There have been grave remonstrations regarding Rassie's snubbing of Roos.
If we take this board and divide its posters into those that believe in faith in Rassie at all costs and those who believe the Boks could be playing a better brand of rugby, then it's pretty easy to divide posters up into one of those categories. Not everybody fits in one of those boxes perfectly, but it's close enough.
What I have noticed, and what is quite interesting, is that those of us who wish we could play a more expansive game, or at least spread the ball when we have glaring overlaps, seem to be okay with Rassie leaving Roos out. Strange, right? I mean, we're the ones wanting a more expansive game and yet we seem to understand the exclusion of Roos who is naturally a more expansive 8.
On the other hand, the "Rassie at all costs" crowd, almost to man, appear pretty peeved that Rassie has left Roos out. So it seems they buy into Rassie, but not entirely into his gameplan because Roos and Wiese are chalk and cheese. Everything about Wiese is crucial to how the Boks want to play out Rassie's imaginings. Roos, not so much. Yet they bay for the inclusion of Roos as though he could do what Wiese does...when we 100% know that he cannot.
Us expansive lobbyists understand and approve of Wiese's incumbency. In fact, and I'm not sure I speak for everyone of us expansionists but, as it stands and with our current mode of victory, I would rather see van Staden at 8 if Wiese goes down than anybody else. Like for like.
Weirdly, all of us like Roos. I personally commented on numerous match threads that it was almost impossible to not support a guy that has so much fight in him and can be seen running off the shoulder of his winger in the final minute of a game. The biggest complaint most of us have is that he tends to lose the ball in contact a little too often and, my personal frustration, is that I feel he's not picking his battles smartly enough. But that's about it. Everybody pretty much likes him with some, of course, liking him way more.
So the question I have for the Rassie at all costs crowd is this;
Do you believe in Rassie at all costs or don't you?
Us expansionists, while wishing for more, appear to have bought into Rassie more than you guys have.
Strange world, huh?
