Interesting Match-up’s this weekend

So the first round of super rugby games are about to kick-off with a couple of SA derbies. Thought that this might be interesting to see how these players perform in their first outing.

Lions vs Lions AKA cat fight

Goosen vs Jantjies

Goosen is back from injury and seem to have passed through the off season without any major setbacks. Jantjies didn’t feature in the warm up due to injury. Jantjies has all the attacking skill and it would be interesting to see how these to go head to head. Goosen is a bit braver in defence and should keep Jantjies in check. Hopefully it should be an open running game but I expect some errors.

Sharks vs Bulls

Steyn vs Serfontein

Serfontein the young heir to the throne for the number 12 jersey and the former heir to the 12 jersey, both powerful players with Serfontein having the creative edge. Steyn has better physical attributes where as Serfontein has speed on his side. Expecting a titanic battle.

Jordaan vs JJ Engelbrecht

Jordaan has been really poor in the warm up games. His hands seem to let him down. Fantastic runner once he has the ball in his hands.  JJ has loads of pace and can be devastating when given room. Both players has been labelled as poor defenders. Hopefully this will settle the argument as to who are the better 13’s in SA. Can the ‘small’ Jordaan overcome the big JJ. 

Kingcorn

I did not like what I saw of Jordaan when knocking on two balls in the Saracen game and I was disappointed by him last year in Super 15.   However, you cannot accuse him of being a poor defender.   He last year in Super 15 made 58 tackles in the games he played in and missed only 4 for a missed tackle ratio of 6%.   The big song and dance of Mozart and co was about one of the 4 missed tackles where he went high on Freuan and was bounced off - not normal with him and did not happen again ever in any of the matches he played in.  

His defence in the Saracen game was also very good - admitted as much by White. 

 Shatkbok

One has to wonder how fit Steyn really is - he was good in the one warm up game last year and then went back rapidly.   We have not seen him playing well in any game he played since his return from injury - but the media has given him a lot of credit.  One of the problem areas with Steyn last year was his defence and I think the fact that White is playing Jordaan is to ensure that he covers should Steyn missed tackles the way he did last year. 

Be it as it may -we will see soon enough how things go as to the pairings referred to.   I am equally interested about the performance of Alberts.   He had the lowest work rate of any SA loosie in Super 15 last year and I wonder how long White would put up with that.  Would like to see what happens on Saturday, but I think there may be problems with the loosie combination likely to start.       

 Shezza

I do not think that Coetzee is over-adventuress in his selections.   I think he wants to protect his key players from injury and  even he would realize that he needs to cover some of his key elderly players especially.

Howard was injured and will not be able to play (minor hammy problem) - otherwise he would be in the team. 

I think the players that is likely to show up well in this game against weak opposition are going to be Taute, Viljoen, Van Aswegen and Ruan Botha.   They are given playing time to prove that they are they are ready to start or the  real back ups for the top players in the case of injury.  

Incidentally last year some real injury problems stemmed from pre-season matches and Coetzee is not going to repeat that disaster.        

 Machiavelli

I have not yet welcomed you to the forum and want to do it now.

I must be brutally frank - in studying Political Science I have developed a healthy respect for Machiavelli.   He was brutally frank about issues - but what he preached and practised was very practical and even though it sounded harsh - at least honest as well.   Quite different from the dishonesty - which have become the norm in modern times politicians.

The one saying of his was to the point as well-

"A Prince should not take away the possessions of his people - people sooner forget the death of a parent than they forget the loss of their property".  Not a direct quote - but that is the gist of what he said. 

In any event your latest contribution is clear and to the point.     I agree with you whole-heartedly on that o ne 

Welcome Mach;  I held off welcoming you to see what sort of character you are, lol

I must say the quotes add a certain originality & theme to your posts which is a good thing. Not so fond of the Prince himself but he brought a certain "realism" to the table.

Anyway, what with moles, duplicate ids and what-not no harm in having Machiavelli here. One might say that there are many who practice his teachings already

Welcome mate!