English - SA Game player ratings

I am afraid that what I feared happened - decision-making and disastrous line-out throw-ins cost the Springboks the game.  With a lock missing from the opposition and a penalty five meters out  you take a scrum - it happened twice.

The other disaster was bringing on Esterhuizen - he is not test class. 

                                       Mine       News24     Planet Rugby       AO

Willemse               -      6,5/10         6,5/10             7/10                6/10

Nkosi                    -         7/10          7,5/10             7/10               5/10

Kriel                     -         6/10             6/10             6/10               4/10

 De Allende            -       7,5/10       7,5/10             8/10               6/10

Dyantyi                -          7/10          6,5/10            7/10              5,5/10

Pollard                  -       7,5/10            7/10            7/10              7,5/10

Van Zyl                 -       5,5/10           6/10            6/10                 6/10

Whiteley                -         6/10            6/10           6/10                 7/10

Vermeulen             -         7/10         6,5/10           6/10              5,5/10

Kolisi                     -        5,5/10          5/10           5/10              5,5/10

Du Toit                  -        7,5/10        6,5/10          8/10              7,5/10

Etzebeth                -          6/10            6/10          6/10                 6/10

Malherbe                -         6,5/10         6/10          6/10                7/10

Marx                      -         4,5/10         4/10           4/10                4/10

Kitshoff                  -         6,5/10      6,5/10          7/10                7/10

We were our own worst enemy - too many kicks by Van Zyl and putrid decision-making.

IMO DdA was our best player today.

@Draad, agreed, he dominated the advantage line at will. Unfortunately none of our forwards did the same.

I am very disappointed with the performance. So many reasons, but it is concerning that without Willie Leroux it appears the game plan on attack is very limited. Just like in the Meyer era

Make that Faf and Willie - both were missed.

Sorry - but Whiteley did not fulfil the 8 role - Vermeulen did.  H is tackle count was good though - so I will up him to 6/10

Duh Allende had his best 60 minutes today since 2015 but the ball still dies with him. 

Who was calling the lineout today and what was with Van Fail kicking the leather off the ball at every opportunity. Halloween is over buddy, put your Ruan Piennar costume away.

Nkosi was great! Hopefully his replacement was just a Rassie brainfart and not injury induced. That tackle on May, haha! He won't be thanking Farrel for that one. Esterhuizen also put in a corker against Farrel although  Farrel had the last laugh (Nod to Angus Gardner).

Rooinek

The objective was driving mauls.  In such cases the ball has to go to the middle of the line-out or deeper.   If not the chances are that the drive will go out over the sideline.

Fact is that the problem is not one of the caller - it is the inaccuracy of the scrummie.  

Nothing wrong with Esterhuizen's performance?   Sorry I have to differ.   He made two tackles and missed 2 - besides losing ball possession twice.   He carried the ball 5 times gaining a total of 9 meters.   Very, very poor - best rating possible will be 3,5/10 for him.   

Utter bollocks!! 

The reason teams throw to 2nd or tail jumpers is to set and hold before the drive. This also allows for the spin back to the blind side.

Driving maul tries happen all the time from first jumper, the set up just has to be that much quicker and more accurate. Boks just weren't  confident in their own setup.

What were Kolisis stats. Was he even playing? Only time I remember him was knocking on in a maul.

Xavi

The ball did not necessarily die with De Allende - he made sure the ball was presented so that a quick follow-up is possible,   The Nkosi try stemmed from such a move.  I am afraid the problem was with supporting play - there never was a player to receive the ball or for an off-load.

I am not happy with the lack of leadership in the team and vey poor decision-making.   Take for instance the penalty stemming from the  incident where the English lock was yellow-carded.     For heavens sake - it was a LOCK that was carded.   The English scrum was already under pressure with the lock on the field.  Even a village idiot would know a SCRUM was to be called for.   It happened TWICE.   Both time the decision was to go for a line -out - both times the corner kick was taken and both times Marx decided to make sure the English got the ball.

For the first time in years the Springbok driving maul worked - not to the level it should - but it did work when Marx did not foul up the throw-ins.  With Mostert it never worked.   So he is not needed.        

Xavi 

The front receiver driving mauls can work - but the chances is less than 40% that it will work - it is too easy for opposing mauls to drive them over the sideline.   That is why teams rarely try one when the throws goes to the front of the line-out.  Sorry to differ from you on that one.

I am worried about that one too - it leaves overlaps open on the outside.   

The News 24 ratings added to mine.   

Really pissed of your boys let that pommy team win ,and why wasnt Farrell penalised for something a PI player would have been red carded for ??? 

Malcom Marx player of the year ? Not until he learns to trow the ball to his own team .

78% possession in the first half and sweet fuck all to show for it speaks volumes about missed opportunities.

Worst thing is English h eads are swelling to titanic beanbrain dimensions ,they will have to have specially widened turnstiles at Twattenham to let all the Hooray Henrys and Henriettas in.

