JJ scores a good one

 He looked good scoring that try. It was a moment where you wonder... where the hell has this guy been all this time. 
Again the problem could be poor coaching & not taking advantage of his abilities but for sure each player has to find a way to bring his abilities to the team regardless of the competence of the coaches.

I said on the match thread on the day that he just proved once again that he should be playing wing. If he gets space he picks up his speed and is dangerous. He is wasting himself not being on the wing

Since being pathetically discarded by ignorant Meyer after what was the best display I have seen from a Bok 13 with ball in hand against the Kiwi s in the past decade, JJ completely lost his mojo.
One could hardly blame him for after that display against the Kiwi s he must have thought he had his place cemented at 13 with a view to building on that display.
Instead our wonderful coach saw fit to recall old man Fourie on the strength of nothing and disgustingly assign JJ to the scrap heap.
It's the single worst bit of player management I have ever seen from a coach.
His try showed what sets him apart from other 13's.....sheer pace and good feet. Hopefully that try will relaunch JJ of old and expose useless Meyer for not including him in the Bok training squad.

A player who completely loses his mojo because he lost his place in the Bok team his got a serious weakness. 
Why has a player like Sarel Pretorius never lost his mojo?

 Dave
Personally a single try in a match - after being  deficient for at least the last two seasons is not a basis for Springbok selection.   What the try showed is that he has the speed to play on the wing more than anything else and that i9s where he should be utilized.


    

Mike, after watching that try I'll back your call for him to move to wing, he is k@k fast! Cera, different people react differently to being dropped, some go into their shell, like JJ seems to have done, others use it as a kick in the pants to improve. Different folks different strokes, so maybe that try is the start of him getting his mojo back. Saff makes a good point regarding player management, and its effect on how players perform. I would not add him to the Bok setup anytime soon, but he may still come good. 
Is it just me, or has the Bulls back line become one of the best in the competition? Has Ludike finally realised that with the quality of his backs he can actually play running rugby? 

 Mozart always mess up what is written on this site and his latest anti-campaign is against Vorster.   He would use all kind of fake arguments to attack players threatening any of his favoured players insofar as Springbok selection is concerned.
In the case of Vorster he was on about him last week as well and spreading his normal rubbish all over the place.   What was written then was that it would be interesting to see how Vorster - playing at 13 for the first time this season - would do at 13.
The fact is that as a first-timer in that position Vorster did very well as is evidenced by the following stats:-
Vorster0/001/1/74932123/10/000/0
 The issue here is what Engelbrecht has achieved playing opposite Vorster.  His stats were as follows:-
Engelbrecht1/050/1/46314034/00/000/0
There is very little to choose between the two players - but what made to my mind a difference was the fact that Vorster made three clean line breaks as against the one of Engelbrecht and his one off-load in a tackle situation showed some class.  He also missed scoring a try in the corner by a whisker.
In the long run I think that Vorster is a very good prospect - despite Mozart's belittling of the guy.  

The best 13 performance in a decade against New Zealand? There was Joubert in 2004. There was also Fourie many a time bailing the Boks out of trouble. He was the number 2 all time South African try scorer in Southern Hemisphere test rugby for many years. I still recall how, with the Boks taking a beating at home in 2006, he twice cut through tight New Zealand defence to bring us back in the game. JJ is statistically the worst defensive centre under Meyer, I already posted the stats and numerous videos of him getting bounced. On attack? Again, I posted clips of him making poor decisions and achieving nothing, nothing accept beating Savea like a wing on the outside when the game was reduced to frantic 1-v-1 carnival rugby. A game where he conceded the decisive try as Barrett ran right into his tackling range and smoked him! 

 Letsal
I agree with you about the issue of JJ Engelbrecht being a wing and that the idea to move him to center is disastrous, both for the team he plays for and for the player himself.   For me the latter is even more important than the former.   
However, to live in the past and refer to previous centers is just not on.   For too long we have tried the wing at 13 as a solution to the center problem.  JP Pietersen is another example of a wing who flops as a center.
Essentially we do have centers in players like De Allende and now Vorster - both are very young and will develop further in years to come.   There are a number of other younger players that could come through as well.   What we do not need at center are proven flops like Francois Steyn, De Jongh and now Esterhuizen.   All three has one thing in common - their defense stinks to high heaven and they are suckers for punishment when it comes to ball possession losses.                

