Ref; Deus -- Skill ceiling

Deus, this is a response to your comment that the Boks need to further bolster their defense in midfield as opposed to exploring more attacking options.

Yes, defense is important, but do we get to a point where we focus so much on defense that we compress the skill range and end up as shown in the diagram below where we spend too much time competing where lesser teams have parity?

From most of your posts, I can tell you think SA rugby is pretty much useless. Meaning that it's very likely that you don't agree that our skill ceiling is as high as I seem to think it is.

My view is that we have one of the highest skill ceilings in the world, but our coaches, through their defense and kicking-based mindset, very rarely set our teams up to be playing at our ceiling where pretty much only the ABs could compete with us.

This is why we struggle to beat Argentina on our home soil...and then we have a team that goes to Argentina, is less constrained by strict rules, spends more time playing at the skill ceiling, and end up wrecking the Argies at home.

To me, it explains why we have been struggling to beat many lesser teams.

And then our strategy against the ABs is to attempt to drag them into our compressed low-skill ceiling game, which they don't fall for and refuse to take part in...resulting in us getting demolished by them.

In general, the sample size for rugby is very small compared to other competitive activities, like gaming.

A particular game that I play, is very strongly focused on skill ceiling. During some phases, the developers update the game to reduce the skill ceiling and when that happens, it becomes much more difficult to beat lesser players. Inevitably, the hardcore players complain and the game is updated to increase the skill ceiling again, by for example promoting movement, quick decision-making, accuracy, etc...at which point, the disparity between lesser and better players becomes way more obvious and its easier for better players to beat worse players.

The sample data in gaming is massive and one can literally track the performance of the top 5% of players over a period of time during a particular version of the game. And it's without fail always the case that the wider the skill range is, the better the top 5% of players do because they spend more time competing in a space where the lesser-skilled players can't hang . 

What do you think, are we really better off being more defensively minded?

Anyway, its a tad tricky to put this into the right words and terminology, but i think you get what I'm saying.

Jeez plum, you wrote a thesis to try and prove your point to dooshed lemur. 

I agree that with Rasball, we are all blunt force and no subtle skills. However, Libbok and Willemse along with Am and Willie can still produce some sublime skills. 

Just watched Libbok on on of his passes that after the Willemse line break, how he got his hand behind the tackler and used his wrist to get the ball pinpoint to Mpimpi . 

Pollard is a general, direct player with good kicking boot. Just glad to see that with some of players that is in not completely coached out of us, 

Just hope the players ignore Nienaber and play the way the Stormers do 

"I’d rather ask my cat for his opinion on anything relating to SA rugby"

Please don't Dave

In all honestly..... even your cat would say drop DDA 

Yes, defense is important, but do we get to a point where we focus so much on defense that we compress the skill range and end up as shown in the diagram below where we spend too much time competing where lesser teams have parity?

Defence doesn't have to be an either or scenario. More often than not the better attackers are the better defenders, as they are simply the better overall player. Take Pollard and Esterhuizen for example. Both vastly superior to Libbok and Damian defensively, but also vastly superior on attack.

My point the past year and a half has been that we are rebuilding this team in such a way that it doesn't do anything well. I'd give our attacking play this year a D at best. That's actually quite generous. Libbok is a very poor player who has been horribly exposed. Arendse exposed. Willemse exposed (though he has more potential). Moodie is grossly overrated. We aren't making the Boks better in attack. We are actually far worse than 2019 and 2018, not that this was anything to write home about either.

So what do we have? We now have a team who is the leakiest team of the top tier nations. Our set pieces have regressed markedly. What next? Well, we can run really fast in open space, if we are given free space, the opposition defend passively, and they don't pressure us at the breakdown. What kind of tradeoff is that? This era of Bok rugby is worse than the early 00s. At least we had some fundamentals, and actually brought intimidating physicality. What's more, there was an urgency for improvement. Not anymore. Just bucket loads of BS. Each and every test is stripping away the many layers of BS. We haven't fallen down the rankings for nothing. We don't rank do poorly for so many facets of play for nothing. We don't look impotent against every solid effort for nothing. This is the worst iteration of the Boks under Erasputin, and I'd go even further in saying that this is the worst prepared and selected Bok side going into a World Cup to date.

South Africans are the only clowns who are moving in this direction and defending it. The long term repercussions of what Erasputin has done will be felt for years to come. 

To get a sense of how Harrassmiss erodes player skills, look no further than Esterhozen. Playing for his team up north  the instant he takes contact he is looking for the offload….like the Aussie backs in the first half against the ABs.

On Saturday Hozen was thunderous, skittling players like nine pins. But he made no offloads. I don’t think you can find a non Bok game where Esterhozen never offloaded.

Harrassmiss is turning Hozen into Dud.

"But best of all - wait for it - Kwagga is our most valuable player"

Not even close to Doos XL's best or funniest work.

How about Zane Kirchner is better than Israel Folau . . . or Morne Steyn is better than Dan Carter . . . or the only job of a flyhalf is to pass the ball to his inside centre?

LMAO! He has had some classics!

Luke Watson is better than Schalk Burger…..one can’t top that!

Oh I liked Luke Watson better than I liked Schalk Burger

Hahaha….pass!

Waylon Murray, Pretorius over Butch, Du Preez is a cart horse, Schalk plays flyhalf, JJ is better than Gerber, Kriel is better than Am, Malherbe is the best ever tight head, Lambie is the best 10 since Naas... the list goes on. It's almost as funny as Notshe being the best Bok of all time! 

Where do we make these people? Is it th e result of eating rancid biltong? Too much Castle degrading sperm quality? Something went wrong, that's for sure. 

I've lied about nothing. Why lie when the truth is so much more fun? 

Nonsense Dave, Snor was under orders to give Luke Watson a spot and he totally demonstrated Jake was right about him. Schalk was big for a fetcher, but before the 2006 neck injury nobody beat him on the deck. He weighed the same as Marx and is just an inch and a half taller. No reason he couldn’t fetch.

Compa red with playing a lock like Dud at 7 that was a minor ask,