It was the mighty midgets that won us the World Cup

My job is to entertain and to educate, says a famous financial analyst. . Unfortunately humans are now so programmed by social media that they need conflict. And the algorithms are programmed to encourage that, the more conflict the more engagement and the more advertising revenue.

Gone is the ability to reflect, to remember a strand of poetry. To observe the world and use your god given mental capacity to interpret it. A world that moved away from real tribes is now congregated by virtual tribes.

These people are so brainwashed that despite the obvious significant role of luck in three consecutive one point wins, they can’t admit it. The tribe wont wear it.

You  have a poster on here who in one of his rare lucid moments claimed a Bok World Cup win would be in spite of Erasmus, not because of him. And then when the TMO handed us the final on a platter he reversed himself and declared Erasmus a genius.

Imagine the need to belong that creates that kind of change.

The odd thing is we do have incredible potential based on a foundation of old Bok forward power and potent backs drawn from our now broader pool. But the way we won the WC ignored that new potency and made everything an arm wrestle.

Any thinking human being would see the lack of ambition….the need to win at all costs driven by inadequacy. The ABs lost but next July under a competent coach  they will be renewed, not at all diminished by their 14 man loss.

This whole debate is about seeing the world in context, being honest,  demanding high standards ….not falling for the hype….seeing the flaws and the strengths. If I want to see the world through the eyes of cheerleaders the aesthetics would be much better at an American football game.

An adult debate with concepts, logic, observations and statistics is so much more satisfying than waving a flag and it might actually create a bit of intellectual freshness in a sport where most reporting doesn’t rise above the banal. 

Pakie made some excellent comments about the French failings, I saw none of that in the totally empty media…but he was spot on. We could have more of that.

And a little bit repartee never hurt anybody, but there is no need to try to and humiliate posters with a different view

Nice post Piles but here's the thing, always thought you have a way with words and you're a top bloke as long as one agrees with everything you say so cut the spin and practice what you preach the proof as they say is in the eating. The floor is yours.

Other than Doos nobody on this board has come near to being as biased and nonsensical in their rugby comments than mozzzzz.  Once he gets something wrong he goes on and on and on trying to prove he is right.

He got the Boks wrong in 2 world cups, he got Rassie wrong he got Du Toit wrong and he got Allende wrong. But he insists he was right. 

He couldn't argue argue that the Boks had an easy passage so he had to find another excuse as to why the Boks won. Now its all to do with luck. So biased is he that he can give little credit and when he does its through clenched teeth. He pretends to be a thinking type open to rational debate but he obviously is just a biased and dishonest hack.

How often did he correct his side kick Doos.  EVER? Think of the nonsense Doos posted, the pure insults aimed at the Boks.

Stick with Mozzz has become a board joke and rightly so.

The truth is that there is nothing much wrong with the Bok attack. The Boks can play it tight or be more attacking as the situation demands.

Should we win a third consecutive RWC with Rassie as coach poor mozzzz will think up some other excuse as to why the Boks won. He will be bitterly disappointed and carry on whining for months. He appears to have zero ability to self reflect and alter course.

"Correct?"

From my point of view... nope.... absolutely not ..... in fact very far from it

Can't speak for the others

Gotta love how the red card was negated by the lack of a specialist hooker….but the coach is a genius. The lack of a specialist hooker was totally the result of decisions by the genius. And no, having a non regular playing in a position that’s not his regular gig, is not the same as having no player at all in one position.

Yep Moolaa historically everybody pretty much agreed, an extended red decides the game…..not this time though. It’s a a kind of mass delusion.

You guys were very sporting about it, I doubt some on our side would have been that tolerant. Personally I think the whole thing was excessive.

Cane shouldn't have fcked up then...the Boks were lucky, I'll take that...we've had our fair share of bad luck over the years...just a pity some bitter ballz on here can't handle a bit of good fortune for a change...

Actually Draad, some of us wanted the WC final to be a fair contest, not a handicapped win over the ABs, that will forever have an asterisk attached to it. The more so if we lose to them in the RC this year.

I could never understand the crowds baying for a card rather than a contest….and I’m surprised South Africans are counted in that number.

Loose Forward

https://www.allblacks.com/playerprofiles/ardie-savea/

compared to 130k LompiedeLoood, he's a midget.

If Fourie was inadequate it’s 100% on the genius. But it’s nonsense we were only 78% in the line outs against the Poms with Bongi and NZ competed far more aggressively.

In the scrums NZ handled Ox, our only effective weapon quite well.

Well Dave you seem to be agreeing, absent the red card and Pollard NZ would have wasted the Boks because of Harrassmiss’ bat crazy decision to have one hooker in the whole squad.

Nobody is making the case that the ABs would have beaten the Boks if  our coach had made the right selections and followed  a more productive strategy. Simply that given the choices Harrassmiss made the ABs were the better team on the day and the Boks scraped a one point win because the ABs played a man down and because Pollard saved the fat man’s blushes.

