STSun-Tzu
Club Pro713 posts
10 Mar 2014, 12:19#2
What a difference JLP has made to the Bulls. It makes one wonder what might have been in the first two games! And good for SA rugby that we have at least two teams who look to be heading in the right direction. Matfield had a solid game in all departments. With Hougaard, Reinach and Du Preez we are well covered at 9. Agreed on Frans, though I credit him as being a little better than okay.
KEKeaganzulusmith
Club Pro175 posts
KEKeaganzulusmithClub Pro175 posts
10 Mar 2014, 14:10#3
I think both teams played well and the lions came back very well once sharks started to ease off a bit, the player who most impressed me this weekend was hougie mainly due to the fact he played his game! he only boxed kicked once to my knowlegde and that was all he played well with ball in hand and he distributed the ball very well.
He even showed great game reading ability for the jan try seeing the mismatch between jan and the number 10 something mike thought hougard would never have
over all 3 good performances from SA and 2 below par ones will see what next week brings with bulls on a bye.
sharkbok
Captain23,297 posts
sharkbokCaptain23,297 posts
10 Mar 2014, 14:28#4
Matfield easily outperformed PSTD this weekend. Matfield was calling the lineouts and taking all of his own throws. Not only is he still the best lineout forward in jumping and organising the lineout, he is also the best at jumping for taking kick offs. His work rate all around the pitch was very high making lots of tackles and was like a loose forward in that he was at the rucks so quickly and chasing up in open play.
KEKeaganzulusmith
Club Pro175 posts
KEKeaganzulusmithClub Pro175 posts
10 Mar 2014, 14:44#6
Matfield was present in open play he made some tackles and runs with offloads, the knock on my jan was from a matflied run, but he also did make a hash of the bulls attempt for the 4th try by knocking the ball on, Both PSDT and matfield played well and you could argue the calibure of player that matfield faced was higher but in all i do think saffex got this one right saying PSDT played well.
KEKeaganzulusmith
Club Pro175 posts
KEKeaganzulusmithClub Pro175 posts
10 Mar 2014, 15:22#8
no i said that your call was the right and that PSDT played well, i was saying your wrong that matfield was present in open play!
sharkbok
Captain23,297 posts
sharkbokCaptain23,297 posts
10 Mar 2014, 15:39#9
PSDT has not been great so far this SuperXV so far in 2014, nothing like his man of the match performance in the curry cup final in 2013.
Matfield easily outplayed him. On the tackles, I wouldnt mind seeing a comparison of the stats for both players.
Matfield showed that he is clearly still very mobile. On one of the last breaks of the game when it was about a 30 metre run to the tryline , it was pretty much just backline players and Matfield.
Matfields performance yesterday was the best number 5 performance by a South African lock in 2014. Joel Stransky and the other commentators were all raving about his performance and work rate.
If Matfield was playing in 2013, the disaster at the kick offs which allowed the All Blacks to win the 4 nations would not have occured.
Hell Matfield could have been 40 years old and he would be better than the poor excuse Juandre Kruger that played at 5 in Johannesburg- that was pathetic at lineouts and kick offs.
