Move JJ to wing against Scotland

Much has been said about HM's lack of loyalty to JJ. But what incentive is there for the coach to drop his 13. He has pretty much championed JJ for the whole season....Engelbrecht is one of his potential new Bok success stories. And he knows bringing back Fury will only give him grief. So why do it?

Because HM has concluded JJ is not a tool for the job. Any time he is defending one on one 10 metres from his line, a good runner like Fofana for example, is going to beat him and score. That's a hell of a liability. But worse yet, he reads the game so badly that if play gets unstructured he is unlikely to be in the right place.

Attack you say...he is brilliant. No, he is fast....like Nokwe. Nokwe would have scored every try JJ does and missed every tackle JJ does. Exceptional speed is rarely rewarded in a centre. It's the ability to beat a tackle by body position, deception....sheer strength.......to stand in the tackle and make the offload. JJ is less than average in all the key attacking attributes of a centre.

But above all there is the lack of a creative spark, like Fury showed Saturday. The lack of feel which had him hopelessly over running the pass near the AB line on a set move they probably practiced 20 times.

Switch to wing and his pace is more useful. His inability to go low but push at his opponent is forgiven by the touchline. There is nobody to offload to....space is more available. 

There are sticking points....taking the high ball, kicking....sensing the need to cover across field. Securing kickoffs, it's instructive that the ABs targeted JJ on the Ellis Park kick off. But still I think he could do better at wing. I'd give him a shot against Scotland....Willie should play fullback and JP was to me the least impressive Bok returning this year, so there is an opportunity.

Saffex

I am with Mozart in this case - move JJ to he wing and leave Fourie at 13.  My reasons for that is completely different form Mozart thinking on the issue though.

I think that both Pietersen and Fourie was desperately poor on Saturday.  Meyer is now in serious trouble - the same trouble he was in last year - when he selected Steenkamp at prop and De Jongh as an option to play at outside center.   He has limited options for Sunday against the Scots and those are the following:-

*  He cannot play the two Japanese club players at 13 and 14 - together they are a really poor option - separately they may just make it against weak opposition.   So either one of the two must be left out.

*  In his last two tests the robotic Morne Steyn in fact was ridiculously poor and he is unlikely to play on Saturday - so a solution has to be found.

*   Since Goosen has had very limited match time over the past eight months - his only option is to move  Lambie to 10.   Let me add here that the Morne groupies have shouted and screamed how poor Lambie was on Saturday - but other than two drop kicks he missed - they could not find any real foundation to criticize him.   As a last resort Mozart invented a lie about two cross kicks launched by Lambie in the Springbok half of the field - the cross kicks did take place, but was in the Welsh half. 

*   That leaves Meyer with two problem positions - namely at full back and the number 14 wing.

*   He could play Aplon at full back - but when Aplon was previously selected to represent SA - he was not up to standard.   Was good on CC level - but his defence on Super 15 level was poor - so there is no real future in that one.

*   So where to now  - the other full back candidate is Kirchner - but I think after the Ellis Park fiasco Kirchner seems to be out of favour.

*  The most likely option is Le Roux - whose perfect performance on Saturday at full back was admirable.

*  That leaves us with the 14 wing selection.  I think Pietersen was so slow and out of form that he is not an option.  So where to now.   The only way open is to move Engelbrecht to wing - since Le Roux will not be available.

*   Retain Fourie at 13 - since the serious question marks about his performance on Saturday could perhaps be addressed.   I think he will fail again - but it will be better to fail against the Scots than against the French.

So the backline will probably be the following:-

15 le Roux, 14  Engelbrecht,  13  Fourie,  12  De Viliers, 11  Habana, 10 Lambie,  9 Pienaar

The backline bench should be 21 Goosen, 22 Serfontein 23 Pietersen.               

JJ just doesn’t have the all round game to be an effective test player. 

Not at wing and most definitely not at center. It’s best for the team they send him home.

He has a little pace but that I’m afraid does not make him a test player.

A wing needs a few additional skills. He has none of them. Can't kick, can't step, poor under the high ball, doesn't look for work, shoddy defender ... it's a wonder he's on tour at all.

Leave JP right where he is. Jaque as well. Play Lambie at 10 and Willie at 15. Bring Serfontein on in the last twenty.

We need to see a little more at lock. Bring the best test lock we have into the starting 15 and blood him properly. Scotland is the perfect nation to do this. He's one for the future. He "man shamed" Etzebeth and I'm confident he'll do the same to the Scottish locks.

Our front row also needs a few questions answered. I would retain Malherbe against the Scots and play Coenie at loosehead.

Cleancut

I know you dislike Engelbrecht intensely - but is Jaque Fourie any better?   Other than him being off-side in the try case and would have been penalized by most referees, he was an absolute disgrace on Saturday.   The way Davies ran around him - without even a vague attempt by him to make a tackle - gave me the creeps.  For the rest he produced nothing in attack or defence.

I agree with you about giving Fourie a further chance to show whether he can improve in performance  - but I do believe we are not going anywhere in his case.  We need a 13 - but it seems as if we are dealing with hopeless cases and can only get hopefully something out of the Super 15 next year.

Just one question though.  JP was below par in Super 15 this year and was very slow on Saturday.   In the latter regard he deteriorated badly in Japan and was slow as a carthorse.  What hope is there for him in retaining him for the next game?  Does he not rather need to get back in proper physical shape before we play him again?  

 Boklogic

A slow player on defence is as bad as a fast player with tackling deficiencies.  Seriously now - I am looking to next year Super 15 and in particular at De Allende as a possible answer.   He is a deadly and hard tackler and has the speed to play at 13.    Very hard nut to bring down in traffic and he is a playmaker as well.

He is still very young - but with an awesome physique and with further experience may be the answer to our no 13 woes.

There are other candidates as well without the baggage carried by Engelbrecht and Fourie - for instance Stokkies Hanekom - so lets just hope we find a solution next year to that vexing problem.