Ruan Pienaar against the Aussies

After watching the game on Saturday a second time I was upset by the performance of Ruan Pienaar.   The main problem with his performance was the way he licked away possession.   The problem with his kicking game was both predictability and inaccuracy. 
A typical example was the way he kicked after a successful maul moved the Aussies back more than 20 meters.   The Aussies was on the back foot - their players (also their loosies) drawn into the maul situation and Pienaar kicking the ball totally ineffectively - just handing possession over to the Aussies.   This in fact happened twice.
Most of his kicks were aimed at Folau and was easily dealt with by the latter.  Another questionable kick was when the Springboks were attacking on the Aussie 22 and he kicked a ball that rolled over the sideline.  This was not a strategic kick or anything like that - it was just a possession-handover kick.  At that stage the answer definitely was to keep ball in hand and protect same - not kicking it away aimlessly.  
Another issue relates to his defense.  He tried to make three tackles and missed all three.   That is totally unacceptable.   The same thing happened in the World 15 game when Burden twice played the fool with him.  
Insofar as personal attacking options is concerned there was zero on his part.  At one stage he got caught in possession behind a maul and that in itself was not acceptable.
On the whole his passing game was reasonable - not good enough to say that he in that respect had a good performance.
In essence however, there is the need for kicking at times in games - but constant and predictable up-and-unders are just not goo d enough.  When it is clear that that tactic did not work then the tactic should be abandoned - and on Saturday the tactic did not work and Pienaar kept on doing it over and over.   He was not the only culprit in that regard - but certainly the worst one.  
         

 Denny
Agreed - he is way past his sell-by date.

Nee man, you do not understand....he was never ever any good. Another overrated media hyped player who on closer inspection was superficially quicker  than my garden gnome. 

 Denny
So he is one of the never-hasbeens in Meyer's squad I assume. 

 Mike,  I  think Ruan made a total of 6 kicks in the game of which at least 2 were very well placed box kicks.  The kicking culprits were Pollard and willie. 

Mozart
If Pienaar was fine -0 you must be having daydreams.   His defense obviously was to your liking as well.  
As for Fourie du Preez, neither you not I know what he is going to be like when at the age of 33 he returns.  Last year before his injury in the Welsh test he was unfit and his performance was crap.   That was because he never was match-fit after a three month break.  He had minimal rugby and was injured when he returned to Japan for training purposes - obviously because he was unfit again.   He is a huge gamble - to say that he still is dynamic is claptrap - he has to prove that he still is and there was no sign of that in the past year.       

We have a problem at scrum half. Faf is my first choice, but we have basically run out of time to blood him, so he is wasted. Reinach is exciting with ball in hand, but I am not sold on his tactical game. Ruan Pienaar is boring and offers zero on attack. His tactical kicking is also barely average. Hougard, started the year off with a bang, but faded and was also played on wing for a large part of the season, as a result he has not had enough time at scrum half. 
Here is the truth, we are hedging this world cup on Fourie Du Preez. Now I still rate him, as he is/was the best tactical scrummy in the game. Unfortunately, we have no idea where either his game, or his fitness levels are at the moment. Can he still be the player he used to be at 33? P robably not, but because of Meyers insistence on keeping Pienaar in the mix over the last few years instead of blooding the youngsters, we now have no choice but to hope Fourie pulls off a miracle.   

 Whatever kicks he made was the same thing over and over again and none of them was effective.  But defense is not required from a scrumhalf when assessing his overall performance  - that is something new I have learnt from you - must remember that one. By the way your comments on defense is not anywhere I can remember mentioned critically at all - it was just ignored and the praise song followed.
    

 Mike,  I'm no Pienaar fan,  but he was good in his last 2 games. Willie was poor 50% of the time and JP was allmost a total pasenger. 

 Draad
I am sure you are entitled to your own opinion and welcome to differ from me.  I do not differ from you in the case of Pietersen though.     

 Mike,  no problem.  Another elephant in the room is Pollard's play for the last 2 games. He did some things well,  but he missed a few crucial tackles as well.  His tacktical kicking was poor and he missed touch from a penalty... the same sin Morne was crucified for.  Don't  misunderstand me,  this is not thr beginning of a campaign against him,  but he made similar mistakes as DdA,  but still the silence about it is deafening on this site. 

 Draad don't open this one up.   Pollard did miss that penalty line kick - but it did not create much pressure in attacking play, because the miss stemmed from a jump in the air and inaccurate knocking back of the ball in the field of play - which initially put some pressure on the Aussies before Cooper made an excellent line kick.   Morne's kick was too far away from the sideline and ended up in the hands of a recipient who could easily initiate a counter-attack.
I agree - I am not entirely happy with Pollard - he has a lot to learn still and must be more geared towards better decision-making, but then he could still learn and improve.
I would hate to see Morne Steyn again in a green jersey - he always was pedestrian and that will no change in future.
Be it as it may - we do not need a campaign on this site "Morne for flyhalf".  He had his opportunities - but never was to my mind good enough to be an international flyhalf.      

 Mike,  Damien and Pollard made some errors on defence,  but at least they were involved and played some rugby,  yet the errors of DdA are being highlighted,  while those of both Willie and Pollard are being excused or ignored.  Yet DdA played only his 3rd test and his first against SANZAR opposition.  Pollard has been around the block at least once.  Test rugby has a steep learning curve,  but it seems that some are allowed a margin of error and some not. I respect both Moz and Card as posters,  but it looks like they are more concerned  about feeding you crow than actually thinking about the game in the big picture. Most of their opinions have merit,  but IMO some things are skewed a bit. You also have a few blind spots and get carried away by your passion for running rugby. We need a solid 10 as backup for Pollard and ATM,  it's neither Lambie,  nor Goosen. There just isn't enough time left.  As is,  we are already gambling our hope on a few youngsters in other posisions. We better chin-up and hope there some better vision in the next regime. 

Willie will always do a silly thing or two in a game. A misdirected kick, or chip etc. But he is that type of player, it is his willingness to try the extraordinary that makes him special! I think most people with a little rugby savvy accept that, and that is why his odd error is accepted as part of the package, and therefore not highlighted!   

 Draad
I have no problem in pointing out mistakes by players and myself said that De Allende has to up his defending.  as you said i have my own blind spots and tend to eb over-critical of players - but at least i try and keep things as near as possible to the factual situation.  
what makes me unhappy on this site when members falsely accuse players of things - often dreamed up and not really what happened on the field of play - and then attack players on dubious grounds.  This was unfortunately in evidence in the case of some players after the last test.  I can quote a number of cases - but  it is better left than cause further disharmony on the site.
I think we are building and hoping for more than we are going to get from Fourie du Preez.  The reason remains my doubts about his fitness level.  In Japan they play matches fortnightly - not every week.   that shows up in the tests in 2013.  In the Aussie at home test in 2013 - Du Preez was great - the test the following week  against the AB's he was barely average.  The same scenario happened in the EOYT - very good in the Wales test - the next week very average in the Scottish test.  i was not impressed in his performances in the Welsh tests in June 2014 tests.  He was nothing above average in the two tests and was injured in the second one.  he was clearly not match-fit in those two tests and played only in nine club matches in japan since then.  He was not fit when returning to Japan in June and injured again.  He will have no match time for more than 6 months and to my mind will not be match-fit.  That is a real problem in my mind - and at the age of 33 it will be a lot asked of a player to turn that corner.   Du Preez's test record since 2013 is a source of serious worry and I do think the constant recycling of over-30 players has set back the development of a sound squad development programme during Meyer's tenure as coach.