Jordaan vs Engelbrecht

Yesterday Jordaan was considerably more effective than JJ. He looked faster and much faster to read the play. That underlines JJs robotic play. So why play JJ ahead of Jordaan? 

The answer to that question is probably the additional security JJs extra 7 kgs provides. After all Jordaan was monstered by Fruean last year, and probably will be dominated at contact by a host of NZ backs. But here's the thing....so will JJ. In spite of having poppy muscles (look at Clever's avatar....so does Jordaan) JJ was regularly dragged in contact again yesterday. He is just as vulnerable.

So if the insurance JJ provides is no insurance at all....why not choose the player who reads the game better. Or better yet stick with Frnsie and Jean.

 Saffex

 There can be no doubt about Jordaan not outplaying Engelbrecht yesterday.   One purely has to look at the actual performances on the field of play supported by the stat. 

Jordaan

Got the ball much more than englbrecht did - but when he ran with the ball in hand 7 times - he made 4 clean breaks and beat 3 defenders.    It was not only the once where he was in the clear and had no defenders to beat - it was the other times 6 times when he had to break the line and beat defenders that count.

Engelbrecht

Ran with the ball in hand  4 times - made no line breaks and beat no defenders.

Defence=-wise they were on par statistically.   Engelbrecht made 10 tackles and missed one - Jordaan made 8 tackles and missed one - both had an acceptable miss tackle ratio - even though Jordaan had a tendency to defend nearer to maul situations and more often came up against forwards.   That accounts for about half of his tackles made - the other 4 was against Englbrecht himself.   Engelbrecht's cover defence against other players - after breaks made by especially by Jordaan and others - mostly came up against backline players and his cover defence cannot be faulted.

 Saffex

 There can be no doubt about Jordaan not outplaying Engelbrecht yesterday.   One purely has to look at the actual performances on the field of play supported by the stat. 

Jordaan

Got the ball much more than englbrecht did - but when he ran with the ball in hand 7 times - he made 4 clean breaks and beat 3 defenders.    It was not only the once where he was in the clear and had no defenders to beat - it was the other times 6 times when he had to break the line and beat defenders that count.

Engelbrecht

Ran with the ball in hand  4 times - made no line breaks and beat no defenders.

Defence=-wise they were on par statistically.   Engelbrecht made 10 tackles and missed one - Jordaan made 8 tackles and missed one - both had an acceptable miss tackle ratio - even though Jordaan had a tendency to defend nearer to maul situations and more often came up against forwards.   That accounts for about half of his tackles made - the other 4 was against Englbrecht himself.   Engelbrecht's cover defence against other players - after breaks made by especially by Jordaan and others - mostly came up against backline players and his cover defence cannot be faulted.

Saffex

Sure - Steyn did not make a single line break - but he did beat 3 defenders.  Steyn never really make line breaks - he tends to run straight at defenders - not into the potential space between defenders - thus drawing in two defenders and creating space for fellow players.   Steyn's negative is that he tends to pass or off-load balls less often than he should.

Despite all the noise to the contrary - I still rate Serfontein highly and think he will only get better with more experience.  He did not have a decent service yesterday and it showed in his performance.  

 Beeno

I would change th Bulls team by putting Van Zyl as scrummie and Pollard at flyhalf - and I would agree with you about Matfield - he showed near to zero on Saturday.

 Sun Tzu

If they don't drop Hougaard - it will be a horror show in coming weeks.  Ban Zyl is by miles a better proposition.  

Ignorance is bliss here, given the fact that Hougaard's service all night was pin-point, sharp and accurate, I struggle to see how DomMike and Beenkop can conclude that he stuffed up the Bulls backline - what a crock of shit.

The biggest issue in the Bulls backline, was the very poor performance of Fouche at 10.......last I saw of him, he looked a far better player.....he was very poor  

Fouche was dead on his feet, devoid of ideas and his decision making was damn poor.

When he played before his injury last year, he looked a handy enough player.......not sure what has happened to him.

But these clowns blaming Hougaard are as ignorant as they come - hardly a shocker as we are dealing with liar Mike and dom Beenkop here  

 Sun Tzu

The worst performance by a 10 in Super 15?   Hab4e you watched the Bulls - Brumbies semi last year?   That was the worst by a 10 I have seen for years.

Back to JJ. Dave I took another look at the Steyn incident. JJ gets the ball fully 15 metres behind the game line.....he moves forward, about 3 metres short of Steyn he veers right. He doesn't step, he veers. He is running so laterally Steyn watches him go, Lambie watches him go and eventually he runs into Kankan.

This move, which Fury also used, is designed to allow the runner to pick a gap. But against alert defences just gets you stopped short of the gain line. Look at minute 8.27 and you will see JJ doesn't even get back to the gain line.

More instructive. Take a look at minute 60 where you will see JJ's defensive frailties exposed again. Deysel breaks down the right touchline. JJ goes high right next to touch. But instead of stopping him Deysel continues to move forward holding off JJ, and then offloads. Later on Bismarck does the same thing.

There are many examples of this, which aren't reflected in the stats....JJ attempts the tackle, but the runner makes several metres and often offloads.

 Mozart

I have one problem with Engelbrecht - to my mind he just has too many "flat games" - where he does not produce anything positive of note - while there may even be negatives in some games.

Saffex will never ever admit that  - he will constamtly refer to the same instances that happened over the past year - and ignored the fact that those are too few and far between.

Personally I do not think that Engelbrecht is a "thinking player" that can see possible options and utilize them - he more or less always run straight at defenders - something which rarely produce results.   The real question remains - Engelbrecht has the physique and speed - but does he have the ball sense that would distinguish him from an ordinary player and turn him into a better one?

That is why I said there is a major problem with the 13 position - Fourie is definitely not the answer.   I was hoping that a player would put up his hand during Super 15 - and it is really to early to make a reasonable assessment.   What is evident is that Engelbrecht had a nondescript first round match and even more que stion marks could be raised after that effort.