Frankly I was struggling to explain this in terms you and the other groupies could grasp and then you made the case for me. 

Here it is again:

Full strength Boks vs full strength ABs…..unknown

No card  ABs vs no hooker Boks….ABs by 9

No card ABs vs no hooker, no Pollard Boks….ABs by 14.

Conclusion Harrassmiss made a horrible mistake and was saved by a dubious red card which puts an asterisk next to the win.

Stick with moz.

"Actually Draad, some of us wanted the WC final to be a fair contest, not a handicapped win over the ABs, that will forever have an asterisk attached to it. The more so if we lose to them in the RC this year."

I wanted that too, but unfortunately Cane fucked up...call it pressure,  call it careless...I don't care...my Bokke got over the line...I refuse to diminish their achievement because of something somebody else did.

"We won because of the belief and resolve instilled by the best coach the Boks have ever had"

The Crux

"Sob . . . the ref was naughty, we kicked everything, we didn't win on handicap, the TMO was a cheat . . . and boohoohoo . . . the red card . . . and . . . sob . . . and it's all so dis piriting! How dare you all celebrate this as a win? Can't you see the big asterisk? Sob . . . it's so unfair!"

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Kane rightly got a red card, head high tackle. The fact Frizel were still on the field after losing our only recognised hooker. It won't surprise me if team target certain players. There have been books written of how teams would target certain players. Don't forget that on one tour the boks took to NZ they had their national heavy weight boxer in the team that knocked out about 3 players. Days before the red card. The difference is that it is far more subtle. It wouldn't surprise me if Bongi was targeted at the ruck. 

Don't forget about that forward pass of a try that shouldn't have stood, and teams can win even if they are only playing with 13 men. Don't forget that Sharks team under Jake white that played with 13 players for most of the game against the But Crust Raiders (Crusaders). Difficult game and the team dug deep. I think the boks would have found a way and we were dominating in the first 30 min, but it was about game management and shutting them down. 

That is another reason why I was so surprised that we won with a lot more smaller players when traditionally, our players got destroyed by bigger NZ backs. 

SA use to have 2 ways of selecting their teams. If you are big, you are a forward, if you are small, you are a back. The only big backs we had like Joos probably went through a growth spurt late in their teens. Where as NZ was always about skill and Pace. 

NZ backs were bigger than our backs. Some of their forwards were bigger, their props outweighed Ox by 30kgs. But he held his own. 

Agree on Fourie, he is not a scrummager, Bongi and Marx is. 

Senior player

2555 posts

Just to correct everyone on here. 

All bok players minis ten. They were rubbish. 

Kwotalisi who? 

Bongi missing throws etc. 

We had no physical edge. Deon Fourie and RG making a difference. 

Those two can probably go into 7.5

But the rest were shit 

Hall Of Fame

13332 posts

Rassie the "genius" . . .

Just about everything Rassie has done up to this point has been the opposite of genius, it's been downright moronic. 

Picking 4 scrumhalves in the initial squad (and then not even putting a 2nd scrumhalf on the bench in the final), replacing the injured Mapimpi with Lukhanyo Am when we desperately needed a hooker (and then not giving Am even a minute game time), the kick-and-hope game plan (when we have so much talent in our backline), the 7-1 split on the bench for the final of a RWC game . . . just about every inportant decision has been botched . . . yet we've made it to the final through a combination of luck and having such a good pool of players to choose from.

If we play anything even resembling the kind of game we played against England in the semifinal then the All Blacks are going to put 30 points over us.

Yet, for all that, let me just say that if we win - however we win and by whatever margin - I will take back all my criticism of Rassie and proclaim him a rugby genius.

Go Bokke!!!

Hall Of Fame

24426 posts

King Rassie is a great coach just not a perfect one evidenced by this fucking pathetic Mostert call How the fuck can anyone select Mostert over RG it’s insulting 

Kriel ahead of Am Mostert ahead of RG Arendse ahead of Moodie Reinach ahead of Faf Vermeulen ahead of Wiese (more marginal) 

These calls are going to cost us, they devalue the side that should have been. The side that would have looked better on paper than the French one 

Now it does not. Rassie you 

Revisionism, doesn’t stand up to a little scrutiny. Kane’s red car was classical rugby stupidity. There was no intent. Why? Because Kane, unlike Kolisi who lined up his target, never thought he was going to make the tackle.

The tacklers were ahead of Kriel and then he changed direction into Kane, whose reaction to wrap him up was totally reflex in a micro second.

All these talking heads drone on about mitigation…you don’t mitigate in a micro second. It was just a rugby incident. And if you wanted to keep the lawyers happy 10 minutes was more than enough punishment.

It never even passed the high degree of risk test, Kriel was totally unhurt.

The fact that a contest we had waited 4 years to see was compromised by that incident is a nonsense. The fact is we don’t know who would have won that game.I can’t get excited about beating 14 men