Hansen on the Springboks midfield

The following from News24 - something Mozart and Disaster will hate to read:-
"With only two matches together as a combination, New Zealand coach Steven Hansen believes the Springboks' inexperienced but exciting midfield axis of flyhalf Handre Pollard, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel could become a formidable one in future.

“They haven’t had a lot of Test matches but they are certainly three good athletes, the boy that has moved in from fullback (Kriel), he really looked good last week, he’s got some gas,” Hansen said

.

“His partner (De Allende) is a big, strong boy and Pollard looks like he can be something special as time goes on.

“I think they’ll look to grow that combination as time goes by and hopefully Jean de Villiers would be back, it would be great to see him back from his knee injury.

“I know he’s worked really hard but once there is a change in the guard I tell you those three will be there for some time.”

De Alllende has been the form inside centre in this year's Super Rugby competition while Jesse Kriel has been a revelation for the Bulls at fullback although he is equally adept on the wing and at outside centre.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer's gamble to shift Kriel to No13 has paid off so far and could be an answer to the dearth of talent in that position.

Hansen believed the clash against the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday will give some clarity on both the opposition and his own personnel for the Rugby World Cup later this year.

Naming two debutants in Lima Sopoaga at flyhalf and James Broadhurst for the titanic clash, Hansen demonstrated he was not afraid to make a gamble.

“We know that we are up against one of the best sides in the world, if not the best playing them on their home patch and what better challenge to see young players in,” Hansen said in Johannesburg on Thursday.

'We are mindful of the fact there is a World Cup at the end of the year and we’ve got to select the right 31 people to go to that.

“We are also mindful we’ve got to have an experienced side on the park to be able to compete but at the same time we have to be brave enough to make some selections that will allow us to go forward in future.”

Hansen, who has forged a close relationship with Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer over the last few seasons, said his rival’s selections for the Test could give some insights of the game plan he had in mind.

The Boks have brought renowned fetcher flanker Heinrich Brüssow in from the cold to form a loose trio with eighthman and captain Schalk Burger and Francois Louw on the blindside.

This effectively leaves South Africa with two specialist openside flankers who has an affinity for the breakdown battle and little in terms of ball-carrying ability.

“It may provide an opportunity at lineout time but I think it does provide a big threat at the breakdown and that is probably why H (Heyneke Meyer) has selected him (Brüssow),” Hansen said.

“He (Meyer) has a game plan in mind that he wants to plan and he wants two guys on the park that are effective at the breakdown and put pressure on us. You get an understanding of how he wants to play the game.”

The two old foes will go up against each other at one of South Africa’s hallowed grounds for the third consecutive year.

The last two encounters have dished up everything that once can expect of one rugby's greatest clashes with the New Zealanders winning a cracker in the final match of the Rugby Championship to win the title in 2013.

A late long-range Pat Lambie penalty brought the All Blacks’ impressive 21-match undefeated run to an end and gave Meyer his first victory over the defending World Championships.

While the winner on Saturday could claim a psychological victory over the other ahead of the World Cup where the two sides are likely to meet in a quarterfinal, Hansen said he looked no further than this clash.

“This is about this contest and what we can learn about ourselves and about South Africa I guess and it’s about a performance that we can be proud of and hopefully good enough for us to get a win,” he said.

“You’ve got to have the ability to play a tight game as well as a free-flowing game, then you look at the opposition and pick the when you like."

Now before we get to the normal Mozart and Disaster drivel,  lets remind members of what Hansen said before the Ellis Park last year and deals with the actual situation that developed in that test..  He said that the AB's know how to handle and deal with Morne Steyn - they do not know what Pollard is going to do.  

In other words since the robotic Morne presented no attacking threat whatsoever and is utterly predictable  - they could ignore him completely and deal with the other players on the field of play and organise their defense against clueless kicking also.   He was then dead honest about the issue and his forecast was realized - Pollard scored two tries in that game.   There is no way he is dishonest in this case - so we will see tomorrow what happens.   

