When Matfield came back to international rugby his line out work was above average and he called line outs mostly to himself. However, that started changing in the RC - where he got beaten jumping at 5 and then started calling less and less lineouts to himself and showed a decline in line out takes.
In the EOYT - the line out calls to himself dwindled further and him taking line outs dwindled to a surprising degree. he hesitated to jump at 5 and often moved to no 3 position in line outs - especially of the no 5 jumper of opposition teams proved to be a strong line out jumper.
On the other side he took 2 line out throws from the opposition in the June series against Wales and that dropped down to nothing in the RC and 1 in the EOYT. Matter of fact Matfield lost two onw-throw line-outs in the RC.
There is a myth that opposition throwers avoid throwing the ball to the no 5 line out jumper of the opposing teams. There really is no proof in that if the line-out throwa of the opposition is studied.
So what have we got here? A player with the reputation of being the best line-out jumper - but with seriously dwindling number of line-out takes.
Since Matfield brings zero to the Tight 5 perormances - he has no grunt - a waek balll-carrier in traffic - a weak tackler, who often lose balls in traffic - and a frustrater of backline play when he moonlights in the backline. What is he still doing in the Springbok squad? is he there because of a pally-pally relationship with Meyer?
