If NZ chose based on form....

Understand the value of what you have. South Africa's plastic fans form emotional attachments to certain players for no good reason and imagine the good that they do. It's like a woman being beaten by her man, yet she'll tell you all of the wonderful things about the knuckle-dragging blockhead. These fans are tortured by these payers, but want more. It's very twisted and bizarre looking from the outside in.

The good players? They never have enough x factor. The fans don't want a grafter like Juan Smith. They want 2006 Spies instead. More fun to watch. 

If New Zealand had to do things the South African way, Carter would never have played again after 2009, given his intercept that blew their chance at the Tri Nations. Or the hordes of missed kicks in some tests. They'd have stuck with Spencer though. That fits the South African model well. He'd be good for 50 to 80 tests. 

Yes, and it was Schalk they wanted demoted. Schalk Burger! There was some heated discussion in 2008 about the two. It should never have been a debate at all. That was after his awful debut in 2007 against Samoa, before the Tri Nations. How short their memories were. 

I recall another foolish sub. 2009 against Ireland, 9ir scrum is keeping us in the game. Peter subs Bissie for Smit and our scrum falls apart. He had a habit of using the bench poorly. However, subbing a sub after 10 minutes takes some beating 

These "plastic" fans you keep referring to, are you one of them?

You seem to have a liking for coach Meyer, yet in hindsight, he was as ordinary as they come. As you so correctly pointed out, a coward by nature.

Plastic fans are fickle fans who will mercilessly attack players of substance and the coach. They'll call for wholesale changes at the first sign of trouble and one win is enough to have them beating their chests like an army of silver backs. I'm sure the Kiwis here are very familiar with that. 

I never said Meyer was a coward. I did say he didn't have the courage to follow his convictions. You lean too far to an extreme. Meyer kept a side without legends #2 for a good portion of his tenure. From the September 15th 2012 until September 6th 2014 only New Zealand could beat the Boks. He was never as bad as the plastics made him out to be. They essentially believed he only selected old players, keeping youngsters out. He in fact went to youth first and was unrewarded. He gave numerous players opportunities. We had 11 outside centres alone, 6 fly halves. So many more. The plastics never conceded poor judgement when their idols failed the team. They had no problem attacking some of our best players. Booing Pollard off the field for Lambie has to be one for the lowest points in Springbok history. Truly ugly. 

This is the hallmark of a plastic fan. I don't agree with everything Meyer did, but I have a balanced perspective. Those like Clever Mike insist he is the very worst coach in work rugby. That's extraordinarily childish and ignorant. They should enjoy the mess we are in now, it's what they wanted. 

This is the funniest thread in years.   We have Mozart who in the Meyer years and still defended selection of reputation players and who made fabulous claims while some really defective players should be retained.  

In the process they constructed without regard to actual performance cloud nine performance assessment with no regard to reality.   The poor players they supported could only be credited with attributes they never showed on the field of play and a campaign of disinformation and outright lies is used against the players who threatened the selection of their favourites.

Now suddenly this totally defective approach shifted to Barrett.   The main issue relates to Mo'anga about whose performance they know preciously little.   They do not watch most Super Rugby matches and did not know that Mo'anga missed a large part of the 2018 super rugby season due to injury.   

There is a real future for Mo'anga  - he is an excellent flyhalf - but should anybody even consider replacing  the present NZ flyhalf with him without the present flyhalf showing defects in performance?      Since the two main contributors have a major defective record in supporting seriously defective SA players - this must be a first line joke by posting delinquen ts. LMAO     

Watson was the better open-side flank back in the day. He should have received his call up, but didn't because Jake just didn't like him. Much like Meyer who didn't rate Marx or Jaco Kriel or for that matter CJ Stander.

It happens.

Burger was a good player but wasn't suited to the open-side. He had so many flaws in the way he played. He was hopelessly too upright in contact and his neck injury was inevitable.

Still, how do you leave a player like that out of your team?

Watsons problem is that he really wanted to be scrum-half. I certainly don't miss those days. He had his moments, but he was a plastic fans dream player. When he had to do anything of substance, he just wasn't that guy. In his Boks tests, all 10 of them, he was completely lost. That Samoa test of 2007 really should have been the end of the discussion. It was a game perfect for the kind of player Watson was said to be, to showcase his skill set. Even some in the media conceded that this was the perfect opportunity for White to overlook him. 

Schalk's neck injury came from a Lineout. I agree though, he was not the best opensider, but he still outplayed Watson. Schalk was a truly multifaceted and dynamic player. He was much closer to the Watson that existed in the imagination of his fans. 

Hansen has the right mix between rewarding players who push their way to the front like Miner Skudder and giving players like Nonu the benefit of the doubt based on his inherent class.

One is a proven material, the other is not, one has been in neutral form, the other in great form, NZ rugby is not broken.

Nothing like a player out of form.

SA rugby, never been functional, never been localized etc Always missing of something.

NZ rugby has been built over decades, SA rugby have build nothing yet. Both do not compare.

In many other rugby nations, it's a long time since it was understood that a selection policy is not about the best players, but the most adequate players.

I was never really a Watson fan - he was not a test player, but good on Super Rugby level.   There are numerous cases where he was clearly not a team man either,   

However, the collapse of loosie players took place under Meyer and is still continuing.   It si always wise to select players who are good in all aspects of play and that includes - defense, attacking play and ball protection and recovery.

In the Meyer years in the main the tendency always was to select seriously pace-deficient players.  Alberts was the wort - but even Vermeulen and Louw was slower than they should have been.    Vermeulen made up that deficiency with a more advance level of ball sense than the other two had. By the time Burger returned from his major injury of 2-12 he was not a shadow of the player he used to be.  

Be it as it may - neither of the loosies were really capable of linking up with the backline in attacking moves.   Mozart would scram murder on that and refer to two incidents in the AB test in 2013 where it did happen - but there is no such occurrence in all matches played.

As to defense - the player could tackle in the channel - not effectively as well - and was tooslow to cover anything wider.  Couples to that only Meyer at times were able to be effective in ball protection and recovery - the other two failed totally in that respect while playing under SH conditions.  In the WC played in England the slower game allowed for turnovers by Louw - but that was in 2015 - at present he is totally out of depth in that respect.

So Mozart twisted this thread away from Barrett and this is meant for him and not anybody else.

        .       

The most successful loose forward combination post 2009 has been Duane, Alberts, Louw. 

As stated by McCaw himself, being an effective flanker is more about lines of running. In other words, economy of movement. These players weren't too slow though, as we've seen Alberts beat wings in the past. This is just another lowly attempt at taking a swipe at Meyer. 

The loose trio of Duane, Alberts and Louw cleaned up the breakdown when they were together, in both the SH and the NH.