Mozart 

It is always unwise to comment if you have not seen the match.   It did not fail because of the centers or for that matter the backline as a whole.   

The actual failure was with decision-making and with the fact that Marx could not find the jumpers to save his life,   He missed them time and again with overthrows in line-outs - it happened three times when there were 5 meters line outs on own throws.

Anyway - the weak situation other than the Marx problem was in fact the loosies - they did not function properly as a combination.

Another problem was that Etzebeth did not really produce the goods either - he was injured (ankle)  and left the field just after halftime and is unlikely to play again this year.                  

Rassie picked van Zyl because he wanted box kicks.

Papier is a much better 9. 

After twenty minutes it was clear that ball in hand was paying the most dividends and he should have brought Papier on. The differences was night and day.

Marx and PSDT have issues. Again, calling the third one when two prior had failed was brainless. Rather bank.

Look, I'm not gonna slate Eben but to some degree I agree with Rooi. Where are his mammoth performances? We've seen only this entire year.

PSDT was the best forward on the day. Again! He has his detractors here it's undeniable what an impact he makes. Warrior!

Willemse doesn't look even close to ready. If Willie isn't available then Andries Coetzee should start. He's not full of flair but he is extremely solid and makes smart decisions. Willemse made one shocking decision yesterday and then executed it poorly as well. 

Jessie Kriel remains a liability. 

DDA had his best game in years but was still meh.

Pollard was decent but Jantjies looked better when he came on. At least as far as releasing the back line goes.

JSVR and Serfontein should be in this team. 

The Dups brothers would have broken some tackles and offloaded to support. 

If we want to replace Whitley than DDP is the man. 

plum

Etzebetth did near to squat in the game yesterday and is not likely to play again this year because of injury.  We are stuck with a useless loosie in Kolisi - he was piss poor.

I would make the following changes to the forwards in view of the above:-

*    Would bring in Snyman to replace Etzebeth

*    Bring in De Jager as the other lock and put Schickerling on the bench. 

*    Move Du Toit to 7 and Vermeulen to 8.

I would bring Serfontein in as back-up center - Esterhuizen is too poor to be considered.

There was no misunderstanding about the line-out calls - the problem was Marx was totally inaccurate and buggered up throw-in after throw-in.    He used to have that problem and then got better - but it seems he is back to his original problem.   Should practice for hours per day.   His throw-ins have a curve - too high for any jumpers and landing just behind the last forward in the line-out.   He should stop that nonsense.    

Ou maaaaikie your take on Eben is the very hights of folly. One of the most stupid takes ever. You really have made a jackass of yourself! Eben was outstanding. Man how daft can you get!!!!!!!!!

Beeno

Xavi asked for the stats on Kolisi and I will give you the stats on Etzebeth a well:-

Kolisi

Passing                     -             0

Ball carries               -             2

Meters gained          -              0

Rest of attacking      -              0

Possession losses     -              2

Tackles                    -              6

Missed Tackles        -              2

Best description       -              piss poor    

Etzebeth

Passing                     -             0

Ball carries               -             5

Meters gained          -              5

Rest of attacking      -              0

Possession losses     -              1

Tackles                    -              3

Missed Tackles        -              0

Best description       -              poor   

Neither of the above contributed anything to the team performance on the day.

Etzebeth was injured early in the second half and may have done something better in the second half if he stayed on.   I can say that his effort in the first half was unacceptable.

Beefing the pack, EN pack was depleted and they outmanoeuvered the SA bully pack.

Maybe time to learn how to play rugby instead of relying on even more muscles.

Leads to a severe addiction to anabolic drugs.

Later, players paid it with a very short live.

Hey Trad you sad and lonely old white guy.

Been a while since you disgraced yourself by visiting here.

Sticking to the gig huh?

There's levels and then there's levels of sad.

Pity you're not man enough to post under your real name.

Cowards have a million ways of convincing themselves that they're not a soft sack of shit.

Take it from me, you're the biggest baddest vagina on this site.

By the way Xavi which I did not respond to.   Nkosi had a slight problem and was treated on the field.   He was immediately replaced and I think it was done to ensure he did not aggravate the injury - we need him this series.

By the way Xavi which I did not respond to.   Nkosi had a slight problem and was treated on the field.   He was immediately replaced and I think it was done to ensure he did not aggravate the injury - we need him this series.

I added the ratings of AO to the above.   His ratings are a crazy mix of prejudice and real BS.   Note especially the backline ratings - they are totally out of league of what the rest of the ratings are.  He gave the wings 5 and 5,5 out of 10 - which is on average two points lower than anybody else.   He gave Kriel and De Allende similarly lower ratings and then put Vermeulen on par with Kolisi and gave Snyman a 1,5 points advantage over Etzebeth.   He gave the props a higher rating than anybody else did.

The problem with AO is that he before the match claimed the backline would fail and his ratings have near to zero to do with what actually happened.   His point allocation has more to do with personal prejudice and nothing to do with performance. -  a fatal flaw.  

Bump