Jaco Kriel is world class

For me he's been the best back rower in the competition. Probably in the world ATM. Great Ball Carrier, solid in core roles, great link player, great defender etc. He well be crucial againgst abs this weekend. Key for abs we'll be shutting him down.

 Luke
Wait for the crazy in another pollution attack o n this thread.   

 
Awesome to hear you say that 3K.

He's even more impressive on the openside ... which is where he should have been ages ago ... but unfortunately we have to endure the welfare policies that our "coach" insists upons ... and with it his generous handouts to the undeserving.

Not only is he the best openside flank in the country but is also easily within the top 3 best rugby players in South Africa.  He is also a natural leader and a better captain than Etzebeth will ever be. 

Our backrow should be Kriel, Du Preez, and Whiteley ...

 How do we all see this but the guy doesnt get a proper shot until this year? Now that he's 28.
Selections in SA are the most baffling part of rugby.

CC..." Our backrow should be Kriel, Du Preez, and Whiteley ..."

No question but Whiteley captain...hopefully when he is fixed...EE as chief has not been at all bad but Warren is a born leader...and a very complete and polished one that attracts the right type of respect amongst his players...a bit like Teich, Frans Pienaar and Smitty in his hay day.

 
Absolutely, Sebastien.

Whiteley is a natural ... he inspires and has ralied his boys to give an axtra 10% on many ocassion. Etzebeth is still wet behind the ears. Luckily he hasn't been called on to do much other than decide on whether to go for touch or the poles.

Eben's appoitment was a bit of a surprise to me ... especially when you have another natural in Jao Kriel ... but then again both the captain and his vice are from the Stormers ... need I say more.

 Well things just got harder for your lot then as he is out of this weekends test and heading home with a shoulder injury

 Kriel is out with an injury and will not play on Saturday - he has been sent back to SA.

As good as Kriel is, we'll probably have a better balanced loose trio with Jean-Luc du Preez replacing him. If we're playing Kriel and Kolisi then we're effectively playing two fetchers and while Cassiem hasn't been terrible, he's not the greatest ball carrier so Jean-Luc brings some much needed grunt and ball carrying ability to the loose trio.

 And that marvel of a player has yet not been drafted to play in a NH club... 28 years of age. NH clubs need better scouts. Do they even know where SA is, to miss a world class player who readily join any NH club...

 I fully agree that Kriel should have been picked long ago. He has played his best rugby already. Its a lot like Duanne Vermuelen who also got picked far too late. There are morons running our rugby.
Play both Du Preez twins.

 Rooinek
I differ from you - Cassiem went AWOL on Saturday and  he was poor all along.

Ou Maaik, I'm not for one second saying Cassiem was good and I expressed my dismay about his selection ahead of Jean-Luc du Preez some time ago, but he wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be . . . just like Oupa Mohoje wasn't. 
Still, I wouldn't have either one in my extended squad let alone my starting XV.
If Allister is short a player of colour I reckon he could do a lot worse than Sbu Nkosi. Don't really know why it's suddenly so fashionable to have two players of colour in the loose trio. Siya Kolisi is there on merit and Skuna Notshe remains a long-term prospect, but that's about it as far as black loosies go.

 
Cassiem is a quota ... as are the rest of the POC in the squad. 

Give me one Black guy in the squad that doesn't have a better white option.

Just one.




 

Notshe.... LONG TERM PROSPECT? But a year ago you posted this: .. If I was picking a Bok team right now (ignoring injury but not ignoring quotas) then it would be packed full of Lions . . . 15 Warwick Gelant 14 Ruan Combrinck 13 Lionel Mapoe 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg 11 Seabelo Senatla/Jamba Ulengo/Courtnall Skosan 10 Elton Jantjies 9. Faf de Klerk 8. Daniel du Preez 7. Sikhumbuzo Notshe 6. Jaco Kriel 5. Pieter-Steph du Toit 4. Eben Etzebeth 3. Vincent Koch 2. Malcolm Marx 1. Steven Kitsoff/Beast Mtawarira/Dylan Smith 16 Edgar Marutlelle 17 Steven Kitsoff/Beast Mtawarira/Dylan Smith 18 Trevor Nyakane 19 RG Snyman 20 Jean Luc du Preez 21 Cobus Reinach/Nic Groom/Rudy Paige 22 Patrick Lambie 23 Seabelo Senatla/Jamba Ulengo/Courtnall Skosan .... I guess a year is not enough. Man that's an embarrassing team!

