Boks can mount a formidable challenge to win Rugby Championships

I am sure we have all had quite enough of these kw pretenders and their odious, obnoxious fans who are so evidentl;y n need of a severe realty check.

Extract from an article on Supersport

They also had to deal with a Bok team that was switched on for an entire 80 minutes and that just refused to take a backward step. Urged on by a passionate crowd, the Boks really did throw the kitchen sink at the All Blacks this time, and more than that. Seldom has a Bok team been more relentless than Eben Etzebeth’s men were, and let’s not forget the All Blacks already had the Championship trophy under lock and key. For them to still prevail in a close game where for long periods they were pounded physically by a ferocious home onslaught was special.

The Newlands game and the Dunedin game did though issue a reminder that the All Blacks are not invincible, and when you strip the emotion from it, there is evidence that both the South Africans and Australians are improving. The Boks, in terms of having a plan and a team culture, are light years forward from where they were this time last year in the days after their mauling at the hands of the All Blacks at Kings Park.

So how far away are they from the All Blacks? On the evidence of just the 80 minutes at Newlands, it would be fair to say they have now found a pack that can hurt any team. Pieter-Steph du Toit had never worked at blindside flank at international level before but he has always had the capabilities and at the weekend it worked. Forget the fact he is bulky, he is an athlete and he does have the pace to get to the wide channels. With him in the side adding to the lineout options and his carrying ability, opposition forward units would have reason to be fearful and the Bok back row has the right mix to it.

Lood de Jager is also suddenly returning to the form he showed in his breakthrough season of 2015 and Steven Kitshoff has left coach Allister Coetzee with a headache when the experienced Beast Mtawarira returns to the selection mix.

Kitshoff’s was an exceptional first start for the Boks, and Wilco Louw showed when he came on why he is given such a big rap by those who enjoy props who can scrum. And he is only 23.

Francois Louw was good but the Boks will have to settle on a conventional No8 going forward, which of course is a reminder that the elected captain for the year, Warren Whiteley, hasn’t been there since June. The injured Uzair Cassiem is skillful and gives 150 percent but is not in the league of Whiteley, Louw or for that matter Duane Vermeulen, who could well be back in the mix for the end of season tour.

But while the Boks have the forwards to hurt anyone, you can’t expect them to start beating the All Blacks with their current backline mix. Jan Serfontein was magnificent against the All Blacks and has been consistent all year and Jesse Kriel has pace that could be well utilised in another position, but otherwise there isn’t much else to shout about.

Ross Cronje is by far the best local scrumhalf but he struggled when he was asked to play a tactical game in the first half at Newlands. It was noticeable that he looked more comfortable when the Boks started playing Lions rugby in the second half. Elton Jantjies unfortunately just doesn’t inspire confidence as the frontline selection as too often he looks nervy.

Handre Pollard will surely be back as a starter sooner rather than later.

It is not all bleak on the backline front, however, and Lukhanyo Am, who was selected in June but was then injured, would be the perfect answer to the No13 problem should Coetzee elect to move Kriel to the wing. The time surely can’t be far away where Warrick Gelant gets a chance too. Should these players come through, the Boks could yet mount a formidable challenge for Championship silverware in 2018.

Rohan, Willie and Combrinck as well. 

Lets give the wee abs a severe whipping!

...Bean Brain, discipline is obviously a big problem for South Africa looking at all the yellow cards South Africans received yesterday in Europe....Venter, Van Jaarsfield, and Schalk Burger to name a few all carded this weekend for typically cynical South African offending....so try to clean up your act might help

Yellow cards cost games ...that's how the Cheetahs lost against Italy this weekend...due to the Italians scoring three times in the ten min period Venter and Van Jaarsfield were in the bin...

The masterclass from Kiwi standoff Marty Banks also playing a big part in the win for the Italian club....so Cheetahs probabaly would have lost anyway given the quality of the opposition ...

Funny that the delusional Bean Brain thinks its the Kiwis in need of a reality check!

Here's a reality check for Bean Brain:

Reigning RWC champions

The only 3 time RWC winners

#1 Ranked team in the world

Ranked #1 on World Rugby Rankings for longer than all other teams combined

Reigning Rugby Championship champions

Won 15 of the 22 Tri Nations/Rugby Championships held

Reigning Bledisloe Cup champions

Worl d Rugby Team of the Year every year since 2010

Winning record against every other nation

That's the reality mate. The crap you spout on here is just bitter jealousy and envy.

All that needs to be done is to remind my good friend Brycy that the wee abs have the worst diciplinary record n world rugby. Now one has to consider how much illegal play has not been picked up. Remember the wee abs actually train on how best to cheat etc.

