Frans Steyn

 showed exactly why he is the closest thing we have to SBW and why he has to be the Bok 12.

Two great mini breaks and offloads in contact - perfect

Yeah, good performance. One thing is clear. He has started this season in good condition. Look at the fit of his jersey compared to that of the rest of the team.

They clearly thought he was going to be "heavier" than he was. Everyone else's jerseys were relatively tight to well fitting. His was noticeably loose which is a good sign that he has worked hard to cut down from when his measurements were taken.

That jersey certainly was not made to fit Whitehead ;-)

Very mini breaks at less than 3m a carry! To me looked.much like last year, and he was nowhere to be seen as the game speeded up.

 Yep, he looks sharp and with that bullet flat pass of his, he put his outside backs in space on one or two ocassions.

I also liked the way he was really pissed off with himself when he took contact, made some metres and conceded possession and when he went for that long drop out.

Jordaan showed glimpses of things to come, he needs to fine tune his positional support play and work hard at running off the Frans breaks.

As much as de Allende never broke free at any point, I really liked the way this lad moves, he looks to attack with his feet and not his body. Much like JJ and Taute do. JJ was looking good until he stuffed his hip up

 The 2nd offload by Frans Steyn should have been a try. Not sure who took the pass but they seemed to stumble and killed or slowed the movement down. Agreed on Jordaan- he did seems to be missing when he should have been running of Frans Steyn

Not many of our centers can't offload in the tackle, and it is an area where the New Zealand centers have an edge on ours.  The Chiefs/Highlanders game had loads of offloads.

Most backline tries are scored from offloads when play is still relatively structured organised defences-except when play is completly broken and counter attacks are the main source of backline tries.

Habana and JP can both offload in the tackle but they are obviously on the wing.

 Moz your take on Frans is laughable much like you saying Jean was the best centre in the Bulls vs Stormers game. I actually think Jean was the least effective - he was neither good nor bad - he was nothing.

Olivier, Venter and de Allende were better.

Frans was by some distance our best centre

 Firstly the Sharks backs were always on the front foot operating with quick ball. Secondly Fransie gained the least metres of any back Cheetah or Shark, in that game. This is a king has no clothes moment.

Dave, what union do you support? I dont think I have ever seen a post from you or asked you that? I know Beeno is WP/Stormers but where were u from or rather, who do you support?

One thing that was good to see is Conrad Smith being so ineffective for the Canes. He was bumped off two tackles that led to Blues tries. Conrad is known for his defence so to see this was good from a Bok point of view. What concerns me is that Rene Ranger is constantly over looked by AB selectors. He is good defensively and so strong on attack. He can multi task too. Watch the moment in the game where he made a break down the sideline and a Canes player manged to dive and cling on to his shorts pulling his pants down and exposing his dick. He still managed to offload with one hand whilst his left reached down to cover his chop ;-) Put it on slow motion and my mrs had a good laugh ;-)

 Moz those stats are laughable, given that Ebersohn never featured at all for the Cheetahs. I would expect outside backs to gain more metres than an inside centre.

This debate is pointless for if you are not going to agree that Frans was good then its clear that your prejudice against the guy is going to prevail all season, much like your pro Jean is going to run the same course. Jean was a non entity, he did nothing of note, Frans made a good impression, especially with the breaks and offloads - its exactly what we are looking for in a centre.

Boklogic, I dont support any of the sides, I support all the SA sides. I grew up in Grahamstown so could never get too excited about EP in those days. But yes I am from Kings country, but have no affiliation at all.

I tend to support the sides that have more of my favourite players in them. So with Bulls vs Stormers, it was par, with Sharks vs Cheetahs, I prefer the Sharks.

Probably not a bad way to be. That way you get to actually watch the game without any bias and just enjoy rugby for rugby's sake. I do tend to lean towards Sharks players due to my passion for them. That is sometimes evident when I select my Bok teams as it looks as though I stand alone on my pick of Ludik over Taute at 15 for the Boks. Ludik is a great player but Taute probably does bring a bit more to the party when on song.

I just love how stuck in Ludik gets and that boy punches well above his weight. Pulls off some phenomenal try saving tackles.

Ebersohn. I dont think he will last long at 12. In my opinion, he was nowhere against the Sharks and I didnt see him until late in the game when things opened up a bit. In super rugby, you need to absorb a certain amount of pressure and bide your time playing the tight game until legs tire a bit. Sharks amassed 26 points whilst the game was tight and Cheetahs had no answer. No big runners like Frans Steyn or Venter to get go forward in pressure situations and where the opposition down. Ebersohn will do well in an open game but no use firing when you already 30 points down.

 The stats are from ESPN scrum. They are completely credible.......of the 14 backs who started the Sharks/Cheetahs match......Fransie had the least metres gained. Not a disaster, just not indicative of this dominating performance you have reported.