How to fit so much talent into one backline

Its an issue for the Boks, but a good issue to have.

I'm mostly referring to centre, where one can only have two of Janse v/Rensburg, Serfontein, Jessie Kriel, Vorster, Am or de Allende

Not to mention the likes of EW Viljoen, Esterhuizen, Odendaal and Frans Venter

But take it further.....same applies to fullback......who to select from Gelant, Willie or Coetzee

What of Pollard or Jantjies at 10

Out wide we have Combrink and Skosan.........but what of Ismiel, v/Wyk, Nkosi, Ulengo, Tambwe, Senatla, Sergel or Kolbe?

What utter shit......Vorster has been great for the Lions, nothing wrong with his pace at all......great rugby brain, runs perfect lines and always looks to offload

EW Viljoen started really well, plateaued off in the middle but has been very good in his last two games.

Ismeil is definitely test standard, always beats defenders and has a nose for the try line 

Mozart

You can call me a liar and because you are either too stupid that such a call coming from a habitual liar like you is indeed a compliment.

What I wrote about Viljoen at the time was real and he was clearly a massive improvement at outside center on the useless Juan de Jongh whom our serial liar said could read games - but had serial passing problems and did not ever knew how to off-load balls and whose deficient defense was disastrous for any team he plays for.  

This thread only reminds me of the wrong ideas many have in terms of what is required from an international player. Most of the players listed are good. At the level they played at... Currie Cup level, or even Super Rugby level.

Test rugby is a completely different animal. For that you need something special. Out of 100 really good Currie Cup players, (who ALL have their biased provincial supporters or groupies) you might get 10 good enough for test level. And out of that 10, only 2 might be stand-out players. How many or how few players today can be compared to a Joost vd Westhuizen, Bryan Habana, Fourie du Preez, etc... At the moment we probably only have Malcolm Marx and Faf de Klerk, but both of them also have their own weaknesses . Out of all of the others in the CURRENT Springbok team, you can replace them with another, without it having any great effect on the team as a whole.

We just don't have real stand-out players anymore...

How can we say what the Trooth Fairy came up with above.   It is a generalized personal opinion to which the Fairy is obviously  entitled to - but then one must be very careful in applying it.  

The game has changed massively since 1995 and some players excellent then would probably not make the grade at present.  Rare players come along rarely - that should be realized and to start off looking for those players as a basis for team selection is not realistic and can lead to nothing insofar as  the team as a whole is concerned.

The best norm used by most coaches are proven performance  and not anything else in selecting of teams.   Meyer did not and he ended up flopping as a test coach,    So the only real option is to get the best PERFORMING players on the field of play and forget about the greats who comes along once or twice in a decade - they could be in the team if their fortunes has not changed such as he case was recently with Habana.      

Beeno

There was indeed a serious problem for the Springboks - namely the fact that the All Blacks had 75% possession and a76% advantage in territory, 

The problems must be traced back to the forwards,   There us in fact a weak link in the locks - I would rather see a more physical player than Mostert to start to solidify our scrum and breakdown competitiveness,  

The other problem is really with our loosies and with the present squad cannot see an improvement in that component of the game.  We need at least two players who are specializing in ball protection and recovery and we have none.

If the Springboks can up the ball possession and territory percentages to between 40 and 45 the Springboks would have a chance to win the game - but that would be a hard grind.     

Actually the Boks lost numerous opportunities to use the ball because of sloppy ball retention and very own percentage passes/offloads. Too many mistakes. They also didn't contest the lineouts and didn't contest too many rucks. 

I don't think Mostert is to blame for our scrumming problems. We simply aren't a very good scrumming nation. Our tightheads, props in general, are just ball carriers and lifters. If we're lucky they can defend. 

AO

The weights of the potential locks are as follows:-

Mostert          112 kgs

Snyman          115 kgs

Du Toit           120 kgs 

De Jager         123 kgs

Etzebeth         123 kgs

There is no top international team having a 112 kgs lock anymore and even Snyman's 115 kgs is problematic.

The weights have a serious impact on physical strength and that is where Mostert has a serious problem and even Snyman would struggle to be competitive in Tight 5 play.    

Mozart

Those were comments originated from you.  The 1 and 2 items both.   Problem is when Matfield came on in the WC he self-destructed the Bok efforts.     Remember -

*   the first line-out called by Matfield after he came on went to the AB's - he made the mess of calling the ball to go to him and was outjumped; and

*   that classical turn-around penalty which you trioe to negate for years,

By the way did Matfield weigh 105 or 107 kgs  - the weights he quoted in his own book?   No wonder he was tossed out of driving mauls regularly.

Thanks for brining back the memory of that BS Meyer caused the Springboks to play with Burger as first receiver and the flyhalf cut out.   The memories about the Matfield and Meyer classic will remain with us and haunt us for years to come.

Mozart

Dave at least have at least a basis according to which he discuss players and if they are selected and do not hesitate to admit they are mot acceptable when they under-perform.   A very honest approach in his case,  

You have a record of supporting proven non-performers and then tried to lie your way out of it if they fail,

I would rather support the approach Dave in case of players then you .