Th following from News24:-
In the build-up to Saturday's third Test between the Springboks and England at Newlands, coach Rassie Erasmus had said that he preferred to not substitute his flyhalves in Test matches.
READ: Rob Houwing's Bok ratings
Erasmus said he would back his playmaker even when things weren't going well, trusting them to make the decisions - good or bad - throughout the match.
That didn't stop him, however, from yanking Elton Jantjies off the Newlands turf before the hour-mark in South Africa's 25-10 loss to England in the third Test.
Jantjies, so often spoken of as a flyhalf who is unable to make the step up from Super Rugby to Test rugby, was all at sea in the miserable Cape Town conditions on Saturday.
He missed a routine shot at goal, kicked a routine clearance out on the full and his handling let him down throughout.
It all resulted in a display of game management that will do nothing for his long-term Springbok prospects and any hopes he has of wearing the No 10 jersey at next year's World Cup.
Handre Pollard hardly set the match alight when he came on for the final 20 minutes, but his performances in the first two Tests suggest that he is far ahead in the race to be South Africa's general.
Speaking after the match, Erasmus explained that his call to take Jantjies off was based on the fact that he could see that the 27-year-old was under pressure.
"I said that I don't like to take off the No 10 when he is making decisions. I feel that as long as a 10 is making decisions then you can judge if they are good or bad and then afterwards you can go and fix it," said Erasmus.
"In this game, unfortunately, Elton will tell you himself that the pressure was piling up.
"The pressure was onto him and our pack wasn't really dominating as much as it was in the previous games.
"At that stage when I subbed him I thought that I could relieve the pressure on him and still win the Test match.
"It's definitely not an Elton problem; our pack was not dominating this game."
While Erasmus suggested after the match that Jantjies still has a future with the Boks, the Newlands crowd had no issue voicing its collective disapproval with what it had seen from the flyhalf.
It is not often a South African crowd gets on the back of one of its own players, and Erasmus accepted some responsibility for that.
"I must look more at myself there than at Elton," Erasmus said.
"Maybe in the way me managed things and integrate players ... but we just have to make brave calls and sometimes while making those brave calls some individuals are going to get singled out.
"When you play in weather like this with young outside backs, sometimes you put that player in a position where he has to swim.
"People on the outside might be thinking that this is last chance saloon for him, but we might be thinking long-term.
"Today we learnt a few things and they weren't only about Elton. We learnt a lot of things about playing in wet weather.
"He is a strong character and he's got another two or three Super Rugby games to get his confidence back again."
The Jantjies - Pollard Story
I can remember that the first site member who punted Elton Jantjies as Springbok candidate was Saffex, That was after Elton according to him did quite well in the 2011 Junior World Cup.
However, Pollard came to the fore in the 2012 Junior WC and one can only wonder how that happened. In that tournament Elton's younger brother Tony was the first choice flyhalf. In the first match in that series Tony Jantjies started at flyhalf against the Irish, Just like his elder brother yesterday - he had a horror performance and was replaced by the then 17 year old Pollard.
Tony Jantjies career as a 10 was sealed in that series and he is playing occasionally as the Bulls stand-in flyhalf.
Elton Jantjies' career
Initial test appearances
In the 2012 England June tests Meyer selected Morne Steyn as Spingbok flyhalf. He had a horror series and I can remember how Steyn was boo-ed by the PE crowd in the second test. Meyer - always loyal to his braai friends - retained Morne as the Springbok flyhalf in the RC despite his horribly poor performances in the June tests .
Morne got worse and worse in the series and Meyer was forced to drop him after disastrous performances against Australia and especially in the Dunedin test. So his replacement was Goosen with Jantjies on the bench. In the succeeding test against Australia in that series Goosen had a top class performance and Jantjies career on test levels started about five minutes before the end of the game together with Juan de Jongh. Jantjies did nothing of note in the said 5 minutes - De Jongh buggered up badly in the one incident he was involved in.
However, In the AB test the next week Goosen was injured early and replaced by Jantjies and what happened in that test was an eye-opener. The ball was passed to Jantjies in the remainder of the first half of that test - but he buggered up so badly - that in the second half the scrummie not once passed the ball to him, The ball went to either the full back or the inside center and as far as Meyer is concerned it sealed Janthies fate as a test player.
However - Meyer persist with De Jongh at 13 and the fact that he went AWOL in the Scotland and English tests sealed his future and Meyer never selected either Jantjies or De Jongh in subsequent squads.
Provincial Franchises
Despite the horror show in the tests mentioned that paragon of coaching excellence Alister Coetzee forced the WP set-up to contract Jantjies for 2013 at the then - for the Stormers - record price. Jantjies had a horror year for the Stormers and they released him from his contract early as a result.
He then went back to the Lions and played very well for that team in all of 2014. 2015 and 2016 - so much so that the media and some site members insisted that he be included in the Springbk squad again.
Subsequent Test career
Despite his good performances for the Lions Meyer was horrified about what happened in the AB test in 2012 and was much maligned for not selecting Jantjies again while he was coach. Until 2014 he used Morne Steyn despite poor contributions through-out until the Perth disaster in 2014 seaked Morne's fate as a test flyhalf. Despite that Meyer - always loyal to his braai cronies - picked Steyn for the 2015 RWC squad - where he played from the bench for about 15 minutes,
Coetzee - remembering the disastrous 2013 season for the Stormers - did not really want Jantjies as the Springbok flyhalf and since Pollard was out due to injury - Lambie was set to start as flyhalf. A horror injury took Lambie out of contention and Coetzee went back to Jantjies as starting flyhalf. He failed again as test flyhalf and Coetzee became desperate and brought back the always poor Steyn at flyhalf and Juan de Jongh as inside center, It became a defensive sieve, Morne was always an atrocious defender and De Jongh was no better,
That seemed to have sealed Jantjies fate as a test player. After all he played in 22 tests of which the Springboks lost 12 and drew in 2 with only 8 wins.
However, Erasmus thought he may be able to get Jantjies to improve In test performances and picked him to start in the Washington and CapeTown tests, He was bad in the Washington test and atrocious yesterday,
Summary
According to the above article many questioned the ability of Jantjies to take the step up from Super Rugby to test level. I think looking at the above summary that he does not have the temperament to be a test level player and should never be one.He is just a good franchise player that was promoted to his own level of incompetence when selected on test level.
