Good Morning Dudes and Dudettes

Hope you guys are all well.

The new season is nearly upon us. Look forward to seeing this year's build up toward next year’s WC as well as talking shit with you dweebs.

Hopefully the break would have helped Stupid with clearer thinking and for that matter Dumber too.

I’m convinced DumbMike will be singing Willem Alberts’ praises shortly and rightly so … and Stupid should come to his senses and acknowledge that Jantjies is useless and so is JJ before long ... and if he needs insightful, intellectual ideas for one of his posts he should ask the one, the only ... ME!!

Awesome year to you all.

 Hey Clean cut...next years WC is the Fifa WC...who are you picking to win ?

Brazil is most likely to take it playing at home but Spain is also strong...Netherlands, Germany also...

Lots of capable teams...but i'm guessing yr talking about a different WC...?? 

 Don't worry mate , yr not the only one around here that does'nt know what day it is...lol

... can't really stomach soccer either...but can appreciate some of the skills required to represent yr country in sport at the highest level...

...and if they can talk cricket in the rugby forum then anything goes by the looks...

 Welcome back CC and I hope you enjoyed your holiday in the glorious Southern Cape. 

There are two things of concern  on the site at present and those are -

*   Saffex singing the praises of Fat Frans and JJ without any interruption; and

*   myself recognising the true contribution of the fat Sloth Alberts.

Anyone not able to recognise the latter must really go for rugby  education lessons  - I have been through that school, but you will have to go there this year.

Anyway your other hero - Morne Steyn - has also come down to earth.   He is nowadays the bench flyhalf for Stade Francais.    A player who fails to make the starting line up for his club is certainly not good enough to make the Springbok  team.

I am optimistic about the 2015 WC - but then we have to find a solution to our problems at 13, 10, 9 and  7 and forget about the geriatrics - like Bakkies Botha and Steenkamp.   I include 9 - since we are short of a real back up scrummie.

I think all bases are adequately covered bar the critical 13 position.

Now back to reality - Super 15 starts in 6 weeks time and then  we will battle it out for fantasy rugby honours.   I have my selections for the first round in place and those are the following:-

Foxsport

PR   -    Beast, Coenie       -   Bench   Slipper

HO  -    Du Plessis            -    Bench   Strauss

LO  -     Du Toit, De Jager -    Bench Etzebeth

BR  -     Labuschagne, Botha, Van der Walt - Bench Luatua

SH  -     Reinach               -   Bench  Smith

FH  -     Goosen                -   Bench  Swiel

CE  -     Serfontein, Hanekom - Bench  De Villiers

OB  -    Le Roux, Mvovo, Marais  - Bench Ben Smith

Test Rugby

FR  -    Du Plesis. Strauss

LO  -    De Jager, Du Toit

LF   -   Labuschagne, Botha

HB  -   Goosen. Lambie

CE  -   Serfontein, Hanekom

OB  -   Le Roux, Marais      

Hope the above would be within budget.

No place for Sloth, Fat Frans and Engelbrecht in any selection. 

 ...Uruguay also have another of the worlds best strikers in Edinson Cavani to accompany Suarez so could South American countries be the ones to beat given locality and that...

... Argentina also has three three of the worlds top strikers in Messi, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero...

... Brazil are South America's current champions..boy will they have some expectations on them by fans to win..

....but with the focus on strikers one forgets that it's defence that wins games..

...and who could write off teams like Portugal, France , Italy and England...

 Clean Cut

There is a problem this year.  Round 1 consists only of four SA teams - namely the Sh arks vs he Bulls and the Cheetahs vs the Lions - so for Round one you either only select players from those four teams and start bringing in players from other franchise in round 2 and replace the poorer SA players from the second round  onwards or you make a sacrifice and bring in other players early - losing points in the process.

I tried to keep on the bench some players I am going to bring in soon because we will only have only 6 changes for the following week.    That means you will have the possibility of bringing in 6 new players in round 2 - keep some of the round 1 selections and moving some players to the bench.

I am pretty happy with my hooker and lock selections and depending on performances stick with those players for most of the competition.  Also with the loosies.   I may go for  Malherbe as a cheap prop sometime in the competition.   However, I am likely to change the backline substantially later in the competition - taking in Folau and some other players into contention. 

Sloth Alberts have consistently over the past year been the poorest selection imaginable for fantasy sport - so Sloth is never in my plans.