After seriously defective performances since his return from France in 2012 where -
* he was sub-par in the tests in 2012;
* was dropped from the starting line up as center in 2013 because of deficient performance;
* was a good kicker at goal in 2014 with a success rate of 80%, but seriously defective in all other facets of play - whether at center or flyhalf,
it is now opportune to look and evaluate his statistical performances in 2015 - bearing in mind that there are only 2 matches left foe the Sharks this year and trends in performances should be clear by now.
During 2015 Steyn -
* missed the first three rounds of Super 15 because of commitments in Japan;
* played as center in the next three games - got red-carded in the third game and banned from participation for 5 weeks;
* appealed against the ban and ended up playing one more game at flyhalf (against the Force) before the ban came into operation, which left him with 5 games to play in the 16 game tournament.
He has now completed participation in three of those games with a potential 2 more to come.
So lets look at his stats for the games he actually played in:-
Stormers
Cheetahs
Chiefs
Force
Hurricanes
Waratahs
Reds
COMBINED STATS
EVALUATION
Tries Scored
Even though none of the two tries entails making a line break or beating defenders this is indeed a POSITIVE in his performance. Since his return from France in 2012 he scored 1 try against the Highlanders in 2013 and nothing in 2014 - so the 2 tries does represent an improvement in his performances this year.
Try Assists
Steyn's 1 try assist came from a skip pass to Marais in the Force game. The pass was not accurate - the ball bounced twice before Marais picked it up - but this also represents a POSITIVE.
Point scoring
Having scored 2 tries for 10 of the 38 points - the remainder of his points came from kicking at goal. He was accurate in that respect of an 80+ accuracy rating. POSITIVE
Ball handling
Steyn handled the ball 116 times and the usage entails the following -
* Kicking = 28 times = 24,14%
* Passing = 37 times = 31,90%
* Carrying = 41 times = 43,96%
Steyn in the past had a tendency to hog balls. This tendency has improved slightly this year and the kicking percentage and ball carrying percentage was lower this year and there was a slight increase (circa 4%) in the case of passing of balls. The tendency in the last two games showed a higher percentage of passes of the ball. Slightly below AVERAGE
Ball Carrying
Steyn carried the ball 41 times for a net meter gain of 127 meters representing an average meter gain of 3.1 meters per carry. In a recent posting by Mozart he slated Serfontein for a net average meter gain of 3,3 meters - so this is even below that figure. UNSATISFACTORY
Line Breaks and Defenders Beaten
In the games he played in Steyn made 1 line break beating 8 defenders. That is way below par for no 12 centers comparative to other players. UNSATISFACTORY
Off -Loads
Steyn effected 7 off-loads - an evident POSITIVE even though the off-loads was not really effective.
Ball Possession Losses
Since there is a downward trend compared to 2014 the fact that he still has a habit of losing possession of the ball and that is UNSATISFACTORY
Tackling
Steyn made 45 tackles and missed 16. That represents a missed tackle ratio of 26,23%. That is way too high on Super 15 level and is UNSATISFACTORY.
Discipline
In his earlier games Steyn's discipline was POOR and the fact that he got a YELLOW card in his first game this year and a RED card in his third game is proof of that. After his five-week ban he showed less of a tendency towards illegal and dangerous play.
CONCLUSION
Although there are POSITIVES in some components of his game - those positives are way below the level other centers achieved.
HE IS STILL BELOW PAR IN ACHIEVEMENTS - IN SOME ASPECTS OF THE GAME PRODUCING TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCES - AND HIS CANDIDACY FOR SPRINGBOK SELECTION SHOULD NOT BE A CONSIDERATION AT THIS STAGE.
