Drop 'em all.

There are a few simple facts that we must acknowledge about our beloved Springboks.

They are not smart enough to adapt, they simply do not have the ability to learn during a match, the problem here is that they do not observe what their opponents are doing, whether it be at the breakdown, defence, the maul or tactical kicking.

When the opponent is not committing players to your setup to create a maul, you stop using it, when they outsmart you by sending a player around your “non maul” to seal the ball off, then you stop doing it.

The alternative is you go to the referee and query why the defender is allowed to seal the ball off and not roll away if it is not a maul as the normal tackle rules apply.

Either way, you need to adapt to it immediately.

When your opponent keeps hitting numbers to the breakdown, kicking at the ball, lying over it to slow it down, then you adapt and send more numbers in.

When your halfback is not protected and he is continually under pressure you adapt and protect him.

If your opponent keeps rushing up with their defence, alter your attack by chipping in behind them where the space is, alternatively stand just a little flatter, but change your attack, do not keep doing the same thing over and over as only fools do that.

When your line out is being nullified by a smarter team, kick your goals until you take the lead, stop chasing the scoreboard because you are either too arrogant to concede you are being outsmarted, or simply not able to read what is happening.

When your execution is failing on attack, re assess what you are doing, Bismarck conceding two penalties at the breakdown whilst South Africa as Ireland on the ropes is simply unacceptable.

Now for the controversy.

I blame this all on the experienced players who are supposed to be the leaders. These are the same players that failed to adapt in Wellington in 2011. They simply don’t have the grey matter to assess, process and adapt.

Lets face it, this Bok team is not going to win the Rugby World Cup, you may argue this is an over reaction, but the same issues in this game has plagued us against Wales, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Meyer is relying on experienced players as his leadership group and they are not showing the ability to adapt, I therefor say get rid of them all.

Apart from the fact that Matfield is not physical enough, de Villiers have not shown any of the form that made him great last year, there is criticism of form against all the older players.

Forget about winning the World Cup in 2015, it is not going to happen, accept it and move on by building a new team, put a group of youngsters together and build a team for 2019, but start now.

Agree or disagree, but these so called experienced players are not going to take us any further.

JW, the group of players brought in by White has not been able to adapt. You can go through Jake White's starting list and those same players have been the leadership group for the past 7 years.

Wardad, yes, it frustrated me, we had so many opportunities in the first half, scoring only 3 points was all due to poor decision making, we should have gone into halftime leading, Ireland must have been so relie ved to lead by halftime and it gave them all the necessary belief 

Puleeze, get a grip BB. We have just split with the two other top three teams in the world...and we should certainly have won at least one of the games we lost. We were totally competitive in every game.

This is a typical Bok loss against a weaker team....the Boks lost focus after their AB win, haven't played rugby for a month, and thought they were anointed. Having found they are not they will knuckle down and win the rest of their games.

If you want to spot the weak areas in our current team it's a slow inside centre playing 13, two inept scrummies and a loose trio comprised of Vermeulen , the invisible man and a nice trier who doesnt really have the goods. Drop Jean, Victor, Jannie, the Beast and Habana and we will really start losing.

Biltong you have a journalistic angle, only the wrong one.

 Mozart, smell the roses mate, de Villiers, Matfield, Jannie, Schalk, Fourie du Preez, Babbies Botha, Ruan Pienaar etc aren't going to win the World Cup.

That is called being realistic. Why, because the game has moved on from 2007.

They have not learnt how to adapt, if you can't see that then you are living in a bubble.

Sharkbok, it is the leadership and decision making that is not evident in these players with 100 caps.

They simply don't adapt, and have shown it on numerous occasions  

JW, I am so sick and tired of South Africa losing games they should win, yes I know some would say it is arrogant, but if you are number two in the world you should win these games.

I can give you a host of games where the Springboks have lost due to stupidity and failure to adapt. It is always stupid penalties, and the hilarious thing of it is the same penalties repeatedly by the same players.

How bloody dense have you got to be to do the same thing over and over?

We are continually losing games because we are being outsmarted, again, how bloody dense are we?

And nobody can deny the same players that won the series aganst the BI lions, are still making the same mistakes over and over.

There is no bloody way that these players after 80, 90, 100 + tests are going to provide you with anything more, they were old already in 2011 and couldn't win a world cup then, hell they couldn't beat  Wallaby team with 75% possession and territory, the same as this past weekend with 60% territory and possession they couldn't beat the Irish who were riddled with injury, it almost happened to a second string Scottish team last year when Strockosh and Hamilton outsmarted us.

It is pathetic and anyone who cannot see through this is as blind as a bat, or simply extremely dense.  

I can't help but compare the Ireland test to the quarterfinal in 2011 Boks vs Wallabies...

same stew, same flavor, when we had plenty of possession and territory but failed on the scoreboard. The Boks are far to predictable, opposition teams know they have to match Bok physicality and half the battle is won.

There's no sense in blaming the older players when even the younger players failed. If we're going to fingerpoint Matfield, Jannie and Burger then we should also do likewise with Hougaard, Etsebeth and Williie.

The problem I fear lies more in our inflexibility and our inability to function as a cohesive unit. Kicking out of hand remains poor and backline play is ineffective.

Spot n Denny, made the same comment myself on another thread. 

That is the frustrating thing about all of this.

