Eddie 61% Vs Nienabar 61%

Interesting, Eddie got fired and had to endure two reviews this year before the RFU had enough of his antics. He leaves as the most successful England coach with 73% win ratio, but after drop down to 61% for this season it was simply not good enough. But to have 73% after 7 years in charge is insane. 

Then, I don't think Nienabar or Rassie ever came close to 73%, they hover around 55%. Rassie making a fool out of himself and yet there is no internal review. Both Nienaber and Rassie get a pat on the back. They have a lekker Christmas by the the sea while the rest of the coaches are sweating bullets. 

England have stood up and just simply said that building towards a World Cup is simply not good enough. 

I wonder had Eddie won the World Cup and Rassie lost if we would be seeing something different now. 

That said, Clive Woodward got the yellow cup, but was gone after a season when his results started to drop

King of corn watch this space, Rassie is back and I expect the percentages will improve,

I hope we have a perfect 2023 and retain the World Cup, but I'm more concerned with winning every game. 

As for King of Corn Beeno, I'm more King of Mielie Pap, it is my favourite and for some reason this brand of Mieliepap was what I use to eat as a kid or my handle would have been Iwisa or Ace

I wonder had Eddie won the World Cup and Rassie lost if we would be seeing something different now.

The answer is given in the previous lines.

The English union could afford the decision and the policy. SA rugby can not.

Beside, the talent pool in England has nothing to do with SA rugby's pool.

The SA rugby former head coach overperformed when winning the WC. He found ways to get a victory from players whose skillsets are too limited to play rugby. His ways were not sustainable in the mid term yet it worked.

The former English head coach was on a different slope: he got EN to perform as expected for some time then a decline.

Added to that, among other things; SA rugby turn a blind eye to certain types of man management etc The RFU can not. The former head coach made a lot of enemies and was shielded by results. Enemies at all levels. Counter powers are still able to express in Europe for how long that is another story.

KC 

Winning every test while experimenting to find the right players for the WCD is unrealistic to expect.    In 2018 Erasmus did the same - he was experimenting with potential players to go through to the WC and the shouting against him reach unmatched heights - yet in the end the Springboks won the WC in 2019.    What happened this year in tests  is to my mind NOT a problem  and is not really all that bad - since at least two test results were influenced by poor refereeing and could have gone the other way.   

I am at this stage more optimistic about the Springboks chances in the 2023 than I was at the end of 2018 about their chances in the 2019 WC.

What rubbish. Is not winning the RC when we played the ABs twice at home, just another experiment? Is losing to France and Ireland just because  we were testing new players? What players? Were we testing Libbok or Roos in those games?

This is the same old tired excuse….we lost but don’t worry we are preparing for the WC. As if the WC is the only rugby that counts. 

Regardless of what the rankings say the ABs are still the leading rugby team, because they have a performance culture. Losing is not good enough. They won the RC but were still dissatisfied.

Harrassmiss has made no progress since the WC, if anything we have gone backwards in spite of having some of the best new talent in the game. And then to make matters worse he has made us look like the poor losers, with his attacks on officiating.

If Eddie had to go, certainly we deserve answers on the coaching mess in Bok rugby. Either Harrassmiss takes up the reigns completely or he leaves Nienaber or a successor to do the job.

I have to agree with Mozart on how players were introduced. The fact that they weren't using the bench to bring players through as they did in the end of year tour. 

Trad, your post makes a lot of sense. Eddie made a lot of enemies behind the scenes and have been extremely brutal to everyone around him. As for Rassie, I think he is better with back room staff and players but he doesn't really get the results. 

Their play book this year have been really poor. I'm glad to see that we are improving a bit this year and we finally have something that resemble an attack. 

If you want to experiment or bring in new players then why not schedule games against tier 2 nations. One could argue that tier 2 nations were Wales but they have enough quality to beat a tier 2 team. So why did we not see any games against South Pacific teams or arrange a game against Georgia. NZ and Australia played against more tier 2 teams. 

Ireland were also very good in that they send out a touring team to SA to play against some of our provinces. It was the best of SA, but it provided the emerging Irish players a taste of the Irish setup. 

Australia did the same in sending an A team to Japan, playing against Japan 1st team and did really well. 

So what happened to our A team, got scraped together with some really questionable selections. Played  and lost to Munster and Bristol B teams and no sight of Rassie or Niena but only Stick that has no right to be in the bok setup. 

Coming back to the Irish Emerging team, the fringe players were taken out of the Irish teams which meant Leinster, Munster etc were missing their young star players. 

I put this blame on Rassie for cheapening the bok jersey and using test matches to experiment. This should never ever happen. 

Our attack this year is the worst I have seen. It's structureless and laboured. It struggled against every major challenge. Given that our RC foes were at an all time low, what does that tell you? Frantic running at open space against poor defences is not an improvement. We are building a micro-backline of limited utility, wasting our best talent. If anything was learnt this year it's that Erasmus has no plan but to depower the referees. Erasmus has been given an unusually cushy ride for a Bok coach of such poor stock. 

Deus, I agree that I haven't seen such poor attack in ages. Maybe under Coetzee, but I have no idea what they are trying to do. The bok attack fell apart when Am left, but we had some good play from Libbok even though that final pass could have gone either way in the Italy game it was still miles better. 

We has seen some more width on the ball, but I'm also curios why Arendse. Looks like they are experimenting with 2 hot steppers and I have noticed that both Arendse and Kolbe normally join the line out and use their quick feet to gain meters. 

But I still haven't seen any proper set play

Am looked poor, but given the chaos around him, I'm not sure what he could have done that was constructive. This reminds me a little bit of the frantic recycling of the last year of Mallett's tenure, trying to emulate the Brumbies. They had one game against New Zealand that year where it worked, but one couldn't exactly say it was a success. The England test was hardly a test, Australia shredded our defence (which stands at roughly 81% tackle completion for the season) and lost the other which as a shambles all around. We looked toothless against Italy until Kwagga broke the game open and they simply rolled over. So few positives. It seems we've reached a point where our fans are trying to make excuses rather than look for improvement. I recall how Meyer, who lost 2 games in 22 tests, was criticised to no end. The difference in attitude that I'm seeing is astounding. Is Erasmus the Rasputin of rugby union? Seems so. 

Harrassmus is a cult figure….the image that is stuck in my mind is Harrassmus preaching to the players at the half vs Ireland, incredibly animated and Nienaber standing silent to the side. 

Just like how Vermeulen was talking to the boys under the stick and Kolisi standing to the side. Probably why they are so desperate to keep an out of form Vermeulen in the team

I was thinking the same thing. Erasmus cannot handle strong personalities. Think of how Jake handled the big personalities in his Bok teams (littered with strong, iconic leaders), and at the Brumbies. Erasmus likes passive yes men who will do what they are told. 

Do you okes remember the Super Rugby final between the bulls and stormers. Matfield had a poor season and Andries Bekker was playing out of his skin for a few seasons and right on Matfields heals. However, on that day, Matfield completely outplayed Bekker. That was an intense final and had all the credentials for a test match. 

Very interesting to see which players stand up under pressure and which fade 

I also remember Victor schooling Dud Toit in the lineout when the latter was supposedly going to replace him and then cheekily patting Dud on the head.

Matfield schooled du Toit all season in 2015. I seem to recall Mark Andrews, forever the bitter one, calling for us to build our entire campaign around Steph. As it was, Steph was played at 7 against Japan, and he was run ragged all day long, and didn't feature again. Sadly, attention turned to the pillar of stone Lood, and the rest was history.