Rugby 365 chooses Alberts

Funny how their experts differ from our experts: - 15 - Willie le Roux (South Africa): Quickly making the Bok No.15 a fixture on his back. Bubbling under: Israel Dagg (New Zealand) 14 - Ben Smith (New Zealand): He showed just how good he can be in a quality team, given that he played for the struggling Highlanders and still performed in Super Rugby. Bubbling under: Bjorn Basson (South Africa) 13 - Conrad Smith (New Zealand): Maybe not as flashy as some other centres, but the guile of his hands and fluency of his feet make him the world's premier outside centre. Bubbling under: JJ Engelbrecht (South Africa) 12 - Jean de Villiers (South Africa): Some of his critics will claim it was a poor Argentinean team, but the manner in which he burst through in the midfield on a couple of occasions, along with the defenders he beat on other occasions, shows he is not near his sell-by date yet. Bubbling under: Ma'a Nonu (New Zealand) 11 - Bryan Habana (South Africa): Some interesting debates around the left wing position, with Habana winning the final vote because O'Connor missed a couple of tackles. Bubbling under: James O'Connor (Australia) 10 - Aaron Cruden (New Zealand): It would be interesting to see how the All Black backline shapes up now that Cruden and Dan Carter have been ruled out. Bubbling under: Morné Steyn (South Africa) 9 - Fourie du Preez (South Africa): They say you don't know what you have until it is no longer available. Du Preez required just half-an-hour in his return match to ram home that statement. Bubbling under: Aaron Smith (New Zealand) 8 - Kieran read (New Zealand): He does so much, but his most valuable work was done on defence and in the line-outs. Bubbling under: Duane Vermeulen (South Africa) 7 - Willem Alberts (South Africa): Some vigorous debate, as opinions differed markedly. Alberts eventually edged the others because - apart from one ball he lost in contact - it was an afternoon in which he inflicted much paid on the opposition - both on defence and carrying the ball. Bubbling under: Michael Hooper (Australia) 6 - Francois Louw (South Africa): Maybe his carrying stats are not that impressive, but the amount of work he did on defence more than justifies his selection. Bubbling under: Steven Luatua (New Zealand) 5 - Sam Whitelock (New Zealand): Despite his yellow card, he still gets our vote - the highest tackle count in the match and did his job in the line-outs. Bubbling under: Juandre Kruger (South Africa) 4 - Eben Etzebeth (South Africa): There was no need for a debate, we all know why he is regarded as the best. Bubbling under: Luke Romano (New Zealand) 3 - Jannie du Plessis (South Africa): It has been a while since a Bok prop was so keen on scrumming, begging and pleading with his captain to take scrums instead of kicking for touch or at goal. Bubbling under: Owen Franks (New Zealand) 2 - Adriaan Strauss (South Africa): He must now be close to the world's best hooker. Bubbling under: Stephen Moore (Australia) 1 - James Slipper (Australia): He may have slipped a tackle, but his workrate on defence was immense - just a pity he didn't get much support from some of his teammates when the All Blacks started their rout. Bubbling under: Tony Woodcock (New Zealand) - This is the best side I've seen so far.

Mozart: yes, only one AB forward chosen the rest are Boks.

Well just goes to prove once again it's all just opinions because  on the Plantet rugby it was a different story. Some of the arguments made by some posters on here are probably as valid as the so called "professional" rugby experts IMO.

Slipper had the wood on Franks...no mean feat. My loosies would have been McCaw, Alberts and Vermeulen.....man that would be a great combination. Smith and AC were better than JJ who ran onto a kind bounce and gave up a try. I'm also torn between Habana and Savea...neither were really good.

Smith did nothing of note and it was JJ's break that was the most impressive of all the 13's and he did not give up a try not by any stretch.

 

Cant say I noticed Slipper getting the better of Franks, I thought the AB scrum had the upperhand, but only just.

 

Agreed Vermeulen was the best 8 and Alberts probably the best blindside

 

 

There is a variety of so-called teams of the week that is constantly published by journalists for public consumption and most of those are in fact based on one or two incidents in games - often enough it had no bearing on reality Obviously the members on this site would fall for them if it support their own biased and highly questionable assessments. Let6s look at the above and see how it compares with reality:- * Full Back - Of the four full backs - there is no doubt that Le Roux was the best on the day. Anyone of the other three could have been bubbling under - really meaningless but it could be that Dagg was 1% better than the other two because all three combined did less than Le Roux did. With very little playing time Lambie did better than either of the other three in any event. * 14 - No question about Ben Smith - but the bubbling under is a joke in bad taste. What did Basson do that even remotely qualifies him for ."bubbling under"? Squat - both Folau and Camacho was better than Basson - even a partial look at statistics did prove that. * 13 - Here we have a joke about writing meaningless flowery language to justify their choice. Statistically Conrad Smith was the third best 14 on the day (Mozart obviously will say stats mean nothing in this case) The best player was a close one between Ashley Cooper and Engelbrecht - with the latter being better statistically wise and the latter probably the netter choice. * 12 - De Villiers - no problem - but Nonu as bubbling under????? Somebody has to be bloamed for the piss-poor defence in the All Blacks backline and I am afraid that it is him - although in the case of that long ruin of Ashley-Cooper Conrad Smith was clearly the player who missed the tackle. Leali'ifano was ten times better than Nonu in any event - so the former should be bubbling under, despite the charge down that let to the try scored by Cruden. * 11 - This was a toss-up between Habana and Savea - O'Connor was not even close in this contest. Savea was the better and he deserves the "bubbling under" category. * 10 - No contest here - Steyn get the bubbling under bcause the other two potential candidates did much less than he did - which from an attacking perspective was very little. * 9 - Du Preez behind a completely dominating pack was good in the 27 minutes he was on the field of play. Close contest between Genia and Smith for "bubbling under". * 8 - Again Hogwash - Read took 3 clean line out balls and fluff the one leading to Genia's try. No suddenly that was an advantage. His stats was similar to those of Mowen and the latter was not really tops. Vermeulen on the day - despite his two catching flaws was bette than either. * 7 - This selection was a joke - Luatua was the best blindside flank - statistically and otherwise. The joke is that the compilers do not even know that in Australia and New Zealand 7 is the openside flank and 6 the blindside flank. Both McCaw and Hopper are opensiders - how they can mix up the situation is really funny by stating that Hooper is in competition in this case with Alberts. Funny-funny - that one. In any event insofar as blind-side flanks are concerned Luatua was miles ahead of Alberts - also proven by stats.- and so was Leguizamon playing in a loing pack. * 6 - Agasin the iudiotic mix-up between open-side flanks and blindsiders as mentioned earlier. A joke with rubbish results. The choice as openside flank is strictly between Hooper and McCaw - with Louw possibly third on the list. * 5 - Whitelock - really funny - he gave away 4 penalties and was also yellow-carded. Taking 2 line-outs during the whole game was most impressive I must say. Horwill on the day was the best no 5 followed by Kruger. * 4 - Luke Romano - also a joke since he was only 17 minutes on the field of play. Simmons was much better as "bubbling under". For the rest no comments needed. As per normal the unthinking has to mix up the loosies and they cannot distinguish between open-siders and blindsiders. Mozart selection of Mccaw, Alberts and Vermeulen is really a joke as well - since the All Black opensider Luatua was miles better than Alberts. When will the members of this site ever learn and distinguish things correctly - probably never - especially those blinded by prejudice and favouritism.