Still the disappearance of Kleintjie is serious. Last week Kolisi and Kriel together played open side and pretty much were par for that one slot, Stephanie played blindside and poor Eben had to play both locks. Now Kolisi will have to play open side by himself. But I guess that's ok because the two du Preez twins could play 8th man, hell you couldn't even tell them apart, it would be seamless. Then Stephanie could still play blinside and Eben could take on Jaws and Whiteluck. ... Fixed.

 
Well ... it gets worse ... Cassiem is a blindside flank ... so is Du Preez ... and so is Kolisi.

We'll have PSDT, Kolisi, Cassiem and Du Preez all playing on the blindside till one of them is subbed for the other Du Preez brother.

I wonder if Etzebeth can cover both lock spots, the open flank and 8th man?

No wonder they made him captain.

Seen from the left....seen from the right. Still you have to ecstatic Turn, at some stage on Saturday you could have Kitshoff, Stephanie and the du Preez twins all on the park at the same time.

 The pollution factor is back with a vengeance as expected.   Crazy comments  indicate a worse pollution alert ever. 

 Anyone justifying the garbage written above by Polluter no 1 does not need to smoke anything t o see through the BS.    

 Maaik, where's your sense of humor.  That was good jesting by Mozz and CC.

 Draad
Unfortunately the ,aim polluter was not jesting and you will soon find out he was deadly serous about his game description.      

 I know Mike, but there was enough jest to let it slide fore the moment. (for me anyway) My post was also in jest. I've been around here long enough to read between the lines.

 Draad 
Sorry Draad = you will find that  whenever Du Toit is discussed in  future, the story that Etzebeth was less effective because Du Tpit  was infective in his work as a lock  will be repeated in future,
It happened in the past that BS - like the long neck, thin wrists and thin shoulders was repeated and defended by the Polluter repeatedly when challenged on the issue.   Because it is utter BS some may regard it as a joke - but wait for it and the BS will defended and used in future as factual.     

Estebeth is just lazy. Bit more work rate Is needed from this guy. Retalluck is light years ahead of any lock in the world. Pity Kriel is out for the test this weekend. Helps the abs. They well prob play Squire with Read and Cane.

 Eben lazy? Lol.

3uk1, you'll find that there are some posters here - Draad and Moffie among them - who cannot tolerate any kind of criticism of Eben Etzebeth. Ever.

The rest of us see this slow lumbering oaf plodding around the field only looking interested when there's any kind of handbags so he can push someone smaller than him and smile his stupid I-are-so-tough-I-even-smiles-for-you grin . . . but these Eben worshippers will tell you he had a magnificent game and did all these world-class things on the field.

Fact is, I cannot recall even one occasion in Tests or in Super Rugby where Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit played alongside one another where Pieter-Steph didn't completely outplay the lumbering donkey . . . but don't tell that to the Eben groupies!

Funny ... I've never really rated Retallick as highly as some have. He's a good solid lock ... but he's no Du Toit ... he's no Etzebeth.

As I said earlier ... the locks we have are better than what the All Blacks have.

 

I thought this post was around Jaco Kriel and nothing to do with 4's and 5's.

All these locks, PSDT, EE and Retallick (on both sides) are not only good but outstanding at times...strangely and surprisingly to some here they are human and have this flaw that they shouldn't have....lol...sometimes more "sheet" flies around these matters and debates than amongst personal vendettas...louder lols.

