLAYED THIS YEAR.   He produced nothing of consquence and was a hindrance in the functioning of the Sharks backline.  That is the main reason for the inability of a backline to function properly.  The backline was the pride and joy of the Sharks last year - it is ttally malfunctioninjg this year.   You cannot say that I did not sound alarm bells after Steyns's performance for the Springboks last year - I said all along that if the backline of the Sharks malfunctions this year - Steyn would be the cause.  In summary - what Steyn has produced this year can best be described as SHIT in capital letters.

I am vry sorry for Jordaan - he has to play at 13 outside Steyn - who has beeen totally incapble of producing anything in backline play and is in fact sabotaging the backline performances of all players outside of him.

Engelbrecht was bog ordinary on Sunday.  Did not really shine and he had at best an average game.    You said he had a good game - but I saw nothing good - only purely average at best.   If you want to convince me otherwise please feel free to quote examples exactly why he was "good".   

I'll put this in capital letters......YOU KNOW FUCK ALL ABOUT RUGBY.......I am yet to read an insightful, meaningful rugby post from you.

Saffex

I gladly accept your stupid verdict.   Reason: I would be totally wrong to agree with the rubbish you write on this Board prasing non-performing players and crucifying performing ones.   To be seen as knowing nothing about rugby by you is a compliment of the highest order - otherwise it would mean i take myself down to your level of insight into rugby performances.   I want to express my real views on issues - whether you call be ignorant or not - matter of fact I wand to make clear that I will continue to post reasdonabble and realistic assessments based on performances - not airy-fairy glorifications of failing players - yout stock in trade. 

Wrong Mike, I keep it simple - I observe and then comment. In week 2 I observed Frans and Hougaard having good games, they both made the Bokbarometer side. In week 3, I once again observed Frans having a good game and hey wow he made the S15 side of the week.

You see these guys who make a living out of rugby writing, see it the way I did and therein lies the difference between you and I. I know my stuff, you dont - FACT. Same can be said of that chest beating idiot who calls himself Boklogic