I fucking give up - Orie and Mostert

Actually Dave just to defend the ‘clowns’ for a moment, I think the plan is to bring on a physical front row for the whole second half and squeeze the Pom replacements. Not a bad idea. I just can’t ever recall Kitshoff or Thomas doing that,

Mostert has not been at his best. And  I have to agree, in a horses for courses sense, this was the time to field a physical pack, so I might have left him on the bench and played another physical lock. Etzebeth made a massive difference last week.

The backline is a total mess. 

We have a lot of players who cannot pin down a position. Kolbe, Damian, Kriel, Willemse, Kolisi, Steph. Kwagga could fit into that bracket, but rather, he simply excels wherever he is. It seems we produce generic players of mediocre stock within this generation. Once the spine of this team is gone, I think we could be in for some very rough times. 

Is Moerat injured or what? Mostert does  have his bad games, but Orie is a bad Selection...man that just goes beyond comprehension....especially with all the lock tal ent in the URC....they should have left DDA @ 13 and Willemse 12 with Libbok starting.....such a obvious choice. The way R&N select players, coach and there Gameplan, is going to cause major problems for us come WC 23....things has to change!!

The idea behind Orie is mobility to balance out the lack of lateral range of the pack. This is akin to selection of Albert van den Bergh (another unpopular selection). I do not critique the logic, but I do question the selection in comparison to some of the omissions. Orie has had some good moments that have been overlooked. I find this puzzling given the empty body of work of other longstanding selections, such as de Jager. Some food for thought there. 

I am not comparing them, as there really is no comparison that can be made. The former is a plodder with exceedingly slow hands and low energy. 

Eddie has said he’s picking Itoje on the Flank again. We all know Lock is his best position and we have some decent Flankers he’s leaving out of the Squad. If he picks Nowell and May again, you should be fine ! 

Itoje is not a lock. Rrrrright... I better not comment on that. Saffex is already about to burst into tears as it is.

Nah, but I'll tell you that you were never a center and you're mouth is brown.  

Watched a clip this morning where the pom forwards were hitting the matt, meaning, practicing big tackles against their biggest forwards. They are expecting the boks to try and come around the corner. We saw what happens when the forwards get stifled, we lose all shape and struggle to keep possession. Curry will have a field day poaching our balls. 

I almost choked when they said Orie was selected for his line out prowess. Man, the guy haven't caught a ball properly for the last, well, his entire career, let alone a cold. The stormers have the worst line out stats. He even dropped the ball into touch last weekend after receiving a kick. Went missing the entire game. Eben comes on, makes about 4 carries and drag about 4 defenders with him. Kitshoff had a great prop run in for his try. Even wee kwagga was able to come around the corner and find a gap. But that was ITALY and playing out of their skins in their last couple of test. 

I said it before,  a team can only play one or two games with max intensity before they come down. England played their hearts against NZ etc in the wc semi final and it showed. The boks left everything out there when they beat NZ in Nelspruit, but couldn't do it the following week. 

Their plans for the 50th min bomb squad imploded and even Kitsy was gasping for air by the 70th min. 

That bok system is so finely tuned that if anything goes down, the whole team is screwed. 

It is race based selections with inferior skills to do a job and let the merit players come on to try win the game with 14 points down. 

Pulverising your opponents with your forwards for 80 min may work but once they figure it out it become useless. 

We have beaten the Irish sides last year with physical dominance but I think what we saw with Ireland this year is that they now know how to stand up. So we have improved them where we have regressed and trying to play lateral rugby. If Willie is not on the field we can't seem to get the ball past Damian. 

We had a guy like Coetzee who is super physical who should have been on this tour. We have proper locks but they have to persist with Orie. Man, it is a bloody insult

The Roos situation annoys me the most.

First, we pick him in a ridiculously selected side against Wales, from which nobody learned a damn thing. Then we give him a little run against shitty Italy...and his next chance is a kinda must-win game against England away from home. And he's seemingly only getting this chance due to Wiese's absence.

Perhaps every single person that I speak to, and including everyone here, is wrong and he isn't a generational talent.

For my money, he should have been included for all of this year and he should have been given as much time on the field as possible. 

Ag, who knows, maybe we'll do another Marx on him and chuck him into a must-win game away from home against the AB's next year.

n the starting pack against England, probably the most physical pack we come up against

Starting from first line...

