Current debates . . .

I've had a hectic week and I've had very little time to read the board or take part in any of the current debates. Just briefly . . .

The JJ Saga: I don't think Jaque Fourie is half the player he was 2 years ago but he's still better than the non-tackler JJ Engelbrecht. For those who think JJ is being unfairy criticised for missing a single tackle on Beauden Barrett, please put up some photos of JJ actually going in low with his shoulder because I'm not basing what I say on that one tackle, I'm basing it on his weak and upright technique which has been exposed in every test he's played in. Still, imagine being the laughably stupid imbecile who slagged of Jaque Fourie in his prime for literally years on end and now suddenly starts rating him when he's become a bit of a carthorse! Talk about not having a clue!

The Willem Alberts "debate": The sheer volume of tripe about Willem Alberts coming from ou Maaik makes it appear that there is actually a debate on the merits of Willem Alberts but on closer inspection, ou Maaik is the only one with an issue and everyone else appears to recognise Alberts as a top class Springbok in the form of his life who is understandably one of the first names on Meyer's team sheet.

Who to play at flyhalf? Ï'm no big fan of Morne Steyn but it's hard to fault Heyneke Meyer for persisting with him when nobody else is putting up his hand. Pat Lambie has had several opportunities to stake a claim but he hasn't taken them . . . and his goalkicking is simply not good enough; Johan Goosen is permanently injured while anyone who think Elton Jantjies' perfomances this year even remotely warrant a Springbok call up either hasn't watched any rugby this year or hasn't got the first clue what he's talking about. To all the Morne Steyn bashers; apart from experimenting with Demitrui Catrakilis, what other options does Meyer have? Don't bleat about the player if you can't put up a viable alternative.

How good are the All Blacks? From what I can see there are three types of SA supporters on the board currently: a) Those that are still trying to denigrate the All Blacks performance after a magnificent year (like Smallcock for example); b) the typical snivelling crybabies trying to pretend it's all a big refereeing conspiracy (Baboon-ou and Moffie for example) and c) the rest of us who recognise quality when we see it and are able to admit that the All Blacks are simply better than anyone else at the moment and fully deserving of their #1 ranking.

Did I leave out any significant current debate?

Rooinek keeping it real!

Rooinek

I am fairly critical of Engelbrecht and think any flyhalf would be better than the robotic Steyn. 

However, there is one player I do not rate and that is Sloth Alberts - the most hyped-up player in SA.  I am no stooge - I do not believe in hype - especially if there is very little evidence of the hyped up version in games he played in.   If you analyse any game in which he played and follow him carefully - you will find out why.   I analysed a few games and looked carefully at his contribution and gave up on him. 

He and a few other players -will keep us below New Zealand in rating and that is enough for me to say - good luck to people who believe the hype - not for me thank you.    

Rooi: Your last point is brilliantly summarised but I am not so sure about your characterisation of some of our venerated posters  

Also, there is some debate that cuts across issues 1-3, i.e. is the re-building effort on the right track or is HM building a house of straw? I tend to be on the house of straw side of the argument. But only for fun

Then of course there was the insightful comment and subsequent debate about the Boks advantage on wet fields. All sorts of advice was offered about releasing worms and watering the ground to ensure it was soft enough for the Boks to finally beat the All Blacks. Beeno got lost in the argument because he was worried about how many worms would be needed.

So, you see the usual fun & games and all much-a-do-about-nothing as there are no more tests to provide more data. S15 seems like a long long way off.