Combrinck prediction by KEO

The following from News24:-
"Ruan Combrinck will help the Lions win a first ever professional Super Rugby title and also play his way back into the Springboks' Rugby Championship squad.

Combrinck has X-factor. He has all the ingredients of a Test player with the ability to influence the outcome of big occasions with a defining act. He is a very good rugby player and with greater international exposure the adjectives may be even more flattering.

Combrinck’s one colossal kick, the 55 metre angle penalty to beat the Sharks in the quarter-final, is the reason the Lions are hosting a final in front of a sell-out crowd.

But for Combrinck’s monumental kick in the 78th minute in turning a 21-20 deficit into a 23-21 victory we’d be witnessing yet another all-Kiwi Super Rugby final.

It surprised me when Springbok coach Allister Coetzee spoke so glowingly of his incumbent back three on the basis of the three-nil Test series win against France. Coetzee, who last year picked Combrinck to make his Test debut, said it was more a case of the current Bok wingers playing themselves out of the team than one on the outside playing himself in.

Coetzee’s done a lot of good things in 2017. He has introduced the right coaching specialists, appointed the inspirational Warren Whiteley to captain the Boks and picked the core of the in-form Lions as his Springboks.

What Coetzee says, in theory, is very good if you have a winning record of 90 percent over the last five years. I’d then understand the principle of a player has to play himself out. Combrinck, but for injury, would in all likelihood have been the starting right wing against France.

Raymond Rhule started and with the greatest respect to Rhule he is not in the same class as Combrinck as a Test player. Rhule has pace and enthusiasm but his all-round game can’t be compared to Combrinck’s.

Rhule is also the worst defender in Super Rugby and if you have Combrinck back to his best I don’t see why you would have to go through the exercise of seeing Rhule fail against better Test opposition than France before selecting Combrinck.

For now all Combrinck can go is play himself into contention - and that is what he will do against a Crusaders team decidedly more potent than the feeble French national side that pitched up in South Africa fatigued, finished and disinterested after a domestic season in which many played in excess of 40 games.

Combrinck, in the last five weeks and lock Franco Mostert (all season) have been brilliant for the Lions. The duo always produce a moment that is decisive in the flow, momentum or outcome of a game.

Combrinck creates scoring opportunities and Mostert is the best poacher of opposition lineout ball in the competition. He also has the most tireless work ethic and his energy in contact is infectious.

There are so many other good players in the Lions team. Malcolm Marx is an emerging international presence, the front row is powerful and Jaco Kriel and Ross Cronje continue to excel as a matter of course.

The Crusaders, a champion team for so long, won’t beat the quality of these Lions, the travel factor, fatigue from altitude and the atmosphere of a biased and patriotic capacity Ellis Park crowd.

For the Crusaders to win the Lions would have to implode mentally because the occasion would prove too big.

I don’t see that happening. There’s too much confidence and there’s also too much awareness that a failure to play their natural game would lead to a performance that should have seen them knocked out of the competition in the quarter-finals against the Sharks.

The Lions will look to attack and score tries, which is why they have such a good record against the Kiwi teams in the last two seasons. The Lions have scored 40 or more points against Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes in their last three play-off matches at Ellis Park and last year beat the Blues 43-5 at Ellis Park.

The Lions are good enough to score 40-plus points against the Crusaders, despite the impressive defensive record of the Crusaders in 2017.

The Crusaders of 2017 are the best Crusaders team for some time but still not good enough to come to Ellis Park and score 45 points to beat the Lions.

I’ve got the Lions to win, not because of referee bias or because any lack of quality among the Crusaders. I’ve got them to win because, at home, over the past two seasons, the Lions have been the best team in the competition.

I’ve also got Combrinck to force a rethink of Coetzee’s national selection policy and actually play himself into the Rugby Championship run-on team for the August 19 opener against Argentina in Port Elizabeth."
So here we have a player whom was demonized by one of our locals.   He is too slow to be a wing and so on and so on.   Keo must be careful - he will be criticized for writing the above. 

Combrinck strength and tactical nouse will always mean he is a threat at test level. His monster boot is just a bonus. I'd really have no problem with the lions outside backs being the springbok outside backs.

 Prior to last years win the Lions lost 7 on the trot against the Crusaders,4 of them at home.
Let's hope they can repeat it and  etch their name alongside some of the great past winners.

Here's Genia's try in 2011 against the Crusaders,what a game.

1:58Will Genia Try Vs Crusaders GF 2011YouTube - Jul 11, 20111:58

Welcome Moonrover.

 Thanks Mozart, I see  members  on here like to have a dig at one another,plenty of interesting posts.

 Have a dig at each other? more like open warefare between some of them  

 Yes welcome Moonrover the board is seldom dull and nothing should be taken too seriously but it is!
Combrinck is a must but our teams are not picked always on merit but on race so who knows. Ou Keo is a great proponent of quotas seems to forgetting that principle of his. This could upset poor rooitwit if quotas ar e not maintained!!!

