I guess we can say

with the utmost confidence that Tony Ball works and it's here to stay.......the players as well as the fans love it.

The basic and primitive game plan of raining down box kicks, rolling mauls and penalties to win games is a thing of the past, our entry into the world of rugby is only going to get better with experience and confidence, the Bok has been re-branded. Opposition coaches are stumped, the archaic and predictable Bok game plan is dead.

The ABs as an example have a Ferrari in Will Jordan, the Boks have Ferraris in Sacha, Moodie, Kolbie, Arendse, Willemse and Williams not to mention the silky hands of Marnie.

The future is looking good while we retain our strength in the set pieces.

Forum » Rugby » Erasmus

DennyHall Of Famer

11,993 posts

Sep 13, 2025, 04:28

has selected a backline which he should have been selected a year ago and he should have given them more than one outing.

How anyone can have confidence in a scratch team thrown in at the deep end is mind boggling.

GL Bokke!

Shame....you really are a desperate wee chappie.

Dig up your post about 'Brown Ball' being a failure Bwhahahahahahha

I don’t believe our play was any better than when we beat NZ by a similar huge margin 35 to 7 at Twickenham in 2023. Was that Brown ball? We tried Brown ball in the first Aussie test and had to revert to Lucky ball to even the series. I doubt Lucky has any real faith in Brown ball

Time will tell.

Moz, the oke is losing the plot.

He contradicts himself and also makes up shit all the time.

And depending on how the team plays, his tune changes.

Kills me!

My worst poster on the forum.

Certainly the slimiest.

Kills me!

My worst poster on the forum.

Certainly the slimiest.

People are really stupid - introducing Brown Ball was hardly going to happen over night

It’s an evolving process

The Twickers game had fuck all to do with Brown Ball it was about giving the Boks the freedom to attack and do their thing with nothing at stake

Brown Ball is about equipping the Boks with an attacking blueprint to be deployed in conjunction with their power DNA

Its work in progress

I repeat Brown ball had little effect on our game in Wellington:

Try 1….A Kolbe intercept/ zero Tony ball

Try 2….Kolisi gains ground from a pick and go, Esterhozen throws the pass Dud would never throw, individual contributions/zero Tony ball.

Try 3….Two cracks at the line and then a pass to Willemse who does all the work. Horrible NZ defense….but perhaps without Tony ball we would have gone through more forward phases/ slight Tony ball.

Try 4….Kwagga scores from a Libbok cross kick he used extensively at WC 2023/ zero Tony ball unless he was channeling the Bok from the future in 2023

Try 5…Reinach passes to Snyman in phase play….he is completely unmarked in atrocious NZ defense/zero Tony ball

Try 6….Willemse marked by a tight forward makes yards, Williams on the wing sends a perfect inside pass to Esterhozen who runs over Barrett for a try/ maybe the Williams pass shows touches of Tony ball.

….

So here’s the truth, those tries were skillful individual efforts. There was no evidence of double wings, extensive passing in traffic, brilliant lines. Nothing we couldn’t and didn’t do long before Brown arrived.

It’s hilarious how the planks who write about rugby immediately give Brown all the credit when we score a backline try. Our structures and passing are still basic. And almost all of these tries came from individual brilliance or woeful NZ defense,

You don’t get it Moz it’s about the mindset - run it more and look to play it wider instead of crashing it up the middle

The tries don’t define the plan in place

You just don’t get it

So it’s not about skill….our coaches can’t say feel free to run the ball. It takes Tony Brown to make this pronouncement. Dave, naive doesn’t cover that view.

No Moz it’s about changing our pattern which you clearly don’t get

As the commentators in the game correctly pointed out - we are moving the ball beyond 12 far more often

It did not take Brown to teach them that it was about Rassie wanting to change the way we play and therefore employing one of the best attacking coaches in the business

Brown has identified the need for subtle changes and empowering the players to implement the changes

We see us kicking less, spreading the ball wider and getting forwards involved out wide like Kolisi and PSDT, we see more attacking play and offloads from the forwards

As I said you just don’t get it. You thrive on the negative

Moving it beyond 12 was because Esterhozen replaced Dud. As I frequently said, you can’t change tactics without players who naturally execute the strategy. Dud wouldn’t have thrown that pass in a 100tests.

