This is surely going to spark a fierce debate. PSDT has won the SA rugby player of the year for the second time in 3 years.
https://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Springboks/du-toit-scoops-sa-rugby-player-of-the-year-award-20190207
He was our best player last year so I have no issues with that.
Really hard to fault a guy that was putting the performances that he did.
Anyway, if not him, then who?
BB
I was about the publish the article and will keep it to the full list of awards:-
SA Rugby Player of the Year: Pieter-Steph du Toit
Other nominees: Aphiwe Dyanyti, Malcolm Marx, Franco Mostert, Handré Pollard
SA Rugby Young Player of the Year: Sbu Nkosi
Other nominees: Aphelele Fassi, Embrose Papier, RG Snyman, Damian Willemse
Team of the Year: Springbok Sevens
Other nominees: Lions (Super Rugby), Sharks (Currie Cup)
Coach of the Year: Neil Powell
Other nominees: Swys de Bruin, Rassie Erasmus
Springbok Sevens Player of the Year: Dylan Sage
Other nominees: Werner Kok, Ruhan Nel
Junior Springbok Player of the Year: Wandisile Simelane
Other nominees: Salmaan Moerat, Tyrone Green, Damian Willemse
Super Rugby Player of the Tournament: Aphiwe Dyantyi (Lions)
Other nominees: Malcolm Marx, Franco Mostert (both Lions)
Currie Cup Premier Division Player of the Year: Sergeal Petersen (Western Province)
Other nominees: SP Marais (Western Province), Akker van der Merwe (Sharks)
Currie Cup First Division Player of the Year: Etienne Taljaard (Valke)
Other nominees: Divan Nel (SWD Eagles), Anrich Richter (Valke)
SuperSport Rugby Challenge Player of the Year: Chris Smith (Pumas)
Other nominees: Enver Brandt (Griquas), Ruwellyn Isbell (Pumas), Stefan Ungerer (Pumas)
Craven Week Player of the Tournament
Evan Roos (Western Province)
Referee of the Year
Jaco Peyper
Women's Achiever of the Year
Nolusindiso Booi
It is an interesting mix - but lets get back to Pieter-Steph du Toit. Ever since 2013 there was a hate campaign against him operating on this site and it got more malicious as times went on. When Erasmus praised the dedication and hard work of Du Toit in a recent article, the malignancy continued. One can only expect a further outburst by the rugby illiterates about the award,
The same thing happened about recent awards - ie De Jager in 2015 and Du Toit in 2016. One can only wonder about what is malfunctioning in the brain cavity of the orcs..
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaaa!!!
Shame!!
Let's see how many excuses he can come up with.Dave
Can you remember the famous Morzoscope - containing concocted lies and misrepresentations that was and in rare circumstances still is being spread by the same source, It is unbelievable that some think objective people cannot see what really happened and that they would be caught out,
Dave
Just ignore the orc's BS. He is totally delusional and ignorant.
Now lets get back to the Player of the year award of Du Toit. Have a look at the following article:-
"Star Springbok and Stormers forward Pieter-Steph du Toit says he would like to be utilised more at flank than lock in the upcoming season.
Du Toit, who was on Thursday confirmed at SA Rugby's Player of the Year for 2018, told Netwerk24 that Stormers coach Robbie Fleck had asked him where he'd like to feature in the upcoming Super Rugby competition.
"I told Fleckie No 7 flank. I enjoy my rugby more there. Rassie (Erasmus, Springbok coach) did not specifically say that’s where he’d like to see me play, but it’s more or less what I assumed. I was told that I’ll have to play flank and lock... to be the versatile player.
"They (the Springbok management) however told me that they'd like to utilise me more as a No 7 flank than lock. If someone were to ask me now, I'll say flank is my preferred position. I really enjoy playing there."
Du Toit played nine of his 14 Tests in 2018 at flank.
The SA Rugby Player of the Year accolade was the second time the 26-year-old won the award - he also received the honour in 2016.
Du Toit became only the fifth player since 1992 to claim the crown more than once. The others are Bryan Habana (2005, 2007 and 2012), Schalk Burger (2004 and 2011), Jean de Villiers (2008 and 2013) and Fourie du Preez (2006 and 2009)"
Aside from Du Toit the only forward who ever got the Player of the Year award more than once was Schalk Burger. He got it in 2004 (age 21 years old) and seven year later in 2011 (age 28 years old.
Du Toit got his awards in 2016 (age 24 years old) and 2018 (age 26 years old). I can see him getting the relevant reward again before his retirement from rugby.
As to playing at lock - it is evident that Du Toit has no problem playing at lock, but he prefers playing at 7. The reasons for that is that -
* the Springboks have an oversupply of top class locks with Etzebeth, De Jager, Snyman and Schickerling in the mix - without even considering the overseas club players);
* the team has problems on loosie level and Du Toit will always put the interests of the team ahead of his own interests.