Frans is our best performing 12. de Jongh has never been a problem at 13. De Allende had a dreadful three tests lasts year. 

 Although I'm not too much of a De Jongh fan, he is a 13 and there is something to be said for playing settled combo's. If they play him for the Boks, it would be a stop gap at best. In the long run, the boks need a real 13 with speed and sise, but there aren't any real contenders ATM. I still think it would be best to pick the best regular 13 you've got and play him, than picking a 12 or wing and play him at 13 because you don't like any of the playing 13's. There is a reason they are not playing 13 for their franchises and that's not gonna be fixed by the bok couches in the short time they have the players at their disposal.

 Frans and De Jongh compete with each other as to who is the worst defender at center with a missed tackle ratio in excess of 25%.   De Jongh could have been a good center - but he is way too small and too light for the job.  He is a finisher and that only if somebody creates space for him.  
There was nothing wrong with De Allende at center last year in tests.   Unlike De Jongh - who went AWOL in his last two tests in 2012 and contributed zip in those two tests - De Allende did some very good ball carries and showed some positives in the tests he played in.
The show Frans put up in the four Super 15 games this year and his performances in  Super 15 in 2013 and 2014 were sh!t poor - the worst performing center in the last two tournaments.     Reputation should be matched by top class performance and in the case of Steyn there is no such matching.  

de Jongh is currently our best defensive centre who attacks the attackers and punches well above his weight. Was highly succesful for the Boks. Frans is a beast of a defender, he has the power of the best loose forwards and roves around attacking breakdowns to boot. A very multi-faceted player, has never let the Boks down and carried the Sharks on his back last year. Damian will never take the step up to tests rugby. I'm quite certain for this. 

 Our 13 channel gets exposed a lot in SR, as it is our weakest back line position by far. Even more so than 10! Says a really, if De Jongh is the best of a poor lot. He is also the 13 that creates a moment of brilliance more often than any other SA 13. Given his BEE status to boot, it is kinda strange that he was dropped from the Bok setup completely. 

 Letstal
Please continue living in dreamland or on cloud 9.   Statistically both Frans and De Jongh are poor tacklers - they both have a missed tackle ratio in excess of 25% - so how good is their defense?  The story about how strong they are in defense is a myth.  The story about the boot without any idea of effective kicking on the part of  center is the worst thing I ever heard about a center.   Problem is Steyn is clueless about when to kick and when not to and he was notorious last year for the fact that he lost ball  possession last year in Super 15  32 times - basically because of aimless kicking.    
Frans was dropped by Plumtree as a center in 2013 - because in Plumtree's own words :he is not a center"   I would rather take Plumtree's views in that regard as correct than your dreams about Steyn and De Jongh as a norm.     

 Mike, I won't get into a debate about Fransie's value, but I think he doesn't deserve any more chances for the Boks. He has turned his back on Bok rugby too much for my liking. There's always issues surrounding his selection. I had enough of it.

Turned his back? Aside from last year th e only other issues where the result of the ignorant moustache adorned fog horn called Peter. Frans was simply not treated well by SARugby. 

 Letsal
The issue of Steyn is clear.  He was found out in France - same as Morne Steyn was - as totally useless and came back to SA fat as a pig.  He was totally useless in the tests in 2012 and in Super 15 ever since.   
The problem is that he tries to live off what he did in 2007-2009 forever - while producing BS subsequently.   His main problem is his ego-trip he is constantly on and that resulted ultimately in a record for centers - a yellow card in his first game after his return from Japan and a red card in his third return game. 
Plumtree fired by Smit subsequently in Ireland and now at the Hurricanes - has proven himself as a top coach.  He knew more about rugby than you of I and his description of Steyn was clear - Steyn is "no center".
"At times we can have by far the better halfbacks but they still have the edge in the backs."
I quoted the above and want to ask a simple question.  When did we have the "better half-backs?  Definitely not since 2000.