Y ou are distorting Hansens words Michael, a clear sign that the two of you are not quite in agreement. As an unknown quantity last year Hansen had no experience game planning against him. Over time you learn a players tendencies, hence why they don't run very much at him. They know the dynamics. But predictable? Is there a player that is genuinely unpredictable? And were they so, would that be a good thing? The problem is that fans have merged the term "unpredictable" and "effective" together creating a rather warped depiction of a successful attacking entity. There are very few things you can do on a rugby field, and very few things a 10 can do. Nothing is ever truly unpredictable, but some players have a knack for making good decisions and doing the right thing well more often than others. Morne is primarily a distributor and aerial specialistic, his long and accurate passing and calm decision making has been successful for the Boks. Pollard can also distribute well, almost equally well from what I have seen, but wants to run and dominate you physically first. Neither player is unpredictable. Both have their strengths and both highly usable pieces. I often wondered about a Morne-Pollard 10-12 axis as part of a succession program, giving Pollard experience the same way New Zealand bled Carter into test rugby. Certainly he would be a better 12 than Damian in almost every way. And we could implement a kicking axis that was invented by and perfected by New Zealand. A more dynamic partnership. As per your little footnote: utter twaddle at best.

 Disaster
There is very little a player can do at 10 - so what can he do?  He can kick the ball, he can pass the ball or he can attack the gain line.  It depends on decision-making, which again depends on ability to read the game.  So lets take Morne's performances insofar as the above criteria is concerned:-
Reading of the game - decision-making
Here we have interlinked abilities that can best be summed up by stating that a flyhalf needs BALL SENSE.  So does Morne have ball sense?  Every indication are that he lacks that ability and that Morne has to be instructed in advance by the coach what to do on the field of play - his decision-making is too poor to give him a free hand.   
Lets give a typical example of his inability in that regard,  In the Ellis Park test in 2013 Morne was instructed by Meyer - not to kick balls away and to pass same - especially in cases of turnovers - the implications was clearly put in Meyer's re-game talks.   Seconds before half-time Morne received a turn-over ball deep in his own 22.  Instead of making a relieving kick which would have meant the end of the first half - the dolt passed the ball and the Springboks consequently tried to run the ball out of their own 22 - there was a possession turnover and it directly let to a try scored by Messam.  This type of thing is typical of Morne - he will react to instruction - not making on the field decisions.  That means he is robotic and totally predictable - with very poor decisions and execution more the rule than the exception.
Kicking game
Here we have another problem - kicking out of hand should be objective-driven not just making inaccurate and as one NZ commentator said about More's kicks - they should not be BS.   Morne's kicks are not meeting any requirements as to being objective-driven and the execution is generally poor.  I mention the Dunedin test - where the BS described kicks took place - but his kicking game generally is absolute crap because they are aimless and inaccurate.   His tendency to miss penalty line kicks are examples of those.  With Morne it happened 7 times in 9 tests.  We have to bear in mind also the kick very late in the Argentina test last year that [it the Springboks under pressure for the rest of the game and could have caused them to lose the game and the absolute BS kick he made ina Super 15 game against the Brumbies that caused a lost of that game and elimination from the tournament.  I mentioned a few examples - but the problem is general and happened game after game he played in.  The best way Morne's kicking game can be described is it is consistently aimless and inaccurate. 
Morne's sole asset is his accuracy in kicking at goal - he has a success rate o circa 80% in that.  problem is that in pressure situation situations it can go to pieces as well.  In 2012 his success rate dipped under 50% and in the 2013 Ellis Park test he missed 2 out of 5 kicks at goal.
Passing of the Ball
There  van be no doubt about the sub-standard passing game of Morne.  His slow decision-making sells ball recipients out - they have a string of defenders on top of them by the time they receive the ball - this is worsened by the fact that it is not at all necessary to defend against Morne - he can be ignored because he never attacks the gain line.
Morne would never have been a test flyhalf in any of the other ten top rugby countries in World rugby - because in all respects other than goal-kicking he is a waste of space on the rugby field.  The fact that he is the routine bench player of his club is adequate proof of that.   If you want to destroy any no 12  center - put him outside of Morne Steyn.   We had that situation for years now - he even succeeded in reducing the effectiveness of De Villiers - leave alone other players.  Nobody would wish that to happen to Pollard.           
Aside from the above Morne is the weakest defending flyhalf we have had in the open era