Exactly one great discovery may be succeeding......,

......Stephanie, but only maybe, I have yet to see him play a great game in a losing team and he had an awful YE tour. I remain unpersuaded but I could be wrong. .... By contrast here is a list of great discoveries who have already proven they are never going to be great test players: ..... Taute, Jumbo, Combrink, JJ, Kriel, Stepfontein, Allende, de Jongh, Venter, Swiel, Goosen, Lambie, Reinach, Faf, Kitshoff, Coenie, Malherbe, Marcel, Lomp, Mostert, Kleintjie, Labuschagne, Whiteley, Kolisi, Notshe. ... Now some will pick out a player or two and say I'm wrong. But I'm not....some of these guys may have to be placeholders while we wait for better options, but there isn't one Os, Matfield, Vermeulen, Jean or Habana amongst this lot. Their fate has already been written. .... So what's the message? Great test players are very rare and we are not producing them in the numbers we did in the past. No great new wing has emerged since Habana and JP.....no flyhalves, scrumhalves, props and loosies. It's puzzling, but for some reason the great pipeline is now a trickle. ... There is the usual coaching argument, and that is almost certainly true in terms of producing talent. Some of those failed players had the talent especially among the forwards.....but it doesn't explain the Bok failure. .... If PdV had our current lot do you really think he would have beaten the Lions or won the TN....or do you think his record would be more like Coetzee with his 4 wins and 8 losses? ... The difference is the players. Now that doesn't mean with better coaching the same players couldn't do better....I think we could compete with Wales etc. But given the same coach our 2009 team was 10 points better than this lot.

 His normal repetitive jabbing - so comments not needed

So Twakkie beat the Lions twice and the All Blacks twice in 2009.....how many times would he have beaten them with our current players? ..... Our problem is not just a problem of coaching, it is a problem of players and coaching.

I concur with your comments M.
At CC level most of the players mentioned play a fair game but once they put on the Green and Gold jersey they fail to deliver individually or as a team.
Even at Super level rugby, we tend to play second fiddle.
Is it lack of coaching, outclassed individually at test level or just players not placing everything on the line?
I would agree as u have stated that it is all of the above.
Jantjies is a great example of failing to perform at test level. 
Any reason why he was not included in your list of failures?Just asking.
Great players in Springbok rugby are just a memory now, unfortunately.
 

Good catch Jantjies should be there, as should Koch and Paige for that matter, although he was hardly a popular choice.

 Our local rugby expert initially supported Coetzee's appointment because of his record at the Stormers.  He supported Meyer all-out even when it was clear that Meyer has started the downhill trend in performances with an idiotic game plan.
There are three reasons for the decline so obviously last year.   Those are -
*   the fact that some good players involve in the decline that became more obvious at the end of year tour in 2014 retired after the WC - leaving a void that could only be filled by inexperienced players (inexperienced because they could never gain experience when Meyer was in charge and if they did they had minimal test experience;
*   the total lack of coaching and absent game plan of Coetzee - as was stated he "lost the dressing room - coupled to serious selection deficiency without regard to performance on higher level; and
*   the selection of players who in the first instance should never have been in the team.
The latter is a major problem = we have cases of players who was poor before 2015 - players discarded even by Meyer.   These include Juan de Jongh, Morne Steyn and Willem Alberts.
Some experienced players were not producing the goods as well and here one can mention Strauss, Etzebeth, Louw,  Habana and Pietersen.   The latter was just not up to standard.
The situation is such that a virtually a totally new squad had to be selected.   Jantjies under pressure always failed but was in the squad.   There were also other duds such as Adriaanse for instance.
Under such a situation where most of the team has had virtually no experience on test level some would fail and fall by the wayside.   Even before they played our local expert condemned some players and after one match his string of condemned players grew to a virtual crescendo.   About half of the players he listed as failures have either not had enough tests to be "proven"  failures or they did in fact not fail at all.     In the latter case the expert manufactured falsified accounts as prove that certain players have failed.
The above argument largely ignore the key issue of coaching incompetence and also the negative role of some of the experienced players that in fact made up the core of the team and failed themselves.
I think that there will in a period of change be players that fall by the wayside and others will come through as top class players - so to come up with the above as an authoritive account is so shallow - it is unbelievable.     
    

 Moz, in 2009 we beat the AB's 3 -0

I stand corrected. Today that sounds like a fantasy......what a team!

 .no flyhalves, scrumhalves, props and loosies. It's puzzling, but for some reason the great pipeline is now a trickle.

It is not puzzling.

The internal demand for SA rugby is dwindling. SA rugby is hold up by external demand.

And  this demand, based on image, is stereotyped: the foreign demand is on a very limited type of players.

NH clubs hire players to sell tickets, they look for players to rise their profile.
SA players, pushed by their excellent men self, are looking to leave the boat. So they shape themselves in order to meet the foreign demand.

SA image does not sell for the backline (SA 7 might thought) Same for scrum/fly halves. They do not make people dream.

Foreigners dream of the SA bully forward player who bites the opponent. That is how they fancy on SA players.

Added, the SA also suffers competition in image from other nations (the georgian prop is highly prized)

SA rugby no longer hold their destiny in their hands. They are subjected to the foreign demand, which is not on a complete, well round squad approach.

Countries like AR and RO are in a better position on this ground as it is easier for them  to think their squad in their wholeness. Due to strong local currencies, players do not look for leaving the country.
There is an internal demand for each position and this internal demand is not trumped by an external demand.

Okay, if no-on else is going to acknowledge the elephant in the room, I'll do it. 
There is one player who has been hyped up more than all the other players listed on this thread combined who has yet to perform at Super Rugby level, let alone test level . . . Eben Etzebeth.
The fact that this thread has gone as far as it has without him being mentioned is pretty astonishing when you consider how his many groupies were clutching at their thin little gherkins at the very mention of his name less than 2 years ago and yet, game after game, season after season, he produces absolutely nothing of note leaving his hordes of adoring groupies scratching their heads wondering when he's going to fulfil this supposed potential and stop lumbering around the field about 5 metres off the pace puffing his cheeks and trying very hard to look like the tough guy enforcer who will take every one of the opposition on.
The most overrated and overhyped flop since Bob Skinstad first stuck his tongue out.

 Rooinek
Look carefully at what I wrote above and especially iro Etzebeth.  

Apologies ou Maaik, I see he was mentioned.
Moffie is starting to sputter and backtrack on "Stephanie" because not even the world's biggest liar and spin doctor can pretend that Pieter-Steph doesn't outplay Abbey Elizabeth in every game they ever play together.
LMAO!

Well given the complete humiliation you two muppets have experienced in the last few days, it's nice you can get together in a little mutual admiration society.....and agree on what a flaccid lock Etzebeth is. LMAOFY!