Bokbarometer after week 4

I agree to a substantial extent   However it was clear that Potgieter proved beyond  any shadow of doubt that Morne Steyn was not a loss for the Bulls at all.  Morne would never have attacked the gain line like Potgieter did and as a result scored the Bulls first try. 
The Bulls really benefited from the fact that Morne is not there anymore to bugger up their backline play.

I thought Victor was more influential than PSDT. Kickoffs, lineouts, general play had some great touches.

 He was his usual useless self - shunning contact and playing like the flimsy showboat he is. Flip was outstanding and to men tion wee victor before Flip reminds me of the clowns who thought matfield was a better lock that the great Bakkies. Talk about being clueless!!!

 Beeno - Flip is already in the team at 4. Agree he had a good game. He has exceeded my expectations and at this point is a part of a juggernaut Bok pack. But to say Victor was "useless"  lacks any objectivity.

.duplicate

Frans Steyn was better than Potgieter. 
Firstly his goal kicking was probably the best display so far this year by any player in the SuperXV. Not only did he get all of his kicks, most were difficult and went directly through the middle of the poles.
Potgieter scored a good try but it was also poor defence by the Blues on that move. Their must have been confusion as to who was going to tackle him.
The overall distribution of Frans Steyn, tackling and allround play was better than Potgieter who is just flying under the radar and in a good bit of form.
I would have preferred to see Frans Steyn combine with Andre Esterhuizen. Hiemaar Williams was nowhere to be seen and it seemed like Frans Steyn was playing both flyhalf and inside centre at the same time.
Saying that PSDT played better than Matfield is a joke and just favouring a young player over an older one.
Matfield easily outperformed PSTD this weekend. Matfield was calling the lineouts and taking all of his own throws. Not only is he still the best lineout forward in jumping and organising the lineout, he is also the best at jumping  for taking kickoffs. His work rate all around the pitch was very high making lots of tackles and was like a loose forward in that he was at the rucks so quickly and chasing up in open play. 
The core functions are a number 5 lock are:1. Lineouts. Taking the lineouts and calling them2. Kickoffs3. Scrumming4. All round play, like tackling, clearning rucks, driving up, chasing in the loose.
Matfield easily beat PSDT this weekend.

 Flip has been a revelation this year. I just hope he keeps it up. Good to see Victor still have it but the it was against a week pack. The bulls have some big boys in their pack, so the can afford having an arm chair forward.

Stephanie has been quiet so far this S15. For example, he hasn't won  a single opposition lineout. 

 Sharkbok 
I would not emphasize overmuch the following:-
"The overall distribution of Frans Steyn, tackling and allround play was better than Potgieter who is just flying under the radar and in a good bit of form."
Steyn had the distinction of missing half of his attempted tackles and his ball distribution was marred by some really wild and problematic passes.

 
Duplication

 Clevermike,
When I watched the game I did not see Steyn miss any major tackles. I did see him make a massive tackle on Faff the Lions scrummie.
Sometimes in traffic a player can get stepped but he knows that the next tackler will stop the attacking player.  In traffic sometimes it is just about closing gaps by shepherding the attacking player to either run straight to be tackled, or stepping into the next defender.
These stats websites count that as a missed tackle.
 For me a missed tackle is when the attacking player makes a clean break and cuts the line and then straightens up. Just running at an angle making little to metres missing defending players is not beating a man.
I dont recall Frans Steyn falling of attempted tackles, or attacking players making clean breaks from his tackles. 
If a defending player even dives to shut down space and the attacking player only has the option to run into the next defender, then he has done his job in closing the space.
A missed tackle is basically one that is of consequence. It is a threat to the defence, not just an attacking player runnning at at angle and being no threat.

