Jaque Fourie

Has added allot of value on defense. 

It is clear the back-line defense is much better with him. He scored a good try against France with excellent running of Jean but unfortunately the try was disallowed.

The Stormers defense is clearly weaker without him even if they are still following the same defensive system.

He hasn't received much ball to attack with so it is hard to judge how good he is now days on attack.

JJ has been good on attack but has not been great on defense.

It would have been interesting to have seen Jaque Fourie playing in the 4nations. Some of those soft tries that were let in against the All Black may have been prevented.

Sharkbok

I cannot see how Fourie in his present form can help the Springboks in any way.   I am afraid that there are two problems and those are -

*   his apparent lack of mobility; and

*   his inability to attack the gain line and participate in backline attacks.

After potentially disastrous lapses in defence against the Welsh - when Davies ran past him like he was not there - he did make his tackles in the last two tests.  However, will the Davies case be in evidence in future - or will he make his tackles?   That is the million dollar question.

Then there is the story about his attacking play.   In fact in the case of the try by Du Preez he was clearly off-side and if he was on-side,  he would never have got to the ball to make that off-load to Du Preez.  He was lucky the referee did not consult the TMO - if they did Fourie would have been penalized and the Springboks would have been in serious trouble.  I do not credit players for good performances when they are on the wrong side of the law - since it is extremely unlikely that another referee would allow such a player to get away with a repeat.

Since Morne made a foul up - the Fourie try was disallowed.   Even if he did score - he in fact did nothing in respect of the try other than to dot the ball down.  De Villiers did all the work and Fourie got the ball without any defenders to beat.   But Saffex is clearly correct - the French defenders stop playing after Morne's slip-up - so the whole issue is theoretical.

When looking at his ball carries in the last three tests - he carried the ball nine times - gaining 13 meters in territory - in other words he got tackled immediately.   That means no show with ball in hand by a backline player.  

In reality Fourie does not have the speed to be really secure - either as a defender or an attacking player - so in reality we still have a problem with regard to the no 13 position.   Lets face it -

*   we have a player with defence deficiencies - but who is by far a better ball-carrier; and

*   we have a player who is a sound defender - but no abilities in attacking play,

at present in the quad.   There are serious question marks as to both  and one can only hope that some players come through in Super 15 that can solve the problem.   Lets face facts though - Engelbrecht can improve his tackling technique - but Fourie cannot improve on his speed.  

.      

Saffex

The one thing I did not like with Fourie is his slow motion retreat when the ball was kicked ahead by the French.  He was slowly running (if you can call it that) back.   That means he can have no impact in any counter-attacks and it is one reason why the recipient have no other option than to make a return kick.   If it happened once it can perhaps be accepted - but it happened at least three times.  

Saffex

I have always found these ratings by journalist funny - even if a player does nothing he gets a 5+ rating.      Just have a look at the stats of Fourie as per ESPN:-

Fourie

0/0

0

0/0/4

2

0

0

0

0

9/0

0/0

1

0/0

What contribution did make in the game?   Had the ball 4 times - never passed or off-loaded the ball once.   He gained on average half a meter with each carry.  He gave away a penalty - on the positive side he made 9 tackles.  

So what should his points have been?   Nothing for attacking play because there was none in evidence - like Rugby 365 said -

"Another underwhelming performance by a player who’s far from his best. Not necessarily a bad game but well below his lofty standards."  In other words this is not the first underwhelming performance - the others were the same.   

Sine the tackles made was not all that difficult and none was really a try-saver lets be honest and give Fourie half a point for each tackle made - that means he is credited with 4,5 points.   But then a penalty put the team at a major disadvantage - so take off 1 point for that.

If I was rating him - the best he could hope for is 3,5 points based on the above stats.   Where they get 6 or even 7 points from is a mystery.   Maybe because the team won - everybody qualify to start with 4 points and then the rest follow - but that does not mean that the player did enough to earn his keep