The following article on the issue is pertinent:-
"Stade Français manager Gonzalo Quesada has admitted that Mornè Steyn has not been at his best for the club but insists he is not worried about the South African's form.
The Springbok fly-half has played just five games for the Parisian club and has only started just twice since his move from the Bulls as international commitments have meant that he missed the start of the Top 14 season.
Steyn kicked three penalties and converted countryman Meyer Bosman's try in Friday's 21-6 win over Grenoble but uncharacteristically made a number of errors.
"Steyn had a tough match. He had some timing problems," said Quesada after the Friday's victory at Stade Jean Bouin.
Quesada believes that the 29-year-old needs time to adapt to his new set up and team-mates "He has not had a lot of time with us as the team begins to get to know each other really well. "
"But it's a stage we have to go through, I 'm not worried even if he did not play at his best and he made mistakes that we have rarely seen from him at home. "
The above raises two questions, namely-
* is he a flop at Stade Francais, and if so
* is he asexoensive a flop as Earl Silky Hands Jantjies was for the Stormers?
Now lets look at the actual Morne Steyn performances for the Springboks and for the Bulls. Morne always was a sub-standard flyhalf with the following deficiencies:-
* Lack of Ball sense and inadequate decision making;
* Poor and unacceptable defence; and
* Deficient strategic and line kicking.
The first two issues is obvious and has been discussed in detail- but let us look at the third issue - because that one was not adequately addressed in the past. The issue of penalty line kicks became endemic in recent tests. Morne far too often misses relieving line penalty kicks and donated opportunities for the opposition to counter-attack. It happened repeatedly in the RC tests and even in the EOYT. His so-called strategic kicks are anything but strategic. They are way to far ahead and the opposition easily fields the balls and either counter-attack or return punishing line kicks.
When the issue of flyhalf play was recently discussed the celebrated Mozart made an idiotic remark about it not being a requirement for the Springbok team that a flyhalf receives the ball at pace and passes it at pace - that making it a unique SA play characteristic. It is obvious that t is now for the first time required from Morne to play the style which is normal with flyhalfs throughout the World. He failed in that -hence the timing issue mentioned above. After his vigorous defence of Morne and his vicious and unwarranted attacks on alternative players - just one question for Mozart:-
"How do you want it served - Boiled, scrambled, poached, in an omelette, devilled, in soldiers, runny, in a Benedict, with mayo?
No flyhalf can warrant his inclusion in the team because his goalkicking is good. That is what Morne's sole claim to fame is. Since he joined Stade Francais he had about 210 minutes of playing time for his club - so the question arises how long Stade Francais is going to take to try and get out of the contract. How soon are they going to realize that he is not worth it? It won't be the first time that an SA player flopped abroad - one just have to look at Francois Steyn - whom Racing Metro would not sign a contract renewal after his contract terminated and returned to SA - where he was a serious flop in subsequent matches.
The real truth is that Morne was not a real asset for the Springboks or the Bulls - but a serious liability. The French coaching staff realises it soon enough - but Meyer fails to see what was going on. It is already past the stage where we must look at alternatives - and we are lucky - we have sufficient competent flyhalfs available to replace the incompetent Morne Steyn.
