Pienaar outplayed Hougaard in the England series - deserves a start

 As appealing as Hougaard's natural abilities are, his service from the ruck and tactical kicking were found lacking. Pienaar brought a calm and stability to the position every time he came on and it gives the Boks another kicking option for poles if Meyer insists on M Steyn at 10. Pienaar was impressive in the Heineken Cup both in goal kicking and general play. 

Would also like to see Aplon get another game - hardly put a foot wrong and always looks threatening with ball in hand. Made some impressive tackles and a lovely turnover early in the game. 

Spies needs a wake up call somehow - has lost that fire. Same applies to Beast and du Plessis.

Bekker can't come back soon enough. Bok lineout is so much better with him there and it may be the only place we can get a turnover without Brussouw on the field.

 Words of truth regarding Pienaar, he seems to be alot more mature as a player his long term sint at Scrumhalf in the northern hemisphere has done him good. 

the only way that Spies will get a wakup call is if he gets dropped. 

Look, Hougard is a special talent, and he simply can't be left out of the team. I am not saying he should or should not be played ahead of Pienaar, but we should all bear in mind, the forwards in the last test were outplayed by the Poms, and playing behind a weak pack will make any scrummy look bad. I know Pienaar looked better behind the same pack when he came on, but the dynamic of the game had changed by then so it is difficult to credit that to Pienaar alone. Lastly, I strongly believe that Hougard has the potential to be one of the best scrummy's ever. I know he has some weaknesses, but nothing that can't be fixed.

I think Hougaard has all the elements in him to be an excellent scrummie - but there is one major deficiency - his ability to read the game and decide on action instantly.   He should not try and be Tarzan and do everything himself.  Kicking should always be part of his game - but he should know when to pass qand to whom.

He is young and can learn a lot from Pienaar - who has a more insticntive feel for the game.   I would let him and Pi9enaar be around for a while - whilst he learns his trade and ,may even let Pienaar start and bring Hougaard off the bench - thus allowing Hougaard to learn the finer trade of the job and develop him further.  As an example - I do not think that Hougaard would have made the pass wchich Pienaar did and which lead to Pietersen's try.

Both should be in the squad and both could serve as well.

Mike I guess that is more a less what I was trying to say. He has a lot to learn, but he has one thing that can not be taught, X factor!

 I think Hougaard should be dropped until he has proven that he can play the role as a 9 or he should just decide to play 11. I'm fed of watching players play for the boks when they are not at their best. a test match is not the place to learn and improve your skills. That is what super 15 is for. 

I also don't buy into the fact that when the pack does bad, 9 and 10 suffers because of it. The best halfbacks in the world know how to play behind a losing pack. Greegan and Larkham did it for many years.

With Hougaards quick feet and athletisism he should be able to compensate for it, but he is far to eager to take contact. Genia dances his way out and has an amazing pass. For me Hougaards has a really poor passing game.

I also believe that we are lacking good 9's at the moment. But for this year I would back Pienaar. He has nearly 50 caps, been playing some great rugby and has shown a lot of maturity.  

i think creating competition for places is great for the players and i think pienaar deserves his place but i also feel hougaard enjoys a ragged quick game more than the trence style rugby of the series with england. he is a amazing runner but PDV and dick muir training mehods really changed the way how the backs ran and helped there stepping skills. for him that was the greatest change. i still feel he is tryiing to find his feet so i think off the bench he will be more of a factor. plus he covers 2 postions. going forward that will help create depth

Nice observations matey. I agree with most of them. But I have to say, I'm not totally sure about Pienaar. He is a fine player technically. But two things bother me:

1) His defence is very suspect.....Hougaard by contrast  is a brilliant tackler.

2) Pienaar is part of the "slow and deliberate" school. It was evident in that last set of phases where Werner Kruger gave away our last chance of winning. Pienaar kept tapping the ball back into the ruck and organizing away. In the end the phases were slow and totally predictable. It's a disease which may have originated with Fourie  du Preez , but Pienaar may now be the most infected player.

My guess is we are going to alternate with these two for a while.

That issue, with the scrumhalves mucking around behind the set pieces is something that has creeped in all over the show, Moz. I have watched many Premiership and Heineken games as well where it irritated the crap out of me. This is why I am happy that they are busy evaluating the idea if the scrummie having 5 seconds to play the ball from behind the ruck as well. The same principle as the time limit behind a maul.

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of those potential changes Vlag....and they make a lot of sense......like the delay at the lineout rule.

 That is true that both Pienaar and Hougaard are some what guilty of keeping the ball to long at the base of the ruck. I think falls to the coach in how he trains his squad to play, but it would be interesting to compare rucks speeds between the top teams. 

The Highlanders really impressed me at the beginning of the season, they were really sharp and quick and knew what they were doing. 

Agreed. Ruan looks great and has matured well at Ulster where he has consistantly played scrumhalf with the odd move to 10.  His kicking and distribution is what sets him apart form Hougie in my opinion. Especially with the Boks game plan his natural style suits better.

I do however believe we should keep hougie in the mix. Impact player off the bench for 9 or 11.

Would like to see Lambie and Ruan at 9 and 10 untill Johan Goosen is ready to go. Lambie should then switch to 15 and stay there. In no world is Aplon or Zane in the same class as Lambie. Morne Steyn should not be in the bok squad, he has not contributed since 2009 and apart from his kicking (which is also kak now) his game lacks in  attack, distribution and defense.

Standing behind a maul and waving their arms are nothing new in SA Rugby.   It was started by Joost and refined by Fourie Du Preez - the real experts in that.   It irritates the hell out of me - because it allows the opposition to line up their defences and the method actually kills backline play.  

I was surprised to see that Pienaar did the same on Saturday - he never was like that earlier in his career - but it may have had something to do with the conditions.    The real scrummies not guilty of that (Duvenhage  and Van Zyl) are not rated because they do not do that.   Do they get instructions from the coaches to do that exercise in futility or not?    Lets be clear about two issues here.   Half backs must have an instinctive feel for the game and be able to exercise options quickly.   If they cannot - they are not contributing to 15 man rugby and play 10 man rugby that went out in other countries as far back as 1992.

I believe that Hougaard could be brought back to sanity and play a fast service game - but have never seen Morne Steyn able to do that.  Unless they can start with imaganitive playing both should go.