Rolling the tighthead dice

The logic for having Coenie on the bench as tighthead cover despite his door mat history of late appears to derive from one key stat

"The stats confirm that there are only two scrums (on average) during the second half of a Test. The Boks have taken this into account with their planning and selection. Oosthuizen, as Meyer said, can make a big impact in that period with his work around the park."

Interesting, it seemed to me we had more scrums....but it explains how weak scrummagers like Malherbe and Marcel get through these tests from the bench.  And now the whole logic is memorialized in the Coenie selection.

But RWC 03 was determined by Aussie weakness in the scrums at the death. And Jannie could get hurt. I hope  we don't roll the dice too many times.

You have to love Moffie's complete bullshit on this......not only has he been exposed for his wrong calls regarding Marcel and Malherbe as scrummagers, he blindly continues to follow this assertion......how stupid........Malherbe proved it against the Argies, Marcel against the AB's........but to cap it all Moffie thinks Pat Cilliers should be our tighthead.

And the clown expects us to take his take on tightheads seriously.

Malherbe and Marcel are quality young pospects at 3, we are lucky to have them.

Marcel should prove a better 3 than Jannie ever was and Jannie has always been solid enough.

 The old Malherbe nonsense. Try these numbers. In Pretoria with Jannie on till minute 66 we won 7 of 7 scrums. In Salta we won 2 of 6 scrums, a scrumming disaster. But Malherbe came on at minute 45, and was penalized once.

So at best  what did Malherbe "prove' in the two scrums we won. I recall one time the ref let it go he was lying flat on his face by the time the ball came out.

Neither Malherbe nor Marcel are the business and Malherbe seems very injury prone. Coenie could lose us a test if subbed on early. HM should have picked Red linghuis for this one, we desperately need to find a real tighthead to back up Jannie.

Here we have all the scrums at Salta. Jannie had a huge issue and the whole scrum was shunted backwards. Now lets look at Malherbe.  Four scrums....not once did we stay straight on the tighthead side....let alone getting right shoulder.

Minute 50.00 Malherbe pushed back and wheeled. 

Minute  63.14  Numerous collapses on Malherbe's side...ref awards penalty for Malherbe cracking inwards and down

Minute 72.00 Malherbe's side down again....but ref lets play go on.

Minute  80.59....against two Bargie sub props now.....Boks go forward on the Beast's side, Malherbe wheels.

So much has been written about Malherbe's performance in these four scrums, you would swear he was huge. But he kept his feet in two of the four, and was wheeled in both those. He gave away one penalty. And he was pushing against Ayerza with 50 minutes in his legs and an inferior sub in the last scrum.

Pure hype

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vauIvW_Vvk

Nobody has ever demonstrated one statistical error I have deliberately made. But because often I debunk things people accept about players....they think I'm bending the data. Take the Adi Jacobs defence stats you didn't believe BB....they are absolutely accurate, but contradicted your views on Jacob's defence. So your first reaction was to question my source.

Look if you don't believe the Malherbe assessment.....watch the video from game minute 45 onwards. It's all there for the honest observer to see.

Only you could find favour in our scrum taking an absolute beating against the Argies with Steenkamp and Jannie on board and when the ship gets steadied by the inclusion of Malherbe you find fault in him.

Pathetic prejudice and blind ignorance

I have not seen the stats, but lets assume Meyers claim that there are less scrums towards the end of the game is correct and this is why he selected Coenie.

The opposition can easily turn this stat around by selecting a scrum from most of the  penalties in the red zone and if the inferior Bok front row keeps on collapsing, it can easily result in a penalty try. 

My 2 tightheads for the tour would have been Redelinghuys and Dreyer and not Marcel vd Merwe who is not bad, but lacks that killer instinct. Coenie should first prove his value again in the Super rugby next year.

Here is a winning recipe for Meyer next year:

Loosehead: Schalk van der Merwe

Hooker: Akker van der Merwe

Tighthead: Marcel van der Merwe 

Here is a winning recipe for Meyer next year:

Loosehead: Schalk van der Merwe

Hooker: Akker van der Merwe

Tighthead: Marcel van der Merwe 

& this is an unbiased selection from, Blikkies van der Merwe