During this test series, the English pack has been a shadow of itself.

Configuration is as expected months ago: EN focused on the game against NZ as the pinnacle of the series. As it turned out, they did not manage to secure a win and settled for a draw. At the expense of spending themselves much.

On the other side, SA rugby comes from an easier game (even though they did not manage to spend themselves as little as desired)

SA rugby pose no threat to most northern sides as long as the difference in freshness is not too much.

The configuration for the game is the one that makes SA rugby a danger. By all means, SA rugby come fresh enough while the EN side is exerted.

If the game ends with a SA rugby loss then SA rugby will have lost it.

If the game ends with a SA rugby win, then the contribution of NZ to the result must be taken into account as NZ would have done 3/4 in the doing.

Watched a clip this morning where the pom forwards were hitting the matt, meaning, practicing big tackles against their biggest forwards. They are expecting the boks to try and come around the corner. We saw what happens when the forwards get stifled, we lose all shape and struggle to keep possession. Curry will have a field day poaching our balls.

Images must be shown. It is part of the hyping process.

EN players are cooked up. They are exhausted. They are at the end of the rope. Most of the week time will be allocated to rest and regeneration.

EN wanted to perform against NZ. In a sort, a win against NZ could have somehow reset the balance sheet. It could have concealed part of the problems.

EN players worked theirs bottoms out to achieve the result against NZ. A week time is not enough to recover.

Already, the EN pack was not at its best but following the efforts conceded against NZ, it takes a lot of imagination for them to be a counter threat to a fresh pack of forwards of many teams around, including SA rugby.

Not much to expect from the game.

It is going to be a dull game, SA rugby are involved. The level of violence brought by SA rugby is going to be checked just as the reffing.

Reffing and violence level are the two things to keep an eye on for the game. There is nothing much else.

Wonder who was on this section team and who OK this team.

Just wondering Dave.

Your support is admirable Plum, but we've heard all of these plaudits many a time. Roos has yet to begin fulfilling those aspirations. In time, he might. I personally doubt it, yet, he may prove to be a good member of the squad nonetheless. 

So our team has been leaked again. 

Looking like Steward, Nowell and May. Slade and Farrell. Smith and Van Portvliet. 

Forwards are Mako V, George, Sinkler, Hill, Cole’s, Itoje, Curry and Billy V. 

This could be a disaster. 

Weren't you the fellow who said Spies was going to be the greatest Bok of all time? I'm sure you made some other unfortunate calls. The wheel that squeaks the loudest gets greased. 

"Roos has yet to begin fulfilling those aspirations. In time, he might. I personally doubt it, yet, he may prove to be a good member of the squad nonetheless."

He hasn't been given half a chance at the Boks. but he totally dominated his first season of URC...go look at the stats over many games...he's no one hit wonder...he needs to play every game for the Bokke.

I’m still worried, Saffex ! 

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised by the antics of the Bok pair of clowns.

They gave themselves up with the test against Wales......said it all then. Who would pick a team of Rookies, untried combinations and inexperienced test players for wanting to see how they would perform under pressure???? 

Only clowns would. 

Did they learn anything.......the answer is No! Zip! Niks! Fokol!

It's beyond understanding why anyone would still have any hope that the pair of clowns will come good.

As for Evan Roos........well the kid was thrown under a bus........he's never had a fair shake by the manner in which he's been handled. I wouldn't be surprised if he's totally shattered after the England test and thereafter drifts into national obscurity.

One thing Rassie does well.....he knows how to look after his own interest.....he secured his future with SARU by picking a quota captain and further cemented his interests by selecting several quota players.

In his own selfish interests he has done more damage to Bok rugby than all the quotas combined.

Looking like Steward, Nowell and May. Slade and Farrell. Smith and Van Portvliet. 

Forwards are Mako V, George, Sinkler, Hill, Cole’s, Itoje, Curry and Billy V.

Not so many fresh legs called up. Even now, EN had enough depth to freshen up the squad.

Just as the EN coach failed to freshen up the squad for the WC final, he once again failed to do it for the next game.

Even though he reported that as his main mistake when approaching the WC final.

It’s Steward, Freeman, May, Tuilagi, Farrell, Smith, Van Portvliet.

Mako V, George, Sinkler, Itoje, Hill, Coles, Curry, Billy V. 

Portfliet gonna kick some arse...not!