Mozart is always a miracle man when it comes to rating of players - he has his favourites and that is always what counts. All his favourites are always rated as excellent - whether they deserve the rating or not.
His present favourites are Francois Steyn and Matfield. In his books the only things that count is line out takes and calls and kicking at goal. Nothing else is of any consequence.
Francois Steyn kicked ta long distance goal on Saturday - the rest of his game was poor - but he still got an excellent rating poorly based on that kick. Never mind the fact that he missed one out of every 3 tackles he attempted - never mind the fact that he gave away three penalties - never mind the fact that he made no impact on attack (his ball carries was poor and he beat no defenders) - he was rated as excellent by Mozart. One wonders what will happen if by accident Steyn does something worth wile in an upcoming match - will Mozart invent a new rating like super excellent in such a case.
In the case of Matfield the rating goes up and up in every game - based on line out takes. The latest one is he showed Retallick how a good lock should play. Not that Retallick is really a top lock in line out play - matter of fact he is one of the weakest locks around in that facet of play. As an example lets look at what two poor locks did in line -outs in the game between the Chiefs and the Stormers.
Steenkamp of the Stormers stole 5 line out balls from Retallick during that match in line outs. Retallick took no balls in line-outs in that game. Against the Bulls he jumped opposite Matfield and Retallick lost one ball and took 2 line outs. So Matfield was excellent and Steenkamp did nothing.
Mozart never looks at anything else when he started raving about Matfield. His ball carries was insignificant - his tackling was acceptable - his tight play average - so the best rating one could reasonably arrive it is good not excellent.
Incidentally in his last 3 games Steyn played in he got the following points in respect of Foxsport ratings:-
* Reds = 0
* Bulls = 5
* Waratahs = -4
If that equates to excellent performances - than heaven knows what is poor performances.
