Lambie vs Morne....the facts of S15 2013

One hears it over and over....Lambie is a runner, Morne a plodding kicker. Really? I went through the numbers from every game they each played at flyhalf. Lambie did have a better game at centre outside Fransie....but here we are looking at his ability to run from the flyhalf berth.

As luck would have it they both made exactly 90 runs. But Morne outproduced Lambie 432 metres to 344. He also beat 12 defenders to Lambie's 7....and made 5 clean breaks to Lambie's paltry 2.

These are decent numbers for Morne....Lambie not so much. Patrick is effective when he runs onto the ball at pace. From the flyhalf berth where he has to accelerate, step or power through tackles....he is pretty much an empty suit. Let there be an end.

Mozart

It has not hit home yet  - has it?   Morne is the worst flyhalf anyone could wish for - Stade Francais has found that out already.   If there is an empty suit it is Morne not Lambie.  That meters gained means nothing at all - since Morne kicks aimlessly and then fall back to recover return kicks and then run a few steps before another aimless kick - repeat action.  

It is not like he is carrying the ball attacking the gain line - it just never happens never happens.   I think the Bulls this year would do much better than with Morne - the handicap.

Sharkbok

I am not so sure about Lambie not being able to get the backline going.   In the first four matches he had Francois Steyn outside of him and with him around there was nobody on earth who could get anything going.   Steyn got enugh balls from Lambie - but crashnalled ineffectively 90% of the time.  When he was cut out there were some good backline tries scored.

After test 4 Steyn was replaced by Bosman - not really the best 12 around - but backline play/ performances did improve.   

By the way  I am impressed with Bosman's performances for Stade Francais.  Unlike Morne Steyn - who cannot make the Stade Francais starting line  up - Bosman is one of their key players performing well in every Round in Top 14.  Maybe we have under-rated the guy.

That was followed by the injury to Jordaan - who rarely saw any balls in Super 15 last year.         

Things 

 Mozart

Your blinkers made you imagine things which are really exposing your prejudice.  One of the re-broadcast CC game showed  Lambie making a strategic kick from just outside the Sharks 22.

The kick was followed up and gathered at pace by Mvovo.   Lambie kept pace with him and took the pass from him and scored a really good try.

I know you dislike Mvovo intensely - but if there is one good attribute Mvovo has, it is pace.   If Lambie is as slow as you make him out to be - he would never be able to keep pace with  Mvovo over such a distance.

So please keep to facts and not fiction when  dealing with issues.    

Mozart

It has not hit home yet  - has it?   Morne is the worst flyhalf anyone could wish for - Stade Francais has found that out already. 

 Ceradyne

You stupid dolt, that is only his third starting line-up game since he joined Stade Francais.   And the week before Steyn buggered up so badly - it was headline news. 

Steyn is no loss to the Bulls or the Springboks - after all he cost the Bulls a spot in the Super 15 last year through rank stupidity and poor play and he really cost the Springboks  dearly in both games against the AB's.

The Bulls will without Steyn be more competitive in Super 15 - than they were last y year with him.

Hope Stade Francais does not try to terminate Steyn's  contract prematurely - he s not wanted in SA Rugby.

 . 

Frans at 10, I don't recall that?

This posting is about the S15, where Lambie had 13 matches in a row at flyhalf. If that's not enough to get established in the position, how many matches would you suggest?

Well the happy clappy group....perpetually naive.....need only be told Lambie was "not allowed to settle", to buy into the hype. These follower types swallow every bit of rugby pablum presented to them as if it was manna falling from above.

Lambie was allowed to settle in 13 straight games for the Sharks. The results were instructive. He made two clean breaks in this entire sequence. And his numbers never showed an uptrend. He made 115 metres in his first four games....only 72 in his last 4. His kicking also declined.

Frankly he was pretty much a basket case in the CC as well....missing a sitter in the final. But then by some miracle he made a drop....and then another. My own guess is he made those kicks because he had no fear of failure....unlike the situation when he kicks at goal. But having acquired that bit of gloss, he never made any of his drops on the YE tour....it had become important to him.

