Mozart
This really is where we stand at present with Francois Steyn according to a recent newspaper report:-
"Steyn immediately looked at home in Super Rugby and could well have bypassed that stage and gone straight to Test rugby and still been a hit. No, Pollard isn’t there. But there are lessons in Steyn’s story. Having won a World Cup at 20, a British & Irish Lions series a couple of years later and stockpiled more euros than he could shake a stick at before he was 25, Steyn has regressed badly. Overweight and seemingly lacking drive, the once-brilliant talent is a shadow of his former self.
Steyn admitted to me in a 2012 interview that he had always struggled with, well, let’s call it over-confidence. It made him difficult to teach and correct, he said, and his enormous success and the accompanying acclaim he experienced in his formative years as a pro fed the monster.
He said he wished he’d had a mentor to guide him through that period, wished he’d been more cir[removed]spect in how he dealt with certain people, wished he hadn’t burned so many bridges, wished it had gone a little slower."
Now we hve something to chew on. Steyn came back from France and played in two matches for the Sharks in Super 15 in 2012. Did nothing of note - and then played five matches for the Springboks - was definitely not upto standard. He got injured and was off for the rest of 2012.
When he came back from France he was clearly overweight and turned into a real fatso during his injury lay - off in 2012. He cme bck to training in January 2013 weighing 118 kgs and Plumtree put him oon a weight reduction programme. His speed was down to ambling along. Hopeful that Steyn would react possitively - Plumtree made him Sharks interim captain - huge mistake. he stayed on the field of play an his performances were poor. Plumtre was forced to replace him early in the Kings game las t year and apparently a storm brooke after that one. He lasted one more Super 15 game - against the Brumbies - where he put up an atrociously bad performance and was then dropped from the starting line up. Plumtre at the time said that Styn is no center and said he was going to try him out at full back. Be is as it may he started in two later games - because of injuty to Jordaan and was injured in the seond match - whereafter he played vitually no further rugby in 2013. In fact he was poor and his ttreatment by Plumtree was in fact fully justified.
Now th question is - was he any better in 2014? One improvement was that he was not as fat as he was in 2012 and 2013. He could at least see his feet when kicking balls. His goalkicking was consequently better - which is a plus. However, he pace was still too slow for backline player and his lack of ability to move sideways o cover defense of players running at an ngle - resulted in serious defense deficiencies. He was basically inacpable of making line breaks - in 16 matches he managed one obnly - and also ibarely cpabale of beating defenders. Was he better in 2014 than he was previously? The article sums it up properly:-
"Steyn has regressed badly. Overweight and seemingly lacking drive, the once-brilliant talent is a shadow of his former self."
And you want that shadow in the Springbok team? What an idiotic selection that would be.