And so we move on to the unfortunate comments of Ka Mutt who takes no account as to how often the wee abs cheat to win.

Thankfully Beeno i s around to call the wee abs out. Hahahahahhahahahahahaha Beeno the moral compass of the kbbs!  

...Bean Brain, its a well known fact that NZ players are the very epitome of innocence representing the absolute paragon of virtue - a shiny example to the world and especially to the clumsy SA neanderthals with the broken moral compass...

...the only yellow cards ever received by Kiwi teams are simply given out of sympathy for the opposition - any other explanation is just fake news...

Incidentally, I notice even delusional Beeno only claims a "formidable challenge", even he doesn't pretend to think the Boks can win.

JW Beeno has a degree of modesty you can only dream of!

Brycy if the Bok backline performs at a even just a reasonable test level the Boks will win.  There is so much room for improvement that a decent coach could lift their perfor mance easily if the right selections are made.

...Bean Brain what backline?

Can theBoks improve? Sure they can so Beeno is right there, but how much can a good coach make untalented players good? It affects game planning ifyou have players that can't read the game or do basic things like fix defenders or align properly. The comment about Steph and speed is another thing that brings to light how lacking south Africans understanding of rugby really is. He doesn't have to literally be able to sprint from sideline to sideline but good positioning skills mean you don't have to be. They don't even understand this basic stuff which is kind of the basics of the shape of the game. South Africa played an All Black side that had nothing to play for had some missing players and still bettered the most intense Bok rugby for maybe three years. You want a pack on the back? New Zealanders don't applaud defeat under any circumstance so south Africa clearly has a loser mentality. I'm not trying to ruffle feathers but what the heck else can I say about it? Sometime in December I said that south Africa's game is all about emotion and that they can be dangerous in offefforts . but its not sustainable. In 2003 the Boks were beaten at home by a huge score then actually nearly beat New Zealand in New Zealand and then got lit up in the World Cup like a sausage by a fkame thrower. The one offs assure south Africans that everything is going to be okay and that they should do the same thing or else they'll rock the boat and go astray but they never see that they already are astray like blind men wandering into the desert never to be seen again. If I wasn't respectful of Bok traditions I'd be laughing pretty hard about now. And they always are searching for the silver bullet that'll make all the ails go away. If only the perfect 10 was here, or the perfect coach, or if this that and the other tghing. Being smart is knowing what you have right now and using it properly. We won a world cup without or best 10s ( with Stephen freaking Donald of all people). South Africans are too into wishful thinking and doing absolutely nothing but then have the nerve to talk others down. If I took all these attributes and put into a person it would be a toxic person. It is what it is folks. Maybe if you guys didn't chase every talent or intellectual out of the country then you wouldn't have to be whining about not having the perfect coach/players! Enjoy the bed you made for yourselves and do it quietly because the talking thing makes you all look bad.

I personally feel that we have a really great pack of forwards and especially in the tight five with ample stocks at lock. There are couple of seniors such Estebeth that we rely on to much and it doesn't help either that our back row selection has been so poor. 

I think that Kolisi is a fantastic player but where do you play him though. We have also struggle at 8 for some time and had some really dumb decisions in Cassiem who is not an 8 or test standard player. 

The other problem of our pack has been that we don't have worthy players on the bench. Dreyer, Trevor and Chilli are players that should not be in the bock squad. That means we are already at an disadvantage at the half way mark when all the teams we play against starts to warm up their front row where we have to continue with ours. Do that over 8 weeks where fatigue sets in and the players simply can't compete. 

Our backs have been poor for some time and we try to do much ball in hand nonsense and poor execution of set plays as well as general plays. Exit strategies is normally really easy. I don't know why we are so obsessed with running the ball out or trying to drive it down the field only to expose ourselves to counter attacking and put our players in an off side position. 

If you can, Kick it out, or box kick it up to the 10 meter line and get all of you players behind the ball to compete. More numbers behind the ball means that the receiving time need to play back wards. Get all the players in position before any attack can be launched. 

Our back 3 don't seem to be able to cope with box kicks and neither can our supporting players. How many tries did we give away last year? 

Unfortunately things won't change unless SA finds a way of how to work with overseas players and work with their clubs to manage them accordingly. 

I think that Kolisi is a fantastic player but where do you play him though.

That fanstatic his position is unknown.

A token player, nothing more.

So pick the wrong backline players and then have no proper coach ing and then jump to the conclusion there is no talent. Bwahahahahhahahaha you cant make up this garbage!