 Welcome Moonrover.....happy roving!

Welcome Moon.
Combrink is a star, I just hope he finds his way back into the Bok starting line-up nice and quick.

 
Coetzee was looking for an excuse to replace the whitey ... and so he took full advantage of Combrincks injury.

It had nothing to do with playing himself out of contention. He promised his masters a line up of as many quotas as he could get away with. Talent wasn't a pre-requisite. Any fool would do. Any black skin would suffice.

 Have a dig at each other? more like open warefare between some of them-Crusaderfan
Speaking of open warfare this Dunkirk movie really takes one to the battlefront,the sound effects and Imax cameras put you right there.If you want to enjoy it even more , try find an Imax cinema too.

 Combrinck is the only world-class outside back in SA,.... it would be fool not to include him in the boks' starting XV,.... even more to play Rhule instead of him,.... Rhule is one of the worst defenders in SR,... he's not up to test level

and yeah, the Lions have some quality players in Marx, Mostert, Kriel, Cronje and Combrink,.... but the saders have even more quality players in their 12 AB,... their forward pack is almost all AB,... the only non-AB is Taufua who has been the inform blindside of the SR competition for some years now,... they have 2 AB on the bench,...

with this forward pack they have the best set pieces,.... they've been destroying opposite scrums through the whole season,... they even destroyed the B&I Lions scrum,...
Mostert is a very good lineout jumper,... but he's the only one in the team,... fat Ferreira can barely jump, Kriel and Smith are 1.80,... cannot understand why the canes were so stubborn throwing the lineouts to Mostert's opposite each time they were in the Lions' 22,... obviously, losing them
saders won't do the same mistake,... they have the best lineout of the comp.,... Whitelock and Read are as good as Mostert,... and their experience calling the lineouts is second to none,... Barret is a very good jumper also,...

besides having an inferior forward pack, the Lions have some real weaknesses in the backline,... namely, Jantjes and Mapoe,... Jantjes cracks under pressure,... could not happen but there are many posibilities of it against the saders' rushing defense
Mapoe disorganizes the whole defensive line taking the wrong options,.... as he did against the canes a few times (e.g. Goosen's try),... and in front he's going to have the best midfield of the comp. in Crotty-Goodhue

lions showed character winning both games coming back from behind in the scoreboard but were also lucky,... and have some important ref calls going their way,..... Lewies' yellow card that supposed 2 tries for the lions was a joke,.... the ref very clearly warned only the nº1 for repeated infringments in the scrum, not the whole team,... and, then, yellow carded the Sharks' lock for repeated infringments,...
or like the 2 penalties called against the canes that ended up in the first 2 tries for the lions,...

if there's no ref's interference, saders should win

Oh, and no team has been able to score 40 points against the saders this season,... the maximum has been 31 points and canes needed 17 penalties going their way to get them,... doubt very much that the lions can "score 40-plus points" as the writer says,... but anything can happen in a final

 @Basque
So let's see if I got this right...
The Lions were lucky to win their last two games. Especially against the Hurricanes who only lost because they don't know as much about rugby as you do.Combrink is the only world class outside back in SA...despite Skosan outscoring most of the Kiwi outside backs for two years now. The Lions only have five quality players. Obviously JSVR, Voster, Jantjies(who outplayed your golden boy last week), Whitely, Faf De Klerk...are all not quality either. Their SR stats this season and last just prove what average players they truly are.Jantjies is sooo bad.The Lions have an inferior forward pack.The Lions have a weak back line.

Really, the Lions shouldn't even be in the fianal. Ultimately they don't deserve to be on the same park as God's gift to rugby...The mighty and beautiful Crusaders.
As for the Saders...
They are amazing up front. The have have the best pack in rugby history.They have the best two locks to have ever played the game. Everybody can jump like Jordan and outscrum a tank.
Does that about sum it up?
If I were to make a prediction based on your assessment of the two teams then the Saders should win by at least thirty points tomorrow. I mean, they should dominate each and every facet of the game comfortably.
And people say Kiwi fans are arrogant. Pssshhh!

@plank,

Nope, you've got all wrong,... seems you are unable to even understand what you read

and don't put words into my mouth,... it's the lowest

"The Lions only have five quality players"
never said so

"Obviously JSVR, Voster, Jantjies(who outplayed your golden boy last week), Whitely, Faf De Klerk...are all not quality either."
RJvR is on the bench,... Whiteley is not playing,... Faf passing is really awful,... passing is the main task of a scrummie so very hardly can he be a quality scrummie,... Jantjes never outplayed Barret,... and I didn't say a word about Vorster
by the way, you should learn to spell the names of the players of your favourite team,.... "JSVR"? and why not HZYX? "Voster" and "Whitely"?