This forum is definitely more hilarious sometimes when it comes to rugby expertise...very entertaining.

 Rootwit you take on Eben is about as poor as folk believing Matfiled was a lock. Laughable stuff !!

 Rooi, one has to give Eben some credit.

I too was and kind of still am on the impression that he doesn't quite live up to the hype, but from time to time he does bring me back to hype corner again.

Pros...

Provides much unnoticed scrum time power.
Flies under the radar at ruck time but makes an impact.
Decent successful tackle percentage.
Doesn't get injured often.
Excellent line-out option.

Cons...

Gets the ball stolen off him too easily.
No step.
Very little ball skills. Maybe he's got some but he's never really shown them.
Tends not be in the right place at the right time.
Only good for 30 mins in the first half and 15 in the second.
Clean breaks are few and far between.
Doesn't run good lines onto the ball when near the line.

For my money PSDT makes more of an attacking impact on games. He seems to read the game better and runs off of peoples shoulders and gets to more rucks.

I'm more of a fan of the PSDT/Mostert type of lock but that y well be down to my forward play ignorance.

Eben hasnt been aweful though and i think the team is better off with him in...especially now that he has the likes of Whitely above him to learn from and the responsibility of guiding Du Preez, Marx and some other young guys around him. He should be entering his prime now and if he is ever gonna be great then my feeling is that we should be catching glimpses of it soon.

Mostert is ahead of both PSDT and Eben though. He does everything they do but his inspiration factor puts him way ahead of both. Guy's a straight up soldier.

I'd like to see our more knowledgeable contributors compiling a list of pros and cons for PSDT, Eben and Mostert. 

 CC your having a laugh aren't you, come on admit it your just trolling. SA locks better than the AB's   best joke I have heard in ages.

 
Nope ... quite serious, Sader.

Whitelock and Retallick aren't bad as far as locks go, but there's nothing really special about them, is there?

Eben is a super athlete and Du Toit is even better than him. Mostert stole more opposition ball this season than anyone else.

You guys were given a torrid time by the British and Irish Lions. In fact they dominated that set piece. Who were your locks? Exactly!!! See my point?

Nah ... I'm afraid you guys may breed quality backline players and the odd good loosie but locks have always been a strength of ours.

It was so funny when old SBW was mouthing of to Eben a while back, waving his finger in his face and all. The silly man didn't even realise how close he came to death that day. He struggled with an old fat man ... no punching power whatsoever. Eben on the other hand cleans out entire pubs when in the mood.

There's no comparison, Sader.   

 

"Eben hasnt been aweful though and i think the team is better off with him in."
No, not awful, just hopelessly overrated.
If it was me I'd have Pieter-Steph du Toint and Franco Mostert as my starting locks but Eben Etzebeth is ahead of Lood de Jager and anyone else for the bench spot.

"It was so funny when old SBW was mouthing of to Eben a while back, waving his finger in his face and all. The silly man didn't even realise how close he came to death that day."
Pfffffffffffffhahahahahahahaha!
Sunni Bill would clean out Eben's clock any time, any place. 
He'd smack him so hard that Eben's "I-are-so-tough-I-even-smiles-for-you" grin would become a permanent feature.

 Wow. Eben has probably been our most consistent world class player since he started playing for the Boks...and CC, it was his dad and uncles doing the pub brawls, Eben and his cousins have a hard time living down that rep.SA has a lot of promise in the second row, but NZ has the more settled combo of quality locks ATM. Nothing wrong with them, in fact, I don't understand why Saffas under rate them so much.

A restrained reply Draad despite my bait.
Agree with you on the AB locks. I'm not one of those that underrates the likes of Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick and Luke Romano and I reckon Patrick Tuipolotu could be as good or even better than any of them if he got his head sorted out.

 Basjan, Kleintjie Kriel is injured. Fine player, but we've moved on to players that will be playing this weekend...since when is the topic of a thread relevant to the discussion anyways?

 LOL Rooi! I'm not an Eben worshipper.