Mozart
Thanks for the melodrama - but I do not think it holds much water. Heroes produce the goods on a continuous basis - not switch off most of the times. The fact is that all the crying on your part is because I and some others do not rate Steyn's performances this season as acceptable and do not think that he should be in the Springbok team.
I have been high;y critical of Steyn's performances so I have chec
ked the stats again to see how he was doing:-
Center
Although Steyn has switched from tcenter to flyhalf during games - I used his starting selection as the norm.
Steyn
0/1
46
34/45/52
91
0
5
3
15
56/13
0/0
8
0/0
Lets look at the above objectively:-
* The only try assist in 8 games came from a cross kick by him gathered by Ndungane for scoring of a try. Positive - unfortunately never repeated in later games.
* Goal kicking - 68% accurate. Positive
* Kicking game - a mixed bag with a minority being good and the rest aimless and inaccurate - Average
* Passing game - tend to make ineffective and inaccurate passes, but his number of passes are too low compared to the number of ball possessions - Below Average
* Ball carries - 52 carries with 91 meters in territory gain - average gain 1,75 meters per carry = Below Average
* Line Breaks - None - Poor
* Off Loads - Three in 8 games - too few - Average
* Ball possession losses - 15 - Poor
* Tackles - Tackles made 56 - tackles missed 13 = Missed tackle ratio 18,84% - Below Average
* Penalties given away - 8 - Poor
Steyn had a good game to start off the season and most of his positives came from that game. The rest of the games were noticeable by the malfunctioning of the backline of the Sharks - where most problems arose because he rarely passed balls to players outside of him and tend to hog balls resulting to ineffective carries.
Flyhalf
Steyn
0/1
54
31/29/25
102
1
9
3
9
17/11
0/0
1
0/0
Try Assist - Very Good
Goal kicking = Good
Kicking game = A mixed bag - the majority of kicks were aimless and seriously defective = Below Average
Passing game - A mixed bag - passing at time inaccurate and ineffective - Average
Ball Carries = 25 carries - meters gained 102 average gain per carry 4.08 meters. Average
Line Breaks = 1 made - number is below par - but the one actually made was Good
Defenders Beaten - 9 = Good
Off-loads - 3 = Average
Possession losses = 9 Very Poor
Tackles = Tackles made 17 - tackles missed 11 = missed tackle ratio 39.28% - Very Poor
Penalties given away 1 = Average
The problem is that his positive ball carries came from 2 carries in 2 games = the rest of his carries were ineffective. The same applies to the defenders beaten = most were in the two carries mentioned. A player to be selected for national duty should never have very poor ratings in any category.
Summary
Steyn's performance at center was inadequate and ineffective and contributed t the negative performance of the Sharks backline. He was in fact totally ineffective as a center.
At flyhalf he showed positives in two cases - the rest of his performances was ineffective and in some ways very poor. He is not a natural flyhalf and that remains a problem.
A hero is supposed to have no chinks in his armour - there are way too many chinks in Steyn's armour to qualify as a hero. So keep up the cries and sentimentality, Mozart - it does not work because the foundations are just not there.
