....there are two choices, Goosen and Willie le Roux. Le Roux has the vision to be a rather brilliant 10. All the rest are kickers, except for Jantjies, who is a poor copy of Quade Cooper.
Not sure about Willie. I believe a flyhalf must possess the skills from a young age. Must be playing flyhalf from schoolboy days and be an utter specialist.
Willie is too exciting and I am not sure we want him to be passing more often than having a crack. He seems to work best in space out wide. Paul Jordaan has been a flyhalf his whole life apparently. Tim Swiel (I have never seen him play) is apparently also a man for the running game. Goosen seems our best option at the moment based on what we know.
I dont think Lambie is that great. He has some brilliant games, none more so than the CC final but otherwise he is pretty stock standard these days.
A flyhalf needs ball sense and ability to read games instantaneously. Unfortunately Morne Steyn has neither of the two qualities - so finding a flyhalf is a high priority.
Lambie has all the qualities to be a good flyhalf - but so far this year he was erratic - at some times brilliant and at other times problematic. I think his problem is that he is trying to play a game to satisfy the coach and not his natural game. On the positive side his defence is better than Morne's.
I think Goosen is probably the only candidate at present. However, he had very little recent game time - an appearance from the bench showed some very nice touches on CC level - but he needs playing time to prove his candidature. If he is injury-free I think he will indeed stake his claim.
Jordaan has all the qualities to be a top flyhalf - but for one thing - his kicking game was at one stage not regarded as acceptable. He played at 12 for the Sharks in the Super 15 final in 2012 and made one of the best line breaks any SA player made for years against any NZ team. However, he did not show up well enough in Super 15 this year - but it probably had more to do with the dysfunctional Sharks backline this year. A return to the 2012 form is a high priority in his case.
I have seen two videos on Tim Swiel - that guy is a ball sense wiz kid. He was the key to te Stormer Under 21 team winning the Under 21 Cup this year. He really has it all - top strategic kicking, excellent goal kicking, and he has speed and wonderful distributional skills. His defence is sound. However, I think that he needs to prove himself on Super 15 level and am looking forward to what White can do with him.
I do not think that Le Roux is a natural 10 and would rather see him on the wing or at full back. I have never seen him kicking at goal.
I would like to see what 2014 Super 15 produces and am looking forward to what White especially does with the Sharks .
Has Jake indicated where he will consider Swiel? There has not been much mention of Zeilinga. Is Jake of the mindset the Zeilinga needs more time in the Vodacom cup/Currie Cup environment or is he not a believer in Zeilinga?
I know Zeilinga has promise and Ialso have never seen Swiel on a rugby field bar his youtube clips at school but the opposition there is not what the opposition is at first class rugby.
At this present time in their careers, who is the more complete of the two? Zeilinga or Swiel?
Just watched his under 21 video from the link you gave. Dark days for Zeilinga. Hell, for Lambie too for that matter and Swiel looks a lot more filled out now than his school days and he probably still has a bit more filling out to do naturally!
Will be good for the Sharks to have guys like Lambie, Swiel, Marais, JP Pietersen (if he is back for the s15??), Steyn, Whitehead, Mvovo and Jordaan amongst the backs. Surely one of the Fisher boys has to be close to maturing too..Good times ahead for the Sharks. I just hope we dont have another freak injury season like 2013!!
boklogic
It would be interesting to see what Jake White is going to do with that backline players you mentioned. However there are going to be some experiments in certain positions and since JP Pietersen will only be available as from late in March - White will have to find a wing to fill in.
* I think one of the issues to be addressed is the issue of scrummie - they have McCleod and Reinach. Problem is McCleod can be brilliant at times and a liability at others. I think that Reinach is a type of player White would prefer. However - it must be borne in mind that Du Preez and Pienaar cannot last forever and I am not sold on Hougaard (another McCleod type) and Van Zyl - while Schreuder and Groom are not my cup of tea either. Hope Reinach makes the grade - forcing his way into higher selection.
* The flyhalf position is interesting. White has Lambie available and he promised Swiel he would use him on Super 15 level. I suspect both will be utilized - either on a rotation basis - or from the bench with ample playing time. Both have ball sense (Swiel even more so than Lambie) - to my mind an essential at flyhalf. In essence I think that the coaches have tried to make Lambie into a second Morne Steyn - which he is not - and that he would be allowed to play his natural game. I suspect we will see very good flyhalf performances by both and with Goosen also around - we are likely to have a real pool of selectable flyhalfs by June. However, it should be borne in mind that Swiek can also play at full back. They (Lambie Swiel and Goosen) would have to be exceptional to get Meyer off his Morne Steyn addiction.
* At center White will have excellent talent available. His conundrum would be what to do with Francois Steyn. Steyn is not a ball sense player and he is slow in speed and also in passing the ball - in Super 15 and also the CC Final he tended to crashball frequently even when playing at 13. He has physical strength on his side - but he has had a very poor Super 15 this year and also had that major injury problem. In view of his speed and ball sense deficiency I think that White may use him at full back. There was an opinion expressed that the further out Steyn is used the better he performs - since he has more time to consider options - which he does not have at inside center. So who are the candidates for the critical number 12 position? I think the choice will be down to Jordaan, Whitehead and Esterhuizen. Of the three - bearing in mind that Jordaan is another ball sense player - with great speed - he may be the choice. As to the 13 position - again White has a wide choice. He can go with Steyn (a bit too slow and inclined to crashball), Whitehead, Esterhuizen, or Tyler Fisher . Having seen Esterhuizen playing a number of times - he may have the inside lane.
