One superb bit of Bok centre play on Saturday

 Credit goes to two of the marginal players for that try.   Superb lng pass from the flyhalf to the inside center - what aload of crap.   It was standard back line play and the defense of the  Argentinian backline was deficient.  
Why did Steyn kick that ball directly out of touch and not passed the ball to keep it in hand - Minus mark big time.   

Hendricks still had quite a lot to do to get that try, his finish impressed me! I was swearing like a trooper when Steyn kicked that ball directly into touch a few mins from the end of the match. Especially when his backs were lining up to the left with acres of space. Pollard's rubbish tactical kicking put so much pressure on us that Steyn's stuff up at the end of the game was just more of the same. 

 Which confirms you have no sense of back play Oom.

 mike he kicked the ball becausr nobody was home. a better option to plant a lineout than give it wide and hsvr tge drift shut us doen which is most likely scenario.
mozart jeans weakest area had always bern attack. muddled lines and poor disyribution are always his hallmark. i dont even rste his angles that well on daturday. fourie had alwayd been the best smartest runnrr of all our centres, frans can do slot of good decoy running, hell in 2013 taute ran better lines than jean has. he just isnt great. he was only ever selected at 12 by jake because barry was passef it and a defensive problem. .so jean could tackle and intercept wss all we had thst year. our attack was nevet the same again until fourie and frans. jean survived so long becsuse thete wete no alternstives not because he was great and peter retained jean because of a wp fetish. but he haf a bad 2008 and was justa crasher and tackler the rest of the time. last year he was bypassed for crucial attacking phases and he only evrr excrlled in the odd run one on one when play got fragmented. i saw little leafership either. ellis park was like the 2007 fiji test but a john smit he wasnt. its case closed he has to be benched and right now i would go frans or serf because jeam doesnt even look good on defence anymore.

 Wow well done Jean - I'd say a huge straw clutch there for a player who has gone awol in the last two tests. Time to move on and bring on the bright young talent in serfontein. One of MANY changes that need to be made before we can begin to compete with NZ.
He'll given our struggles against the Argies imagine what we are going to be like against oz next .... heaven help us.
The solution is simple get rid of Jean, morne, pienaar, steenkamp,  jannie, bakkies, matfield, louw and alberts

The solution is simple if you think like a simpleton. Steppie couldn't have set up the Hendricks try in a hundred years. He would have stepped inside and tried to break the tackle....and got smeared as usual.

 how many tries has jean bliwn because he wants to go it alone? probably dozens. one involvemrnt diesnt make him great moz. jean doesnt think like a 12 never has so i would rather play a guy who does. strauss is our best leader amyways so i just dont see any way to jystify him anymore. 

 At least serfontein would have been visible in the test instead of the awol stuff we have seen from Jean.  He h as been useless

Gonzo we agree on most things, as you said elsewhere we don't have to agree on everything.  

 That was an easy try to botch. It needed a perfectly timed long flat pass. It needed Jean engaging two defenders to open the wing. Jean positioned himself to the right of the first defender so he was running past him on catching the ball. This allowed him to draw in the second defender, leaving Hendricks with only one to deal with and the opportunity to build up some steam. It was a smart dismantling of the opposition defense, not "standard backline play". Pity we don't see more of it from the Boks.

 Pakie
This was just what is expected from any decent center - to run at the slight gap between opposing centers and try to draw in two defenders and create space for outside players.    It happenms so rarely that we rave about it when it does.
That is the problem with our backline play and to say De Villiers had a good day because he did what he is supposed to do routinely is grasping at straws.   I am a great admirer of De Villiers - but he did have two rather poor days at the office in both tests against Argentina.   I still think he is a very good player and will never support his non-selection to the team - but I do recognize when he is not performing well enugh . 

When is the last time Serfontein did that? All his fans went bonkers about his string of routine crash ball runs against Wales. Not once did he create anything outside him, but somehow he's the new the holy grail of Bok 12s. I'm not saying Jean had a good day. I'm saying he did something special when it was really needed. You're welcome to dismiss that bit of play as routine, we all have our opinions. I'm happy to appreciate the knife-edge timing and tactical positioning it took to turn that move into a try.

