Greatest Ever Springbok Fullbacks

H.O. de Villiers, Joubert.

Percy was a bit underrated...wasn't a half bad 13 in his prime either...Joubert was king though...or the RR if you like.

Percy was a warrior. A truly great fullback. Harder to pick this position. Nobody really matches up to Willie, so he has a good call for our best 15. Joubert really was something else. Tough call. We've had some very good 15s. 

Torn knee ligaments for most of a final: made all of his kicks, was never found of out of position, a rock on defence. Never put a foot wrong. Yeah, soft. That's a legendary performance by a great Bok. Not the pansy shoulder rub s and ankle clasps you defend every season by the puny nothings of South African rugby. I do recall you pumping JJ up as a hard man, knocking Smith out. You lie to yourself too much, and you clearly surround yourself with yes men. A vicious cycle of failure. I don't mind, have a good laugh at your expense. What now? Swear at me? Threaten to beat me up at a venue you'll hide from? Did I hit a nerve? 

Spies thoroughly deserved his personal description - "he was built like Tarzan and played  rugby like Jane".  The only 8 I ever saw that went to ground before he was tackled.   Meyer rate him until Jane was injured and replaced him with Vermeulen and that as the end of Spies's test rugby career.

No the way Nonu was replaced early in the 2015 test because De Allende was wiping the floor with him.   De Allende was never run over by him or for that matter neither was it the case with Williams.   Wake up - you live in a dreamworld and cannot understand anything if it hits you in the face.              

Actually, he didn't. Spies was a very secure carrier and soaked up defenders. Nobody was better off the back of a scrum than Spies and he generated a lot of momentum. His weakness was that he didn't pose a dual-threat like the legendary Big Joe. Had Spies been able to offer the offload, those defenders wouldn't have been able to converge upon him as they did. Think back to one of Marius Joubert's tries in the 2004 win over New Zealand; Big Joe takes it to the line and his presence opens up space and the opportunity is created. If you want to make a case against Spies, that was it: too one dimensional. I can accept that. Spies was many times harder than the likes of Steph and Lood. 

Willie ... ??

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaaa!!

Joubert .. Johan Heunis ... my picks.

Willie Le Roux ... Pffffffffffhaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha!!!

My Picks would be HO de Villiers, Joubert, Heunis and Montgomery.   De Villiers, Joubert and Montgomery was more involved in backline play in general than Heunis was, and so was Le Roux.

Le Roux was brilliant when playing for the Cheetahs and the Sharks - but then became subject to the backline destruction by Meyer - Pollard suffered the same fate in November 2014 and in 2015.    Erasmus  got those two players to contribute to backline play again in 2019 - a major achievement by him.         .        

Actually, Willie had more than twice the production in 2015 than 2019. He played his best rugby under Meyer. Hilarious how you fall into the same errors. Rassie is the bottleneck on attacking rugby. 

This is unbelievable BS from AO.  What are you talking about?   Erasmus is the best coach the Springboks had since re-admission and Meyer one of the worst.   Erasmus has a rational game plan - Meyer nothing of the sort,  Erasmus coach the team to play 15 man rugby - Meyer never did.

Erasmus happened to coach the first team ever to win both the RC and WC trophies in one year - Meyer never coached a team that won any trophies.   Results speak for itself and Erasmus had positive results and Meyer only failures,          

Rassie is average. What about his gameplan is revolutionary, or what part of it has advanced the Boks? Nothing. At no point in his entire career has he ever had anything beyond Nienaber. His guru defence coach is his only card. Taken the Bok game backwards, even more than Peter. He isn't the best coach in any possible way and has turned the Boks into the same languid and meandering plodding mess he created at the Stormers. The blueprint is identical. His Boks have finished last in every attacking statistic in each of his years in charge. How many Boks feature in a top 10 for the World Cup? You are deluded. Especially seeing as he implemented the exact game plan you have been criticizing for years. Exact same! Rassie sits a little beneath Peter in the pecking order. 

Back to the point on Willie. Here is his production comparison: 

2015

1. Pass: 102
2. Kick: 76
   
3. Run: 81
4. Metres: 610
5. Metres Per Run: 7.5m
6. Possession: 259
7. Team Possession: 2660
8. % Team Possession: 9.7%

1. Pass: 78
2. Kick: 34
   
3. Run: 64
4. Metres: 247
5. Metres Per Run: 3.8m
6. Possession: 176
7. Team Possession: 1813
8. % Team Possession: 9.7%

Actually, the 10 also had better production. The entire team had better production on attack. By 2013 the Boks had even overtaken the All Blacks on several attacking categories. They have been last under Rassie. Under Rassie, Willie largely receives static ball too deep, and links two attacking units (usually three each), or is in a unit comprising Kriel and Kolisi out wide. He doesn't have much room to do anything under Rassie, as he gameplan is heavily scripted to move the ball in certain directions and have certain personnel groupings combine at specific points. Usually, this is punctuated by a kick. Under Meyer, the team played more loosely, there was more fluidity and freedom to make decisions. The structures were less rigid and the team moved the ball flatter and more quickly from the point of contact. Players with good skills thrive, players with strong instincts and ability to read play thrive. That's the greatest distinction between the two coaching philosophies. Meyer's model was more modern, and very akin to New Zealand, but with a Bok flavour. He was ahead of the curve in implementing modern structures from league, and had more adventurous plays and strategies. The most adventurous set of ideas that we saw under Rassie were all found in the Brisbane loss of 2018, but that was largely consisting of telegraphed plays that condensed the attack inwards, getting Damian to crash with angled runs into the same direction of the previous ruck. This was actually something I'd normally see from Wales, though not implemented the same way. It was a little bizarre. Lots of screens from about 2m in front of the defence. 

Better production is meaningless with a defective team unable to score tries,   Take for instance ball carries by Le Roux in 2015,  They all ended up into running into the first defender or a kick because there was no structure which allows for him to pass balls to players,  There were no game plan of note in the teams under Meyer whatsoever and no structure for 15 man rugby, 

Anyway why the silence on try scoring by the Springboks in 2015 compared to 2019 in the WC,  AO shies asway from it because it exposes his BS totally,  He also shies away from the fact that in his coaching career Meyer never had a test team winning any trophy ever,  Why silent on that too.

Meyer happened to show why he was useless as a coach when he went to Stade Francais and took the team down to the bottom of the Top 14 log despite the fact that the owner made available the biggest budget in French rugby to find and contract players,    Hos layer election in terms of that budget was totally inept - just like his selection of the Springbok squad was, .   He always was a poor coach and his stint at Stade Francais confirmed that.  

By the way where did you get that fairytale about Meyer from mentioned in your last post,  never read that in any report on Meyer as coach and you must be congratulated in dreaming up  such a fairy tale.                    

Duplicate                

Yeah...Auge naher, betruger, verwirrer.!

Where you dream your fantasies up I don't know, I give you this you have great , albeit vain imaginations and would be good at fiction rather than non-fiction.