Two members insisted that I do an analysis of De Jager and I accordingly looked at his stats and performances. De Jager played in 3 tests thius year and came from the ebnch in one test and played for 40 minutes. In other tests apperances he was on the field of play in two and played for kless than 10 minutes in each.
Again one has to look at the stats - and what actually happens onthe field of play:-
Wales - 40 minutes
de Jager
0/0
0
0/0/7
3
0
0
0
0
11/1
0/1
0
0/0
Scotland
de Jager
2/1
10
0/1/8
56
1
0
0
0
17/1
5/1
0
0/0
Argentina
de Jager
0/0
0
0/1/3
1
0
0
0
0
6/1
6/0
1
0/0
Argentina
de Jager
0/0
0
0/1/4
0
0
0
0
0
6/6
5/0
1
0/0
Ball Carries
Other than in the Scotland test De Jager's ball carries have been very limited in distance gained. However, there is one issue very clear and that is when he gets the ball - it takes two or more players to bring him down and he normally goes forwa rd in the process - making ball recovery easy for the Springboks. He is a strong ball carrier and there can be no dount about that one. The fact that he did not cause any possession losses with ball in hand confoirms that.
There are always talk about him being a poor and slow player. He played alongside Matfield in the Scotland tes t and looked better than Matfield in that test
Tackles made
De Jager in the four games under discussion made 40 tackles and missed 9 tackles for a missed tackle ratio of 18,37%. The latter percentage is too high - but it should be note that 6 of his nine missed tackles happened in the second Argentine test at Salta - when he did have a seriously below par defenseive record for that test.
The issue is also the quality of tackles. Most tackles made by De Jager are strong tackles driving back tackled players back and is often followed by turnovers in possession in favour of the Springboks.
Line-outs
De Jager in the four games listed took 16 line--outs on own throw and 2 on opoosition throw. There is no indication that he oes not take the line-outs called to him. He has the ability to take line-outs on oppossition throw-ins as well
Penalties given away
De Jager gave away 2 penalties in the four games listed - which is below thw percenta ge givn away by the other SA locks in 2014.
Other Games he came off the Bench
De Jager was used on three occassions coming off the bench. In the second Wales est - the one nearly lost by SA - he came off the bench for 3 minutes in place of Flippie - who had to leav e the field with a blood injury.
The second game he came off the bench was against the All Blacks he played for 10 minutes and was severely criticized for being forced over the touch line in the final minute of the game. However, in comments by the coaching staff of the Springboks on Boots&All they indicated that passing of the ball to him at that stage was a mistake by Hougaard - he was too near the touchline with no space to do anything in and at least three All Blacks in front of him in defense. Accirding to the coaching staff the ball should have gone inwards towards the other side of the field - De Jager was in a hopeless position to really make any substantial move in that case. Please note that I am using here the comments of a coaching staff member on Boots& All in the relevant regard.
The other test where De Jager came on was for ten minutes was in the Padua test on Saturday. Here again - he took the one line-out called to him and took one verys trong tackle - driving the Italian player back in the tackle.
Performance Criticism
There was no way that De Jager was ever favoured to play in full tests - the only play he wassupposed to be was from the bench. In thefirst test mentioned - he came off the ebnc h for 40 minutes and in those 40 minutes looked a better player than Botha was - who started the match and lso better than Matfield.
The Argentina tests start resulted from th factthat Matfield was not available for the tests due to a minor injury.
De Jager is severely criticized by some members on this site based on two grounds, namely -
* the bad missed tackle count in Salta;
* and the All Black game incident in Wellington.
In essense in the case of the second incident above - the matter was dealt with and explained by the Springbok coaching staff in public - so I would stay with their explanation..
The second case - the Salta missed tackles scenario - seems to be against what he showed in the other tests where he played for longer than 40 minutes. That he did not make the tackles is clear - but the circusmatnces of the missed tackles is not so clear and can only be dealt with by a review of the game itslef.
There is no way that the critical comments of the members of this site can be justified if all games are taken into account - so the members should be careful not to be criticizing the player on flimsy grounds based on prejudice.
SUMMARY
OTHER THAN THE INEXPLICABLE MISSED TACKLE RATIO IN THE SALTA TEST DE JAGER DID VERY WELL IN THE GAMES WHERE HE HAD EXTENDED GAME TIMES. THERE IS NO WAY THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE ADEQUATE SPEED AND LOTS OF GRUNT IN LOCK PLAY.