Frans had a few passes that went to ground. 
These were however long passes. His distribution is not as good as a player like Sunny Bill Williams, but who in South Africa can do any better? 
Yes he does hog the ball sometimes, but so do most of the top SA centres. 
The running lines of supporting runners also need to improve to give the inside backs more options to pass to- this is a problem with SA backline play, not just Frans Steyn.It is not like we see centre play in South Africa create space like some of the top form Australazian teams

Just watched the game again......Matfield was a non entity.......added nothing with ball in hand, fumbled balls, never saw him clean out a ruck.......all I saw was the odd line-out, plus one lost and the odd kick off take.

In the 4min Willemse was on the field, he made more of a physical impact that Matfield did.

PSDT was far better.......took the ball up, cleared out rucks and took all his line-out balls.

 Matfield0/000/9/61000407/07/100/0
du Toit0/000/1/41402012/14/000/0

Matfield was far more involved - his numbers dwarf PSDT: 15 touches to 5 for PSDT. 4 offloads to none for PSDT. 7 tackles to 2 (Foxsport had Matfield with 12 tackles to 3 for PSDT). 8 lineout takes to 4. PSDT did beat 2 defenders to Matfield's none.
Thats just comparing the tangibles. 
This is the first game Matfield has really performed well so he has a lot left to prove, but the same could be said of Serfontein who has been very average until this past weekend.

Matfield also linked in a number of key situations. His kickoff take and distribute while he was still  in the air was brilliant. He fed beautifully off the deck on another occasion.

 Oimatey, great to see some stats. Watching the games I would concur- these seem pretty accurate.
1. I did not see PSTD carry the ball much2. Little to no passing3. I did not see any tackles of PSD4. Lineouts. It was clear Matfield was taking most of the balls, and totally calling and dominating the lineouts.
PSTD had a ghost like presence compared to Matfield

 Sharkbok
Steyn's first tackle of De Klerk was a hard one - but after the ball was already gone and he really could have been penalized for a late tackle.   The second one was head high and Steyn was penalized - Boshoff converted that one.
A missed tackle is a missed tackle - when the tackler ended up on the ground and the player carries on to be tackled by a second player or third player - means that the ball is carried forward and that it puts the defending side on the back foot.   
I do not think the stats is the alpha and omega to be followed - what I do believe is that over a number of games they show tendencies and in the case of Steyn there is a tendency to miss tackles.  He missed a lot of tackles last year as well.  Over the past 18 months his missed tackle ratio has been over 20% - whereas it should be around 10 to 11%.   And some of the missed tackles had nasty consequences for his team. Often enough penalties and tries followed as a result.
A further problem is the way players get past Steyn without a tackle being attempted.  You mentioned De Klerk being tackled hard - but you do not mention the case where the youngster went past him like he was not there.
There were on Saturday 9 points scored directly linked to mistakes or questionable play on the part of Steyn.   In tighter games against stronger opposition  it could swing the result against the Sharks.
In essence - I think the better position for Steyn is at 12 or even 15 - there are way too many dangers attached to him playing at 10.                  

 oimatey
To be quite fair - I o nit think that Du Toit had a particularly good game on Saturday - but I am not convinced about Matfield either.  Both were -
*  calling the line outs; and*  while Du Toit varied his calls considerably - Matfield in the main called the line outs for the balls to be thrown to him.   
There were good reasons for both calls.   The Blues tight 5 is not the best around and Matfield was up against a rather poor lock with questionable line out credentials.  Du Toit was not - he was up against Van der Merwe.   To be successful against stronger line out competitors requires variation resulting in Du Toit being required to take fewer line out balls.  The situation may be different in other games and the calling of line outs to be thrown at one player.
To his credit Matfield did make more tackles the Du Toit did - but I think that in ball carrying Du Toit was more successful than Matfield.
What worries me is that in previous games - when Matfield came from the bench - the Bulls scrum was weakened by the change,   The question remains - is Matfield strong enough in scrumming to be acceptable?
I do not think that Matfield at this stage showed enough to be declared a top player in his position.  We will only know when he comes up against a stronger lock combination in future.