Insofar as Mostert is concerned you must bear in mind that the orc has no idea about the functioning of the Tight 5 and the role of locks in that regard, That is why he came wit a classic before - he justified the selection of Alberts as a loosie to off-set the Tight 5 deficiency of Matfield. By 2014 both Matfield and Alberts were sub-standard and the result was that we only had an operational Tight 4.
Mostert was part of the problem that driving mauls virtually disappeared from the Springbok team in 2018. He was not physically strong enough to organize and facilitate the forward operation of mauls. The orc tried an escape mechanism from that statement by quoting the final maul in the French test - until it was exposed is misrepresentation of what actually happened,
The orc had a running campaign against Du Toit about the poor throw-ins by Marx in the English test in November. That campaign continued even after Marx admitted he was at fault,
I would ignore the orc when it comes to Du Toit and Stander - he is totally delusional when it comes to his pet-hate players,
Very funny how Moz is slated for not rating PSDT as highly as the rest of us but with same breath those slating him claim what a "powder-puff" Mostert is.
Such a powder puff that Rassie rates him. Such a powder puff that he's immediately made an impact at his new club in brand new conditions. Such a powder puff that he been our most consistent lock for years now. Such a powder puff that he's easily the best lineout jumper in the country.
On balance, Moz's view is easily the most unbiased.
Rooi
By that reasoning we are only able to judge players if they win POTY awards.
PSDT was better than Mostert last year for me.
The point I'm making is that yes PSDT was good, but Mostert was not far behind him.
But we have people here claiming that he was totally out of his depth, not nearly test level, too lightweight etc and it's very obvious that this is not the case.
So, on balance Moz views are a lot less unbiased and more progressive than he's being given credit for. Mike and most others write Mostert off purely on the basis of his size. Forget anything else. that 5kgs means everything.
Same thing with Faf. His pass was slightly under par for a few games and then that became the be all and end all. In reality it was jsut an excuse because we want a Pienaar sized scummie. Forget everything else he broguht to the table. Nobody complained too much when Coetzee dropped him for Cronje. Then Rassie brings him back and suddenly we realise he's possibly one of the best in the world.
I wonder if anybody stopped to think for a moment that for him to sort his pass out was probably one of the easiest things he had to do. And then what? We dropped a brilliant scrummie on the basis of a problem that could be sorted out in no time at all. And which was sorted out almost as soon as it appeared.
Willie is another one. Too eratic and mercurial blah blah blah. This year we realise that he's far and away our best play maker and why the hell was he ever dropped? He was dropped because looking past one's nose is feat not easily managed in South Africa.
Brussow also springs to mind.
The list of players that this type of thing has happened to is endless.
It's bandwagon bullshit and it very often totally ignores the big picture in favor of micromanagement. Most times to the detriment of both the player and the fans.
LOL Rooi
Moz = PSDT(Good) + Mostert(Better than PSDT)
Others = (PSDT Excellent) + Mostert(Sucks and should not be there)
Clearly Moz's opinion is closer to the truth. Even by your own assesement of PSDT and Mostert respectively, you agree more with Moz's opinon than you agree with the others.
I speakig specifically about this instance by the way. Not generally about all opinions that Moz has ever had.
Plum
There was a problem when De Jager was injured in May last year, but an even bigger one because of problems in the blind-side position, Before he even announced his squad Erasmus mentioned that his ideal lock players as Etzebeth and De Jager.
To be fair to Erasmus he asked the Lions and Stormers respectively to see whether Mostert and Du Toit could not be sued as a blindside flank. De Bruyn and Fleck obliged - but after a two week trial it was clear that it did not work out in the case of Mostert and he was moved back to lock by De Bruyn - while Du Toit passed the test,
When Erasmus became Director of Rugby of SARU he recently claimed that he initially had serious reservations about Du Toit as a player. He soon changed his mind about the player and used him as lock and blindsider in tests. .
I am afraid that Mostert made a mistake in moving to Gloucetster. He was not a reals success at Gloucester and in his latest game he was used as blindsioder with limited success, The chances of Mostert being ibn contention for lock selection has basically gone out of the window. Ahead of him as a lock contender are at least De Jager, Snyman, Schickerling and even Stassen.
As stated Mostert made a mistake by moving - staying in SA would have kept him in the limelight - in the case of Gloucester the out of sight out of mind case could happen.
In a way I agree with Dave though - Mostert is not physical enough to play at lock. .
I
Plum
Incidentally Willemse was not good enough on Saturday as a lock and I am not surprised by him being dropped to the bench,