Lambie has good rugby instincts and he tackles well. But he will never be a threat at 10, and until he proves he can deliver under pressure, he remains in the "show me" group.

  Sun Tsu

I cannot believe that you could be serious to write the above.  :amboe cannot take decisions and Steyn can.   One has only to watch the second Messam try in the Ellis Park test to realize Morne is clueless insofar as decision making is concerned.    Do yourself the favour and look at that fiasco again and then see how far your statement is  rmoved from reality.

Morne is the most robotic of any of the flyhalfs ever to play top rugby in SA.   He used to stand so deep in the pocket to allow him ample time to take decisions - ie whether to kick or p[ass the ball way behind the gain line.   That was destructive to backline play and the dead backline syndrome was the result.   Morne was told by Meyer to stand flatter in the recent tests and he did that -  but that meant he passed the ball like a scared kid and did not do the logical and kicked the ball out of touch in the case mentioned.   Naas Botha thought it was rank stupidity.

A recent poor performance of Morne that killed the game for the Bulls was the Super 15 semi-final last year.   He missed 50% of his kicks at goal and he made a such a poor relieving kick that it handed the Brumbies their winning try on  a platter.

Morne has no ball sense and is not an instinctive player.   He is for a flyhalf a slow thinker.    And that thinking is sometimes seriously deficient. 

You refer to the Lions tests in 2009 - but how many times subsequently has poor play by Morne coasted us tests or points since then.   Rank stupidity on  the part of Morne donated two tries to the All Blacks in the Eden Park test and he was even worse in the Ellis Park test.   His atrocious display last year in the Dunedin test also cost us a potential victory in that test.

Any springbok team wishing to beat the All Blacks would only be able to do so if Morne is not the Springbok flyhalf  - that is the ling and the short of the matter.

Morne's only positive is his kicking at goal - for the rest he is mediocre.   He never attacks the gain line himself and does not take contact, his defence is a joke in bad taste.  

Anybody believing Morne is a good flyhalf must have his head read.   The goal kicking is always     

 Ceradyne

We  all know  you suffer from, Bullshit on the brain disease.  Were the games where your hero failed in key games or not?   Is Morne a good pivot or not?   Does he attack the gain line ever or not?  Is he a good defender or not?

The answers are simple.   Morne is a disaster in key games - he never was and never will be a good backline pivot capable of initiating attacking backline moves - je is absolutely predictable and never takes contact while carrying the ball (never attacks the gain line) - he is a shit defender.

The best news ever for any opposing team is that Morne is in the Springbok team and they have a classic and easy counter-measure programme based on his predictability.

He is normally a good foal kicker - but buggers up badly in key games.    his miss ratio  in tests in 2012 was in excess of 50%, in 2013 in the Super 15 semi it was 50%, in the Ellis Park test 33,3%.   His latest deficiency in 2013 was regular flops in line kicking when he takes penalty kicks where he fails to find touch.  

The above are facts - not fiction.   As far as I am concerned he should stay in the NH playing club rugby on Vodacom Cup level - definitely not on test or Super 15 level,   I expect the Bulls to do better this year without their standard handicap.  One thing is for bloody sure - as long as Morne is Springbok flyhalf we will never ever beat the All Blacks.     

"As long as Morne is Springbok flyhalf we will never beat the All Blacks". No kidding OOM....bite into this:

Team:
Combined caps: 629 tests (starting 15)

Mozart

Five years later and as far as I can recollect we had one further win since 2009 against the AB's.   That team was basically compiled by 2007 WC winners before the real decline in their performances set in over the next two years.  

Since 2010 the losses are mounting and they will continue to mount as long as we have the likes of Morne Steyn, Jacque Fourie and Sloth Alberts  in the team.   Why so you always harking back to what happened  five or even ten years ago?   Look at present scenarios and at present performances of players - not what they did years ago.