"Jantjies is sooo bad"
never said so,.. I said he cracks under pressure,... are you going to deny it? really?

"The Lions have a weak back line"
never said so

"Really, the Lions shouldn't even be in the fianal."
never said so

"Ultimately they don't deserve to be on the same park as God's gift to rugby...The mighty and beautiful Crusaders."
plain stupid

"As for the Saders...They are amazing up front. The have have the best pack in rugby history."
never said so

"They have the best two locks to have ever played the game. Everybody can jump like Jordan and outscrum a tank."
never said so,... I just said that "Whitelock and Read are as good as Mostert",... and you come with such an stupidity? what an utter idiot you are, man,.. and for your knowledge, Read is a nº8 not a lock


did you have to think a lot to write so many stupidities in a same post? or it's just a natural gift?
given your difficulties to understand anything I'm going to repeat it, just to be clear,... don't put words into my mouth,... it's the lowest

and if you say that I'm arrogant for having written the above post, say exactly where I'm arrogant,... and I'm asking for concrete sentences, not another of your stupidities

 ABF
There are a few facts listed by you where I agree with the Bopokmakers and you to the effect that the Crusaders are the favourites to win the Finals.  
Some of those are the issues of -
*    Mapoe - aquota selection based on race and not performance - he was dreadful in the last few games and is not a player to be trusted in a game like the one in the finals (I would have moved Vorster to outside center and played Van Rensburg at 12):
*    in the semi last year - where the Crusaders were badly beaten Boshoff was at flyhalf and not Jantjies - so they have reason to target Jantjies and put him under pressure; and 
*    the forward pack of the Crusaders are very, very good and with strong players will play a significant role in the game.
However, the loss of the Crusaders cannot be ascribed only to the many penalties against them.    Penalties awarded are not coming from the air and the awarding of the penalties were justified.   There is a reason for those penalties and for the losses last year against the Lions - since the Lions and Crusaders teams had minimal changes since last year.     
The main reason for the problems of the Crusaders in the games under discussion is the fact that the Crusaders team has a major problem and that relates to pace.  For instance - there wings (other than Bridge) are no faster than loosies and a player like Kwagga Smith is pacier than both of them.   The same applies to their center combination.   The answer is that the Crusaders believe in physicality ahead of pace.  
In most games the above would be eliminated by the stronger combinations in other departments of the game - on the day it may not happen today.   As a South African I hope that is the case today.   And I hope that Jantjies is not succumbing to pressure as happened in the past - if he does better (like he did against the Hurricanes) it may be a l long  and hard day at the office.
Personally I think the Lions may pull this off by a small margin.     

 Basque. You like to dish out insults when someone disagrees with you. In some of your posts, you come across as a real Zakila.

 @Basque
Your avatar...Does it mean that you believe black is a powerful color? Like more powerful than the other colors? How does a color express power?
Mind clarifying?

 I knew it,...

"and if you say that I'm arrogant for having written the above post, say exactly where I'm arrogant,... and I'm asking for concrete sentences, not another of your stupidities"

 @Dbdraad,

firstly, I didn't insult because anybody disagrees with me, I did insult because soomeone put words into my mouth, which is quite different

"dish out insults"? for saying that he's an "utter idiot" who writes "stupidities"?
it's so hypocritical to come with that BS in this site where everybody insults everybody,... just go and check the following thread:

5. Boshoff granted early release by Connacht

Oh, wait,.... you've already been there, read the posts and even write some posts,... and didn't say a word about insults like "you're a low-class dull-witted misery" or many many others

 for not talking about one of your last posts that I didn't read till now, where you say to me that "you are a bit less of a d!ck",... really deceitful

2. Sonny Bill Williams back for Bledisloe Cup opener after appeal successful

Nah, I maintain that you said EXACTLY what I said you did...word for word. 
Plus I agree, the Lions are awful. Such a sad excuse for a team and so very lucky. 

 you can mantain that pigs fly,... but it's not going to change the reality,... not a bit

look, I answered an article where the writer sings the praises of the lions and predict a lions' win (and uses much more arrogant sentences, like "Lions are good enough to score 40-plus points against the Crusaders") ,.... I answered singing the praises of my team and saying that the outcome can go the other way also,.... you don't like it? it irks you that I sing the praises of my team?
it's your f*cking problem,... but don't come with your lies putting words into my mouth that I never said

For a guy who I taught the word....'plank'....you sure use it often Basque. I guess I put that word in your mouth, my bad.

Is that vein throbbing Basquie?

 not at all,... just waiting for you to point in which sentences I was arrogant

@mozart,
do you really think that the earth orbits around you? sorry to inform you that you are totally mistaken,...

 Basq, dis you miss the family in the other thread?