Puleeze, get a grip BB. We have just split with the two other top three teams in the world...and we should certainly have won at least one of the games we lost. We were totally competitive in every game.

This is a typical Bok loss against a weaker team.

I appeal to all crybabies to try and man up.  

Beeno, you shoul stop worrying about the games we have won and worry more about the games we lost, there is a worrying trend that is quite obvious to see.

Denny: yes there are similarities between the 2011 RWC & this game but the blind will not see it.

How soon they forget.

I've seen the pattern one too many times now, opposing teams gear themselves to match the Boks physically..... just how predictable are we!? 

And some here thought to get rid of Morne would be the end of our backline woes when I said all along that backline play needs all of the backline players to have backline smarts.

Etzebeth a passenger.......now we know why anything Denise says pertaining to rugby is taken with a pinch of salt.

Etzebeth was one of the few positives on the park, along with Coetzee, Vermeulen and Serfontein......that's about where it ended.  

Nope, I disagree, the side needs to be tweaked not changed, tactics and strategy needs to be broadened.....but FFS sake get the right people on the bus first and  then charter a course.

You tend to forget....it took Eddie Jones a mere 6 weeks to set our backline on the right course. Who is the Bok backline coach? Ja...him..credentials?...claim to fame? 

Geeez!

OK, I reviewed the first half play by play to see who did what.

It takes a bit of time so I don't have the time or inclination to sit through te second half as well.

Here is what I observed.

Beast scrummed well, but very quiet, no carries, a few tackles, nothing special.

Bismarck concedes a penalty on a Irish ruck by going in from the side 5 meters out from the Irish line. Bismarck again conceding a penalty for entry into the side on an attacking ruck 30 meters from the Irish line, scrummed well, his throws were accurate, but otherwise nothing outstanding.

Jannie drops the second scrum and gets penalised. Jannie drives over the line out and turns the ball over to SA inside Irish 22, his best play of the half. He scrummed well after the penalty, otherwise nothing outstanding.

Etzebeth steals two line outs, one 5 meters from the Irish line, otherwise nothing outstanding.

Matfield is turned over in the tackle as he cannot secure the ball. Did well in the line outs, made some of the calls not to go for post. Nothing worth noting from him.

Coetzee the outstanding player of the half, carried the ball, was physical, and nothing to criticise apart from the backrow in general not hitting the rucks effectively.

Mohoje stole one Irish line out, had a few drives, but nothing outstanding, mostly invisible.

Vermeulen made one mistake in the half, he dropped an up and under but secured a couple as well, the lone ranger at the breakdown with little support, otherwise nothing noteworthy.

Hougaard had a mixed bag, he dropped a ball 2 meters from the line, definite scoring opportunity lost. Ireland kicked through and made 50 meters. His one up and under was too far and poorly chased. Hougaard dropped another ball at the back of the maul, but you might want to blame the forwards as that was the second maul where POite called use it and the forwards don’t let go. The previous maul POite supposedly called, we were edging toward the line and he called turnover.

He made a very poor pass out wide, saved by Serfontein. He also  received a ball flicked back by Coetzee as The Irish come around another maul they didn’t commit too, Hougaard under severe pressure and no forwards protected him.

Pollard made a few mistakes, he missed touch twice, He backtracked well for a Sexton chip kick, but Kearney showed him up badly and broke the first line of defence to go straight through. His up and unders didn’t work as they were too long and not well chased. He stuffed a few inside passes, too hard, and it seemed as if he panicked a bit on attack.

Habana literally did nothing in the first half.

Serfontein had a decent first half, he made some half breaks, got a good offload to Jean de Villiers, made his tackles and threw one poor pass. Conceded a penalty immediately after Pollard missed the tackle on Kearney.

De Villiers was quiet, threw one wild pass, took the offload from Serfontein, made poor decisions in regards to not going for goal, but was otherwise invisible.

Hendricks made one successful chase after a restart, but then missed the tackle, invisible.

Willie had a great first half, he missed touch once, but other than that he took his up and unders, he made a run, had a great territorial kick

There were two very good try scoring opportunities wasted.

One was by Poite, we had a maul, it went forward stopped for less than a second, went again, and the next time it stopped for maybe a second, we continued and Poite decided that was enough, had he not stopped it and called a turnover we would have scored as we were almost over the line already. I thought that was a very harsh call.

The second opportunity was when Hougaard took his eye of the ball whilst fighting for possession of the ball that was in the hands of Etzebeth, two meters out and we lost it, Ireland kicked it through and the pressure was relieved.

Then there were also the three decisions not to go for goal.

I'm afraid our problems go a lot deeper....why for example don't the AB's suffer the rollercoaster ride that we do?...Oz will pull together and set a course( a non rugby nation, nogal) but nope, we will dither.

I accept that they are more and better skilled than what we are but yet we have shown that we can compete and win. The Boks cannot and shouldn't rely on pure physicality to get them over the line.

Are rolling mauls for example the only way we can score tries?

"Drop them all" ?

Are we not asking now for a Destroyli manoeuvre? - we know what the outcome of those wholesale changes were!

I'd say get Kriel (6) in and play Coetzee as 7.

We need a good 9, but I have no idea whom to select. Vermaak?

Etzebeth made 2 steals in the lineout, so, dropping Matfield will not really weaken our lineout. Replace him with Lood? -  I think Lood is unfortunately also a bit of a softy in the mauls. Pity Flip-flop is not available.