Junior Boks - Performance Analysis

Although there is no doubt that the Junior Boks played extremely well - especially in the second half - there are some positions where they have been found wanting - hence my desperate effort to rate their performances.   Lets try and be objective about it and not ruffle to many feathers.

15       Leyds     -      Poor under the high ball and otherwise not really up

                                        to standard    -     3

14      Jordaan                                       -     9

13      Small-Smith                               -     8

12      Serfontein                                  -      7

11      Howard                                      -      5

10     Pollard                                        -      6

  9      Van der Watt                             -      6

  8     Booysen                                     -      4

  7     Du Toit                                        -     7

 6    Adendorff                                     -       7

  5    Botha        -    Line out performance extremely

                                 Poor                    -       4

  4    Willemse  -    Line out performance extremely

                                 poor                    -       4

  3   Kebble                                        -        2

  2   Thomas                                     -         5

  1   Kitshoff                                      -         6

In the back line Leyds was not up to standard and his performance was problematic.    I think they may have to replace him in the semi-finals and finals with a more solid player to handle catching of balls when kicked and charged.

Howard came out with a lot of hype.   In the first game he was really very, very average - whilst against italy he showed marked improvement.   However, he did virtually nothing of note last night and I was tempted to give him a mark of 4 out of 10.   However, he has potential and can improve.

Booysen was not really in evidence at all during the game and was really not up to standard.    He will have to be replaced by a better player.   Maybe the solution should be to play Liebernberg at no 8 for the semis and the final.   

Can someone please tell the two huge locks how to jump in th line-outs.   The line-out performance - especially in the first half was putrid - to say the least.    This was not a new problem - they were bad against the Irish as well.     Need to get something done about it before Sunday.

They should get De Villiers - ex French player - to come to Cape Town urgently to deal with the scrummaging problem.    It is evident that there is a problem - and the question is how to fix it.   Kebble took a beating last night - but the replacement was slightly better - but still not really up to standard.

Prettty good assessment Mike. That fullback offered very little. The half backs were okay but nothing special.

I also agree Booysen was largely a passenger and that lineout must be sorted out fast. Get wee matfield on the job and he can then be acclaimed for winning the juniour WC by his groupies!! Hhahahahahahahaha. No seriously something has to be done fast.

I think we have the most physical pack in the comp and could now win this. The loss to Ireland was an abberation but Theron needs to solve a couple more problems quickly to make certain of  wining it.

Poor scores Mike considering how well the locks did in general play. To ping them just for line-outs is a poor poor call. The hooker was hardly doing his bit with the throw ins. Both locks were great and deserve 7's.

Serfontein was better than Small-Smith, 8 for Serf and 7 for SS. Howard was better than a 5, did well with the little ball he got and put in some big hits. Easily a 7. The 9 was better than a 6, he deserves a 7, as does the 10.

du Toit and Adendorff were huge, both get 8's. Booysen was useless, a complete passenger and gets a 3. The replacement hooker was good as was Kitshoff who deserves a 7 or 8

Saffex

Thanks for your point of view on the ratings.   I do believe that we disagree basically on the following:-

Howard   -    He was in a similar position as Jordaan - the diffrence was that Jordaan did a lot more on both attack and defence than Howard.  I can live with asix in this case - but nothing more.

I gave Small-Smith a higher mark based on his excellent try - as well as the captaincy.  He really did well. However, Sertifontein did the pass that resulted in the try and I can live with an 8 for him as well.

I have identified that the line out play was not acceptable - and can agree to an extent that the line out throws were a major cause of the problem   However, part of the problem was poor line out work by the locks as well - so they have to take at least part of the blame for the loss of line outs.   5 is the most i can live with.

As to 9 and 10 - probably 6 at this stage.    Problem with 10 was his kicking game.  To my mind they were both 6 - not higher.

with all due respect they dont have a proper backline coach. they were flat static and lacked width on attack. it would have been a great chance for a morne du plessis or a alan zondagh to work with this backline and get them playing like a properbackline. SARU needs to address the massive problem we have in general backline play. we are really lacking in a lot of departments.