Lambie - Is he a poor replica of Morne Steyn?

I was really amazed by what I saw of Lambie over the last three tests and during the first two rounds in Super 15,   I cn understand about the Irish and Scottish tests - he ws strictly reacting to Meyer's insrtructions.

What I cannot undrstand is his play over the past two weekends.   He looked like he was ating out a scene from a horror movie on rugby backline play.   He was sound - but as passive as Morne was at his worst,   His line kicks and goal kicks were good - but for the rest he seems not to be interested in attacking the gain line - notr in initiating attacking backline play.   

The above tendency became evident in Round 1 and everyone praised him for being the strategic leader on the field of play - but yesterday he did evebn less and he was worse than Steyn - who at least scored his foirth try in Super Rugby.

There are two intresting questions:-

*   Has Meyer succeeded in knocking the ball sense out of Lambie?

*   How long is Plumtree going to put up with that kind performance? 

 The Springboks play Bulls rugby, and that requires a flyhalf who kicks away most of the possesion and relies on the forwards to win opposition lineouts.

Meyer told lambie that he needs to improve his kicking game and this was why he initially was selected at flyhalf.

WIth Meyer this means coaching a player to kick unless they are in the opposition 22. 

 Mike you clearly really do not know anything about rugby do you - what a load of rubbish - of the highest order in fact.

Lambie had a great game last week and was solid enough this week

 Lambie is quite capable of running the ball and breaking a line. However on the day jantjes looked more threatening ball in hand! In addition Groom outplayed Reinach. 

Frans flopped and there now have to be some real concern arising. Jordaan looked a bit dangerous occasionally. 

Jean and Allende were okay but nothing special. Habana and Jp did nothing to warrant a Bok spot and Joe outplayed Ludik who did precious little. The much vaunted sharks backline that was going to cut the Stormers to shreds couldnt score a try!!!!! Wasnt it the Stormers who couldnt score tries and the sharks who were backline marvels.  Bwahahahhahahahaha

Now ou maaaik now predicts the wee chiefies will run rings around the Stormers. Well we shall see. I am just sorry the wee chiefies will not get a severe snotklap from a full strength Stormers pack. Let them then try and run while going backwards at the rate of notts.

Beenkop how exactly did Frans flop, stop speaking crap?

I am a big Jordaan fan but he did absolutely nothing bar get thrown around like a rag doll. 

One has to ask whether de Allende and Jean actually played at all?

 Snapster when Frans first arrived on the scene he was fast off the mark, nice pace, good step and a huge threat. He seems to lumber along now. 

Look I am hoping it was just the great Stormers/sharks defence and the conditions that caused all the backs to look worse players than they are. 

In Fran's case I want to see if the athlete is still there. Is this another Spies scenario shaping up. One truly hopes not. I also truly hope Spies still somehow fulfills his potential but I have my doubts he will. 

Snasper Jean and Allende certainly were NOT outplayed by Frans and Jordaan.

 Nope Frans and Jordaan did not outplay Jean and de Allende as no centres made an impression. But of the 4 on the field, Frans was the best.

 Nope Frans and Jordaan did not outplay Jean and de Allende as no centres made an impression. But of the 4 on the field, Frans was the best.

Saffex

On what basis do you say Steyn was the best?   Was it in your dreams perhaps - because he was comprehensively outplayed by a rookie.   Just one thing - Steyn cashballed comtinuously - like he did last week - but in the two matches he caused loss of possession of the ball twice and one of his crashballs ended up s a penalty against the Sharks.   De Allende crashballed as many times as Steyn did - but there never was a turnover or a penalty when he did it. 

@Mike, I fail to see how you say that Steyn was completely outplayed by "a rookie". Steyn.

On defense Steyn beat De Allende. Steyn made 11 tackles and missed none. De Allende made 5 and missed 1.

I am not saying that Jantjies passed all of his 9 balls to De Allende, but here is something interesting for you. De Allende kicked 0 balls and he ran passed 0. He did however run 9 balls. So what happened to those 9 balls that he ran, if he did not pass any or scored a try from any of them? De Villers got 12 balls. How did that happen? Received them from the back three? To get back to the balls ran. De Allende gained 46m from his nine runs at an average of 5.1 m per run. Steyn gained 33m from his 6 runs at an average of 5.5m per run. Most importantly though. Steyn at least distributed the ball by passing 6 of the balls that he received.

Oh, and in addition. Steyn did not give away a penalty. while De Allende conceded 1.

Nero that is how stupid Mike is. As much as I want de Allende to succeed, he once again did stuff all this weekend, much like the other youngster Jordaan did.

These two players have been massively disappointing. Frans made the only noteable tackle break when he ran over Jantjies and he made the biggest impression in defence.

Jean, de Allende and Jordaan did nothing all game - Frans was marginally better, given none of the centres shone. Frans was the best of at best solid performances from the SA centres this weekend

Saffexd

Bullshitting baffling brains again.  Steyn made no eal line breaks on Saturday - and De Allende made one.   Computerized evaluation showed both making an equal number of tackles and neither missed any tackles.  Don't know where nero gets his stats from.

Any player playing outside Steyn is doomed - he would never get a ball passed to him.  Steyn is destroying the Sharks attacking backline play of last year and really a disaster at center for the Sharks.   If you fail to see that - heaven only knows what you see during matches. 

When did de Allende make a line break, kindly point it out as I have the game on my decoder - you are lying.

Frans ran over Jantjies, what do you call that huh?

Who is the fans 12 this week huh?

Saffex

Same here, I am going to watch that game again and will then give you the exact timing of the incident.  And further on the Jantjies issue - can you give me a name of a player that has not run over Jantjies yet?

Good you provide the de Allende line break for there was never one. I dont care who has run over Jantjies apart from the fact that with regards to this point, Frans knocked the shit out of Jantjies.....something none of the other centres did to anyone in that game.

And I am waiting for the fans 12 this week - get on with it

@mikey,

regarding ur first post on this thread, i voiced similar concerns on anther thread after the cheetahs/sharks game, where i didnt notice any of lambies usual attacking nous.
my opinon then was is he trying to send a message to meyer, because lambie addressed all of meyers concerns about him in that game, but at the expense of his highly rated attacking game.

after the stormes game, i am now convinced that that is the very case. he seems more focused on delivering the flyhalf fundamentals at the highest level possible and allowing the rest of his backline to do the bulk of the backline requirments, meaning he will feed them the ball and provide a solid foundation with his boot.
he does challenge the line when he has the ball, what he dosent do is go looking for attacking opportunites with the same amount of gusto he once did and made me go holy crap who is this dude???

its a shame that he has become more conservative, but hes still not playing bad and its obvious hes very inteligent, cos he has changed his game significantly enough to ensure he gives himself every opportunity to be the Boks incumbent 10.

given that morne is now more or less out of the equation, im expecting a lot more this trademark saffa flyhalf play from lambie which is a bit of shame really.
in NZ. lambie could have reached carter like heights.

lambie is playing the type of game that meyer wants from a test flyhalf. that is the message that meyer has send with his selections and the game pattern that the boks play. the curbs natural talent rather for the collective bland one dimensional meyer game plan that is somehow mistaken for so called winning rugby.

winning rugby these days are attacking rugby. attacking rugby today is the template for winning rugby. that being said its still early in the season so lets just give the players a go but i for one am very very worried about the game patterns and players form early on.