 P akie
The problem with center play in SA is that we expect from a 12 not to do anything - but run staright at the opposing defender and effectively "crashball".  The idea is that it would -
*   allow dor off-laoding of the ball while the tackle is in process; and or
*    draw in defenders to contest the breakdown ball and then in theory the ball is  recovered quickly by us and recycled to other players that would have space.
None of our centers - with teh possible exception of De Alelnde - is noted for their ability to off -load balls effectively.   Steyn goes to ground directly on contact and Serfontein is a boit better, but still not an effective off-loader.
After ten years we have not yet discovered it does not work - and we still have inside centers like Francois Steyn and Jan Serfontein - who specialize in doing just that.   The Bulls backline play is totally dedicated to the crashball concept - and the Sharks backline was ruined this year because of the same concept.   What is effectively means we kill backline play by doing just that because the opposing teams expected that to happen all the time and is geared to respond.   It is so one-dimensional - it is sickening.    If it is a variation - fine, but it is routine.
Don't get me wrong - De Villiers did well in that case - but why does it viortually never happen otherwise?  De Villiers is not th crashballin tyoe - and neither is Jan Serfontein.   That is why I support those two players for selection and oppose the selction of Steyn as an exercise in futility.   I am not satisfied that Serfontein does not do  it - but his whole coaching is set up to do the opposite to his natural playing style and I am really sorry for the guy.
The problem is that this scenario became routine because of our flyhalf play.  Morne routinely stands so deep in the pocket that by the time the 12 gets the ball - the defenders are on top of him already.     He stood flatter in that case - but that is so rare it is almost unbelievable that in fact it did happen.    There is still  a faint hope  that Stade Francais will succeed in giving him coaching about what is ecxpected from a flyhalf - but at his age and bearing in mind he never really was a functional flyhalf - it is unlikely to happen and he will remain basically their bench flyhalf for the remainder of his contract.       
    

 Snapster wants to get rid of Louw!!! One of our best forwards and certainly not old at 29.
Jean was our player of the year in 2013. He has not been at his best yet but too early to write him off. The man is a class act.

. 

 jean player of the year? what for? yeah i know this shiitz, like watson. is the SARU give your mate a prize day doesnt mean jack bo dizzle bud. the man hasnt been at his best since 2005 period. an awful player. but yeah thats how it rolls in good old sowf efrika... two players that cost us the rugby championship (bissie and jean) come away heros in the media. utter bullshi-t!

Pakie it was an outstanding bit of centre play including the drift on the pass. Does it worry you that no other posters and none of our so called rugby experts in the media even saw this? What do these guys actulally see? The NZ commentators would have spotted that immediately.

 Mozart
What is a pity is that you saw that incident - and missed all incidents involving all players you do not like.   
De Villiers did well in that one incident - but he did not do well enough in the two games against Argentna as a whole.   Problm with you is you only see what yo want to see and that makes your comments highly suspect.   
By the way you said you listened to the game and was pertuurbed because the comments were in Spanish.  Do you understand Spanish?   You obviously do not know what the English commentators said about the incident - now do you?

 Who gives a crap what the commentators say. Half of them are clueless in any case. Do yourself a favour one day and watch a game without the sound on and only turn up the sound when the ref talks. Then watch it again and listen to the commentating.

 stransky must ne a aussies he cant hide how much he hates sa. not very bright either. none of our vommentators sre. we'd be better off with fted flintstone and barny rubble becsusr our lot give cavemen a bad name.

 One bite doesn't make a summer.
Serfontein is definitely our best defensive center that's for sure, just needs to be allowed to do his own thing. He was the best U20 center I've ever seen (I've only watched the U20 world cup since 2009) and his first year of Super Rugby was superb as well as his first few tests. This year he has played in a losing team and been one of the few shining lights. He's underrated by those who have listened to the overhype and have expected him to be a world beater, simple. 

One bite, which saved the test, certainly saved or at least prelonged the season. Jean doesn't do that it's goodbye RC.

Are you judging a player's performance across 80 minutes a single occurrence during a match, again?
Also if Jean doesn't play there are other variables that you're purposefully ignoring.

 Shezza 
Mozart is a one-incident jerk - a person that think one incident determine the outcome of a match.   He is prejudiced against some players - he gves them inapprpriate nicknames - but those players he prefers always walks on water.   
If you believe anything that moron w rites about games - you need to see a shrink.    

Moz I don't read much rugby media and the cliched nonsense our South African commentators spout is hard to digest. Owen Nkumane basically called the pass to Hendricks from Jean and neither he nor Stransky said anything else about the setup. Their focus was entirely on Hendricks' effort. The NZ commentators are excellent in this respect though. I watched the Aus/NZ game last night and as always it was a joy listening to them. Great expert commentary and on-the-fly a*nalysis.

 When the chips were down Jean and a few others took the game out of the fire. I don't see Jan or Damien doing that. We struggled a bit last year as well, and then we folled Ozz AND had a game on against NZ untill the red card. I'll panic if we get trashed in Australasia.BTW Argie was not doing too badly against Oz and NZ in a few games in the last few years. lets see how the AB scrum goes against them before we start wailing.

 Justin Marshall is a the best commentator in the world, the other one annoys me. The worst commentators in my mind are the Welsh followed by the Irish and Australian. 

 Shez, our TV lot is bad. Our radio lot is way better. 

Stransky is my ultimate worst of all time.

Uncle Hugh and Cowley are good though