No it was Willemse in the first half then a combo of Willemse and AE in the second half as Willemse slotted into the 12 spot many times in the second half

DA could easily do the same if that was the game plan as we witnessed in the first 20 min against Oz

We reverted back to our old style in the second Oz test and again in the first AB test thanks to the weather

If DA was instructed to play it wide he would execute perfectly - no better or worse than Willemse or AE

Its absolutely insulting to DA saying a test 12 with his record can’t play it wide - fuck me,

DA plays to a plan the old Bok plan

The biggest factor in our big win after NZs pathetic defense, was not having Dud Allende in the field charging into the nearest defender and killing our momentum

Bullshit - had DA been there he would have played it the same as AE who passed it all of about 3 times

I put the stats up Esterhozen had the ball 11 times, ran 6 and passed 5. In the Eden Park test Dud Allende had the ball 15 times …tractored 11 times and passed 4.

Pass % Esterhozen….45%

Dud Allende ….27%

Case closed.

Two completely different matches with completely different conditions, so to nitpick those particular differences to prove some point is kinda nonsensical.

We've been pressing Dawie this year, and the result has been total exposure.

The long list of names, the jargon, the belief in myths backed by no stats, the perpetual circular and illogical arguments and the sheer inability to treat fact like fact...

I very much doubt that even the most ardent DDA supporters here, the few that remain, would be so irrational as to claim that DDA would have done what AE did on Saturday.

To me it's incomprehensible that a supposed hardcore rugby fan claims that DDA and AE are the same player.

"Vey bofe play va powa game."

There is no facet of Rugby where AE does not score higher than DDA.

Geez Moz that is dumb - it’s not down to DA how the Boks play - in that game we played it tight hence less passing. With the AE game it was expansive so of course there would be more passing

Come on Moz - bit obvious

Buttplug - AE and DA play the same game - the power game. DA is better than AE

"Two completely different matches with completely different conditions, so to nitpick those particular differences to prove some point is kinda nonsensical."

Well, how about you do the responsible and intellectually honest thing, and go and look at broader stats involving DDA and AE. You're gonna find the same thing as above.

My guess, when you've done that...we'll return to the gameplan argument.

Why not just say that you don't care about stats, you don't care about how AE performs and you don't want to change your mind because it's been made up. You support DDA because he's a WP boy and that's as

much as you're willing to entertain.

Look at it this way….you can have an instant change in the way we play:

1 By adopting for the first time a totally new playing style and executing it faultlessly.

2 By changing to players who are most comfortable playing that style.

My own totally convinced take is that getting rid of Dud had the biggest effect., so I vote 2.

For me it’s simple - AE and DA were the same, DA got the nod ahead of AE which was unfortunate for him as had AE been the chosen one, no doubt he would have done as good a job for the Boks

I completely get why Rassie chose DA and I completely get what he has done for the Boks - he has been integral to their success over nearly a decade and NOTHING will convince me otherwise. At times he has been the best 12 in the game and I’d probably select him over Jean as the best Bok 12 ever - if not the best then certainly the second best

But we have reached the point of needing to let go of our current group of centres and invest in the new brigade which have the potential to be even better than the current old men.

Moving forward it has to be Willemse/ Hooker/ David Kriel at 12 and Moodie/ Julius/ Henco v Wyk at 13 - it’s a no brainer and the time is NOW

The biggest impact last Saturday was Sacha and then Manie at 14, Willemse and then AE at 12 and Jasper and the other 2 loosies. It was an attitude thing and Sacha, Damien and Jasper were ready to go from the 1st second of the match...Hooker, Kolbe and the two flakers also pitched in nicely. Our tight 5 and their replacements were on fire. The whole team was on fire, but IMO it started at 8-10-12.

Agreed and add Kolbe to the equation

Sacha ignited the Boks