* On the wing Mvovo is a certainty and so is JP. The question is what is White going to do until Pietersen returns. He may decide to use Jordaan on the wing - but I do not think he will and he is likely to use SP Marais temporarily on the wing
* At full back White has Swiel, SP Marais and most likely also Francois Steyn available. The choice could be Swiel - especially if he intends to use Marais as a fill in wing.
I think the following Sharks backline will be dynamite and difficult to contain by any opposition team:-
15 Swiel, 14 Marais/Pietersen, 13 Esterhuizen, 12 Jordaan, 11 Mvovo, 10 Lambie, 9 Reinach, 21 McCleod, 22 Whithead, 23 Steyn/Marais
My smart money is on the Sharks winning the Super 15 trophy next year.
Mozart
With respect - has Morne got a step and is his defence in any way sound - especially since his technique is even worse than the one of Engelbrecht?
Lambie has twice the speed of Morne - so if you rate him as slow - what speed rating do you give to Morne? Sanil-paced?
Mozart I saw above that you are suggesting that Morne and Le Roux should interchange iro the flyhalf position. Very dangerous - since Morne's defence is poor and he is too slow in speed to be a full back.
The Truth
You are a bloody idiot if you think kicking a ball out of hand is ball sense. Let me give you one thought about the issue of ball sense:-
It is the ability to read games and instantaneously decide which option is the best option to take to maximise the benefit for your team. This includes what a player himself has to do - it could entail attacking the gain line, passing or skip passing balls, make strategic or relieving kicks, etc
Morne is robotic - he is slow in decision making and he always plays according to instructions - like if there is a turnover in possession, you must pass the ball not kick it, irrespective of circumstances. Example go and watch the second try of Messam at Ellis Park and you would find out why Naas Botha said it was stupid.
You stupid dunce - you do no realize that all players miss tackles. The issue is the miss tackle ratio - ie the ratio in missing tackles from the total number of tackle attempts. Morne's missed tackle ratio throughout the RC was 19% - 10% higher than is acceptable from a flyhalf. In the Ellis Park game it was 36,4% - which represent a disastrous deficiency.
There are degrees of seriousness in missing tackles - two misses by Morne resulted in tries being scored. Wiiliie made no tackles - but none of the misses had the consequences of Steyn's misses. He contributed to other components of the game - Morne's 66% success rate at kicking at goal - was his sole contribution.
Hell - but you are thick as a plank - dunce. I have really seen some ultra-stupid statements on this site - but your "to be able to properly kick a ball from hand or at goal, requires ball sense" takes the cake. What you are describing as ball sense is technical ability. T echnical ability can improve through training - ball sense is a natural ability - a player has it - or he does not have it.
That shows the level of thinking of Morne Steyn supporters on this site.
All I wish to say is:
Thank goodness you guys are not the national selectors!!!!!!!!!!
Mozart
It is easy to make general statemens - so what about Morne Steyn - what makes him special? Has he got a step? Does he attack the gain line?
About Lambie - you make the following statement:-
"....he cuts well onto a ball at pace. Sadly though, that's not for fly halves."
The statement really baffles me. In the time before Naas Botha - flyhalfs were taught to catch balls on the run - not standing still. It was drilled into us in the 1960's and 70's. Our backlines of the period was a strong component of our rugby and it was even more potent than our forwards.
The good flyhalves in the world has always had that ability you say is sadly not for flyhalves. Maybe it is because we do believe that flyhalfs should be stationary when they receive the balls is why we rarely have a half-decent flyhalf in SA.
The younger group of flyhalfs in SA all has the ability to catch balls on the run and distribute it on the run. They are basically advised not to do that by the coaches who do not really believe in comprehensive rugby - sadly that is what I believe is the way we coach attacking rugby out of our backline players.
Sharky
Somewhere else I raised the issue about Morne Steyn playing from the bench for Satde Francais. It then transpired that he is not regarded as being their first choice flyhalf. So we have a Springbok flyhalf not good enough to play in the starting line-up of a club team. Does that tell you something - it tells me he is bog ordinary and there is urgent need for replacement.
Is it Swiel's preference to play for Boks over England anyway bearing in mind, if he chose England, he would probably get a lot more gametime and a much longer international career?
SA will probably be made to play a black oke there soon enough and we seem to have much better prospects coming through than England does on a regular basis.
Basically, what I am asking is if Swiel was offered a Bok cap tomorrow, would he take it?
Goosen from what I've seen is hands down best attacking prospect but I sense the SAffas will choose the grinding FWD / NH style over flair and attacking prowess...
Considering next RWC is likely to be on wet muddy grounds in England I think kicking conservative fly half is the direction the boks will take.
Morne first choice with Lambie as back up.....
Unless Goosen just carves up the s15 this year with cheetahs - on that note these guys are easily my favourite saffa team - most exciting to watch and excellent forward pack...
They due a finals birth you think this year??
Shame Broussow gone though.......
