Changing Morne.....sure....but for whom?

Morne was never a crucial player for the Boks beyond his ability to kick the ball over under extreme pressure. In that sense he followed Braam and Jannie de Beer. Our defensive game plans, seem to require a stellar goal kicker who can deliver under pressure.

The trade off has been in general play.....none of these guys are instinctive runners.

But now we find Grant and Jantjies in better form with the boot....and Morne's confidence dipping as he misses kicks and plays outside the much rougher service of Hougaard. Replace him is the cry....Lambie, Grant, Jantjies, Goosen....anybody. But hold your horses, lets look at the choices.

Lambie would be my choice. But I still think he is a better fullback. And there is the memory of his goal kicking in his early Bok days. Do guys really get over that kicking hurdle? Monty did, so maybe. But is an inherently small and not very explosive chap going to kick start our running game? I doubt it, but he will be an incremental improvement and you can't doubt his guts.

How about Grant. Again, Peter is more in the mould of the kicking flyhalf. He plays a bit flatter for sure....but his defence has never been great. He was badly exposed when he played at 12. And then there is the pop gun boot issue...perhaps exaggerated but still a factor. I can't see Grant running into the teeth of an AB defence or stopping Kieran Reid on a bust through 10 channel.

Jantjies is possibly the best boot in the land right now....and we have always picked the best boot. But he can't control a game....takes the wrong options. His channel is a highway and he has failed to commit under high balls. He offsets that with candy.....chip kicks, reverse passes, Qualude style stepping. He is a created player.....something borrowed, nothing new. Not a serious option.

And finally there is Goosen......the deliverer of Bok rugby......60 m kicks, blinding pace, an ability to make angled goal kicks to win games. It doesn't take a genius to see the potential. But he is to all intents and purposes gone for the season. This seems to happen with so many of our  prodigies.....Skinstad, Joubert, de Villiers and Oosthuizen. I hope we don't rush this boy back.

So what do we do?

groom the younger players now and let them learn from the veteran players. morne's gameplay is so bad at the moment that we cant afford him at the top level. goosen and the like is the future but we need to blood hom correctly. he is injured now so we need to allow him to come back but jantjies's temprament needs a lot of work. he has a decent speed and width on his passes and makes nice decisions on attack. we will see but we do have options so its just a matter of doing the right thing at the right time

Right now it would have to be Lambie no doubt. On defence, nothing gets past him, his is the best of any SA player under the high ball. On attack, he is explosive enough, even with his smaller stature, to break the line. Ask Schalk Burger ;-) We must all still remember that hand off and that was not a one hit wonder. He breaks the line very often. He just has such an old head on young shoulders and thats what makes a class player. I just hope Ludik gets a call up for higher honours. He is such a great player and offers so much on attack and even more on defence. Another "smaller" player with huge heart like Lambie and Daniel.

Must be Grant and Lambie. Grant goal kicking is above 95%.

Steyn is not the answer

At the moment it is Lambie although one wonder how Grant would go. His boot is not to be sneezed at. kicking at over 90 % which is amazing.  Not all you would want of a flyhalf I admit. Lambie on balance could offer more provided his goal kicking is consistently good.

So the logical question that follows- if its Lambie who goes to fullback. I am going for Taute.

taute is world class i must admit

Taute rocks!

Give him fair opportunity... he will shine!

I reckon he has the potential to be our best attacking 15 since re-admission!

He has that great ability to just know when to youn the line, and his pace is awesome too!

On defense, rock solid!

I would have any current SA flyhalf playing S15 rugby ahead of Morne for the Boks and I am dead serious.

Grant, Jantjies, Lambie, Ebersohn, Fouche and Smit are all better options. The certainty to take over from Morne is Goosen when he returns from injury.

It would not take much to improve on useless Morne, hell Jantjies and co would only need to take the field.

Right now the conservative option would be Grant, the imaginative one would be Jantjies. With Lambie at 10, we would have no real option at 15

 I think that if HM does get rid of Morne he will replace him with Lambie and keep his original Fullback, Zane.

given meyers history with steyn, are we really sure that morne is even gone from the Springboks equation???
theres a term form is temporary but calss is permanent and mornes boot is an alpha level elite boot, so his kicking ability which has been the backbone of Springbok rugby still holds a lot of water in meyers eyes, despite its form.

ive seen nothing from meyer to indicate that he wants the Boks to expand their rugby game and play with more width, so he will use the first two puma/Bok test matches to either give grant or lambie a chance to gel at 10, or use it to build mornes confidence. IMO meyer will opt for the latter.

my Bok backline though,,,,

9 hougaard, 10 lambie, 11 habana, 12 JDV, 13 j de jong, 14 jp pieterson, 15 f steyn
20 pienaar, 21 e janties, 22 j pieterson.
 

sas - de Jongh at 13...............why? The guy has done stuff all all S15 in the top S15 side. He is too small for international rugby. Name a current 87kg outside centre playing test rugby?