SA are as able to mount a formidable challenge to win RC as they are to train formidable non white players.

No, corrected: train at least one decent non white player.

This tells of the ability.

You got to believe. When you believe hard enough, reality disappears and things happen or do not happen.

The main issue is coaching...good coaching and NOT selection... in that order...obviously once you have good coaching, selection kicks in.

Saffers are suckers for getting their priorties right...cannot see the wood for the trees

an 07, 2018, 06:56

Mozart, don't get cheeky with me, creampuff.and mind your own business...I'm not addressing you and have no further desire to have anything to do with you...you are dishonest and a liar of note.

Just as I thought...a weak and nonsensical remark....just continue in your ways, insulting others and eventually you will find just a handful of posters left...for a very old codger you know zero about interacting with others unless it's to ridicule and deceive. I've had enough of you and will not waste anymore time here. Jerk!

What happened to your last ‘principled’ departure...lol...nothing to do with departure only had no desire to continue dialogue with you...

What a liar you are...poofter.

It is clear what is meant...you are a complete fake, a weak person and dishonest...only fools cannot see this...

Coaching the main issue? Maybe in this instance but there are other things. What options do the playersngive the coach? You want running and coetzee did put those patterns in the game plan but the players cantntake advantage of what options the patterns give. I saw a lot of the same stuff in Meyers time when he had patterns that Gabe advantageous positions but the players couldn't process. So we see there are intellectual limitations and technical limitations. And with such an ordinary to poor pack there isn't a good platform. Bad scrumming, bad lineouts, bad ruck pressure, bad positioning all over the place, can't read attacking movements so defence is a problem. I mean, not knowing how to defend a switch pass or guard the ruck fringe is pretty basic. Do South africans really need a coach to teach them to look ahead or inwards if they are a guard or post position? Do the need a coach to teach them properly leverage? Its really basic but apparently so. If you get beaten them don't repeat the mistake. Learn from experience. South afrcians are such hard work I cant understand why anyone would want to be coach! Then the fans, oh lawd no! Hell to the no! 

About the chasing posters away thing. I don't know the whole back story to the squabbling but as a new guy I'd say whining makes the discussions a biy boring. Its like two kids at the back of a car squabbling with each other. It does gwet annoying after a while when trying to follow an actual discussion on rugby and you have up to 50 posts that have nothing to do with the topic but inside references to some past spat. Each forum has its own vibe so take it with a grain of salt. Just saying from my perspective. 

...haha intellectual limitations..

Oh come now, Mozart. We have the centres to take on the international community. In fact we have some very good prospects. Coetzee just hasn't selected them. We both know that Kriel, De Allende and Serfontein aren't our best. 

We have an incredible tight 5 and some class acts to make up our back row ... and no ... I'm not referring to the hasbeens of Louw and Vermeulen. They are both past their best. Kolisi is everything but a fantastic player. He's a quota and should not even make a squad of 50 . Simply useless.

We could easily put a powerful team together. It won't take much imagination to even use our bench as a weapon in stead of using it to hide our useless quotas on.

I hope Rassie isn't just another puppet. We need him to step up and make a difference.

Moz do you have a new fan mate ? Or is he just another recycled poster ? Bit cheeky after 12 posts if the former !Anyways if hes a new chap then hello to him I guess.

Beandork showing us exactly how the Dunning-Kruger effect works .

The Boks may well pinch a game off the ABs which would be a huge boost for their morale so I can live with that eh ?

Just make sure y'all beat the fracking northern thieves though I for one am tired of their overly large and exceedingly ugly swelled heads .

Swelled heads?

Of course, you don't know anything about swelled heads, right Hick?

Haaaaaaahahahahahaaa!!

Thank you, Mozart. What can I say ... I missed ya!

Koos Kombuis? Always thought that to be a silly stage name. He's an Afrikaans musician as far as I know. If I had to hazard a guess I would think BlueBok a possibility. He is a skilled musician himself and may be a fan of the man. Just a guess.

Yes, Rohan is an excellent prospect at 12. Best we have in my opinion. Hope he gets his shot with Rassie running the show.

I thought Venter was a big improvement at 12. He showed he had a brain and that defense at 12 isn't a myth after all. Not that I would select him there but he certainly is a big improvement on what Coetzee's come up with the last two seasons.

Don't forget about Jackson, Odendaal or Vorster as possibilities.

Hope 2018 is a good one for you.

Koos Kombuis

Third time luc ky ... ?

Sort of. It seems the YT link buton is still not working and I can't edit the first post .

Good to see you back.

Thanks, Draad.

Things seem to working fine on my side ... so far.