RIP James Small

Just saw it now, wow.... heart attack at 50

R.I.P James

Wow!

A young man.

I wonder what the cause of the attack was?

Terrible news. As already mentioned, so young. Thoughts and prayers with his loved ones.

RIP - he was on e of the heroes I think highly of.   Was only 50 years old.

A real warrior who never gave an inch to Lomu. 

What a shock. You never know when it's your turn. 

RIP James........I will always be a huge fan.

So young......so sad.

RIP James    all the '95 'J's gone....... Jonah Joost James

A damn shame ,I hate seeing good men especially rugby men pass away.

Yes Moz, Joost was the second player from the '95 team to have passed. 

RIP, and sympathies to his family, friends and fans.

Hi Wardad.

My father would always tell me....." You just never know what's around the corner."

Watching that clip brought back some wonderful memories of when we actually had a team to be proud of.

We were a threat in world rugby. Everyone feared us.

Now we're the clowns.

To think of what could have been ... what should have been. So sad. 

Ruben Kruger was my favourite player at the time. Great to see him again.  

RIP James. Saw him around Cape Town a few times. He was always friendly and enthusiastic...seemed to be a very good person and a great competitor. So long James, thanks for the memories.

If only we had the calibre of these three in our current side:

More heart than anything else...we need more ticker...and PSDT is one of the few showing some...yet it seems to be trivialized on this site.

No doubt Steph has heart, but that isn't enough. When all is even, greater desire and perseverance etc can be a determining factor; emotion alone will never result in sustained success. Steph isn't world class. Too many of our sides are emotional. The players in past generations had passion, but also intellect. Without intellect, there can be no creativity. Look at the clips in the video I posted. Look at the lines of running and ability to sum up situations quickly. These players were not trained as well as those of today. The difference is intellect which better utilises skills. When is the last time we saw Boks link up as well as Jean, Fourie, Du Preez, Schalk, Habana et al? It's been a long time. How many youngsters showed that same ability? Heart is good enough for a one-off game, and that is reflected in the Bok's inconsistent showings.

It was enough when we beat NZ in NZ last year....????

When we beat New Zealand in Wellington, Steph was guilty of numerous missed tackles and was baited and exposed many times. He was porous on defence. 

Aug

I have just watched the game again. It remains one of my best matches of all time.

In many respects you are correct. He missed a few incredibly difficult tackles and one howler.

But by taking a look a bit deeper... you are being incredibly shallow and seem to be watching with blinkers on. (excuse the oxymoron).

PSdT just about put in more tackles than anyone else. He did not stop.

So with that in mind, we need to acknowledge his monstrous work load.

With a huge workload, will come one or two mistakes.

A person that walks on a white line for 10 meters will make fewer mistakes than a person walking in a white line for  mile.

PSdT was Schalkish against NZ.

I get where you are coming from Chippo, but I disagree about his performance in that Wellington test. The Aussie test in SA was another story, and I did in fact rate him the best Bok of the game making pretty much no major errors. His performance in the first Puma test was also rock solid. In the Aussie test he racked up 24 tackles, though Schalk would have done it without those 5 misses. He made 14 tackles in Wellington, missing 5 again. That seems fair given the circumstances, but there are details which are not accounted for in the stats, such as his rushing around the fringe of the defence. He was baited with ease and exposed his channel. He does this very often from game to game and it was exploited heavily here. One pod runner would engage him and pop an inside ball to his pod support and they'd make large chunks of ground before being stopped. These are big problems. Steph is a similar kind of player to Lood in that if he lines you up, he'll drive you backwards. He has good front-on force, but very poor mobility. He excels in games where the Boks are very regimented in their defensive shape, such as the home Wallaroo test. He needs that support in the jam and hustle channels to conceal that limitation. Think back to the Scotland test in the WC regarding Lood, and the defensive shape. Lood in that first half was rock solid, but that inside-outside support meant he only had to worry about what as in front of him. In games where the opposition seize the initiative and move defenders around, like the Wallabies in Brisbane and New Zealand in Wellington, he'd become a liability. Where was Steph on the EOYT? Nowhere. Even worse, his reminiscence to Serfontein: Not physical enough for 12, too slow and immobile for 13. Steph finds himself between lock and flank, not quite making either one his definitive position. We have better blindsiders in SA right now, players with explosive power and dynamism. Who would you fear more, Duane and Dan du Preez side by side or Duane and Steph? Honestly?

Duplicate

Hell I though this thread was about the passing away of James Small.   Even this was turned into a discussion of Du Toit by the brain-damaged two.  How besotted can you two get.

Maaik, it was me who dragged PSDT into this...sorry.