Loosie Performances

Mozart

There can be no doubt that the best two loosies last Saturday - giving a world class performance - were Read and Messam.   Also that the SA loosies did not do as well as their All Blacks counterparts did.

I consequently had a look at the performances of the loosies in Super 15 and looked at how that compare statistically wise did and through in the best performing SA loosie - who did not play on Saturday did in the said competition:-

Messam  

Tries scored                   -           2

Tries assists                               2

Ball Carries                               80

Line Breaks                                3

Turnovers                                  6

Tackles                                   142

Line out Takes                          21

Give Penalties                           11

Lose Possession                          9

Points based on above         3 485

Read

Tries scored                   -           3

Tries assists                               0

Ball Carries                               59

Line Breaks                                2

Turnovers                                  8

Tackles                                    81

Line out Takes                          24

Give Penalties                             5

Lose Possession                          6

Points based on above        2 925

Labuschagne

Tries scored                   -           2

Tries assists                               1

Ball Carries                               64

Line Breaks                                4

Turnovers                                 14

Tackles                                   263

Line out Takes                          43

Give Penalties                             7

Lose Possession                          7

Points based on above           3 975

SUMMARY

Looking at the above performance statistics it is amazing that you still prefer a plodder like Alberts to play at 7.   Labuschagne did better in most of the above stats than either of Messam and Read.  

There was only one game where Messam and Labuschagne played against each other.  The Cheetahs lost this game by a huge margin - yet the point allocation was as follows:-

   Messam           -       270 points

   Labuschagne    -       300 points

I know what you will come up with - Messam and Read are proven test players and Labuschagne will be swamped in tests.  That is a type of excuse that would not wash - without playing in tests you have no proof that he would be swamped - only your own prejudice.

I rate Arno Botha very highly myself - but although he did start from the bench in a third of the games he played in and did not play in the last four games because of injury - Botha on Super 15 level achieved considerably less than Labuschagne did.   Points wise he accumulated 1 725 points during that competition.   He had considerably less playing time than Vermeulen who achieved 1 755 points in the competition.

The above point allocation is based on the activities listed above and although there are other factors to be taken into account - those statistics cannot just be argued away  since they do give a clear indication what players have achieved on the field of play.

I do not think that you will respond to this thread - since you are not really interested in performances of players - but prefer your own dreams about selec tions.       

Agree fully with you about the performances of Read and Messam - I said they were world class.   However, I think SA can do better with loosie selection than they did on Saturday  - but Mozart does not agree with that one.  He is totally prejudiced against Labuschagne  on some vague grounds.   According to Mozart he is a light weakling that cannot measure up to real competition - yet he is championing Arno Botha who is of similar height and weigh 3 kilos less than Labuschagne.

Looking at the whole of Super 15 -  Labuschagne was actually the stand-out  loosie in the competition.  On the day the Chiefs scored a runaway victory against the Cheetahs - he was playing opposite Messam and performance wise was statistically better than Messam.     

Hakwa

My point is that form in Super 15 is normally indicative of the playing capacity of players - but it is realised that high performances on Super 15 may not translate into similar performances on test level - but you cannot make a statement like that without the player having  played at test level.

On the other hand a flop at Super 15 level is likely to flop at test level as well - in that case it happens extremely rarely that it is otherwise.   There are exceptions but it may happen in one test only - for the rest such a flop will be in the flop area all the time.  

Mozart

This was for your comment - but you apparently cannot make any logical comments and shies away from it.   SO YOU MAKE ASSESSMENTS ON WHAT HAPPENS - THE JOKE OF THE CENTURY - SO WHAT HAPPENED IS OF NO INTEREST TO YOU IN THIS CASE.