JJ Engelbrecht is a far superior 13 in every respect.......add Taute when he returns from injury.

Why on earth would you waste Frans Steyn at 15 when he has been so good at 12 this year - madness

@saffex,

francois has been good at 12, but JDV has been good all year and during the Bok/eng series, JDV had the better game out of the two in the midfield. francois was good in defense, but subpar with his attackm JDV on the other hand was good all round.
the reason i would have him at 15 is because u need lambie at 10. morne has a prestigious boot, but if his kicking game is not working, hes about as useful as a heart attack.
janties is too green and needs to be drip fed in to the test scene.

i would prefer taute at 13 too, IMO hes SA form 13, but hes injured for what i understand is a few months???
and im a big fan of englbrecht too, but like janties hes way too green and another season of spXV wouldnt hurt him. having him play for the Boks too early and then failing would really hurt him and could possibly have long term repercussions, so slow and steady goes the englebrecht ship and he will reach his target in the end.
de jong on the other hand is class and works well with JDV. stormers defense first is what has hampered de jongs attacking prowess, but surley even u cant deny how good his attacking abitlity really is, would have loved to have seen him with the cheetahs where his attacking would have flourished.
but de jongs season with the stormers hasnt been a complete waste with his attacking talent, cos his defense has gone up a notch, thanks to the rigours demands of the stormers defence.

Disagree, Frans was the better centre by some distance. Jean had one good test and for the rest he did very little. Frans was the one guy that broke the advantage line and drew the Poms in.

Frans has to stay at 12, no questions asked. de Jongh is no test 13, so JJ is the obvious choice until Taute is back to challenge him. de Jongh needs space, you dont get that at test level.....you need size to impose yourself at 13 - commit to the tackle and offload while driving forward - wee de Jongh cannot do this. Same as defence, sure he can execute low openfield tackles, but when in traffic you need to engulf players and drive them backwards, wee de Jongh cant do this - forget about this pretender as a Bok 13 - I really struggle to see what people see in this guy. Nice little player not physical enough to take the step up, Meyer knows it, I know it

Lambie has to stay at 15, with Grant or Jantjies at 10 until Goosen returns. I'd go with Jantjies for sure.

Hougaard has no peers in SA at 9, he walks it.

 Anyone- bring back Naas Botha, Percy. The under20 Boks flyhalf. 

Saffex

Still living in a dream world about Jantjies?   I almost hope Meyer is daft enough to give this guy a chance at 10 - just to prove how really hopeless he is.   Jantjies has one attribute - and that is goalkicking.   But even in that Grant is better - and so is Goosen.   Jantjies flat and inside passes normally leads to nothing - and his defence is a joke in bad taste.   The most vivid image I have of Jantjies is where he sat on his backside - after missing yet another tackle.  

You are probably nearer the mark with Grant at 10 - whilst we await the return of Goosen - but the whole applecart can be upset by Hougaard - not a natural scrummie.   I definitely prefer Pienaar in that position and hope the juniors will produce a natural scrummie in future.   By the way Hougaard on attack is good - but under pressure he is a bad sight to see.  

@saffex,

i like what u think and expect from a 13, as i prefer fast powerful centers as well, but conrad smith dosent really fall into that category and IMO hes the best 13 in the world at the moment and hes hardly a ringing endorsement for size and power, but hes got balls and major smarts which lets him easily compete with some of the worlds finest 13 who are bigger and more powerful then him.
de jong has that ability too, hes both quicker and more elusive then smith, but smith trumps him with the rugby smarts. however de jong and use his blinding pace to crash the ball up, like using his speed to get him further over the advantage line, but it will also force the defnece to keep a closer eye on the midfield, cos like u said, de jong will carve up with some space.

i would prefer taute over englebrecht, even though both are greener then the Bok jersey, for while i was impressed with both taute and englbrecht, taute looked the more complete player and it would be better for both englbrecht and the Boks if he was to come of the bench and not start.

i dont see why meyer would go for grant over morne, they both really have similar games when u get right down to it, in that its a pro kicking mentality game, so i think meyer will stick with morne and trust he will come right by using the Bok/puma tests to bring him back up to speed.
but lambie for me is class wethere hes at 10 or 15, so playing him at 10 looks to be the better option, considering mornes form.
i would love to see what janties could do, if he was behind a forward pack who actually went forward. clevermike makes some good points about some of janties flaws, but thinking back to the currie cup last year, janties was really carving it up on attack and defence, so behind a Bok forward pack would do him and his confidence a world of good.
regardless, they are all biding time untill goosen is ready for the big stage and once he does, all ur flyhalves will be left in goosens wake.

Jordaan is the better choice....neither JJ nor Taute have any guile and handling. And JJ can't tackle. Taute is a blunderbuss....no finesse. Neither of those two have a prayer in test rugby.