Lets look at Mozart's list of favourite players - bearing in mint their ages and present abilities and furthermore that he believes that players who was good in 2007 is still good at present:-
Willie le Roux - 25 years - very good player with ballsense
Bryan Habana - 32 years - excellent wing - no problem
JP Pietersen - 29 years - lost pace completely - poor in defense and attack
Jacque Fourie - 33 years - pretended he did not like him - but crowed when he came back - slow and unfit producing nothing at all in last three tests
Jean de Villiers - 33 years - excellent in 2013 - less so in 2014 - will he come back after latest injury? Not sure as yet - he may rule himself out of WC
Francois Steyn - 27 years - was overweight and lost pace completely - worse center in Super 15 for 3 years running
Morne Steyn - 31 years - the worst show in Perth last year - paceless and poor defender - only asset goal kicking
Fourie du Preez - 33 years - Some good form in 2 tests in 2013 and indifferent in other 2- constantly injured.
Ruan Pienaar - 31 years - very slow service at times - questionable performer
Duane Vermeulen - 29 years - outstanding performer
Schalk Burger - 32 years - still a top clss player
Willem Alberts - 31 years - the slowest loosie ever to play for SA - low output player
Juan Smith - 32 years - failed badly in last test
Victor Matfield - 38 years - useless in Tight 5 play - no grunt whatsoever
Jannie du Plessis - 33 years - Mozart's national treasure - way past his sell-by date
Gurthro Steenkamp - 34 years - failed in scrumming last year
Bismarck du Plessis - 32 years - top player
Mozart pretends he supports the selection of Handre Pollard - but he prefers the Steyns ahead of him. The only player below 24 years of age he supports is Eben Etzebeth but he raved about Bakkies Botha and would not hesitate to see Botha ahead of Etzebeth if Botha is available.
A number of players can be selected at this stage without question marks.
Willie le Roux, Bryan Habana, Jean de Villiers (if indeed available), Duane Vermeulen, Eben Etzebeth, Bismarck du Plessis
The age distribution of the players he supports are as follows;
* 13 players are over 31 years of age
* 2 players are 29 years old
* 1 player is 27 years old
* 1 player is 25 years old
* 1 player is 24 years old.
Of the 13 players over 30 only four (Habana, De Villiers - if available - Burger and Bismrack du Plessis) are merit selections - the rest are reputation selections. Of the two 29 year olds one (Vermeulen) is top class, the other lost his pace and is useless at present. The 27 year old is a dud at present. The two younger players are very good.
The average age of Mozart's favourites are 31,06 years of age. Circa three quarters of his favourites are over 31 years of age. It seems as if merit has very limited impact - age seems to be the deciding factor. His constant threads on performance by older sportsmen supports the latter assumption.
Any comments about deficiencies of his favourites are met with scorn - while his dislike of younger players are constant.
