Rugby Championship 2013 - Barrett Try (Ellis Park)

A well worked try by New Zealand. A long pass out by 9 to 13 who pulls towards 10 turns his back and switches with 22 who cuts in between 10 and 12. The goal being to obstruct 10 and send 22 through a gap. Jean however jumps the line and seizes upon 13 and alters course as he sees 22 coming onto the ball. This while JJ starts towards Dagg who is far out. Jean slips the tackle as he has committed himself to the line jump and is too far advanced to stop 22; JJ stops and scrambles at the sight of 22 coming through. Simultaneously Morné makes a move towards 22 as soon as Jean is beaten - he was covering the inside gap - but 22 pulls outwards towards JJ and thus cannot get a grip on him. JJ slips his tackle as 22 moves into hugging range, 22 is completely through Bok defence save for Kirchner who cuts across but only gets finger tips to him in a diving tackle. Kirchner was covering the outer-most attacker who was positioned directly beside the touchline.

1.There were two errors. Jean jumping too early created a dog-legged defensive line that left his channel wide open, creating the gap for 22 to attack.

2.JJ missing his tackle. 22 moved away from Morné and into JJ. Morné was unable to get a shot at bringing down or impeding 22. Whilst it is true that JJ had to come in to plug the gap, thus both he and Morné had to pull towards that area, it was JJ that actually had 22 well within range. His missed tackle was the break 22 needed to make a clear run for the line.

No doubt Jean made a mental mistake here. But a competent tackle by JJ would have negated that. Morne simply shuffled Barrett laterally into JJ's arms. Theoretically he could have made the tackle, but it was an instant thing and he did well to block the gap in any case.

The point is, we know Jean can defend and while he may make a mistake like this again.....it's part of an aggressive defensive system. After JJs failure against Bosch this was in a sense a test of whether he can defend in space near his line. Once again he failed that test, and as a result we got Fury in the YE. Not my favourite, but in that situation Fury would have sealed off the gap....in part by being much flatter.

Sun Tzu

Was it necessary for Morne to slap Barrett on his back - wishing him well on his way to score the try?   Don't try and say that an opposition flyhalf should in the first instance not be tackled by the flyhalf.   Like in the case of all the tackles missed by Morne - this was just another complete hash by him.   I blame both Morne and JJ for that try - they were equally amiss in the technique they used in that case.

I would have said that it could have been a one-off problem to have missed tackle stats of 36,36% in the Ellis Park test - but his average for the  RC last year of 19,4% was maintained in the EOYT - where his missed tackle ratio was 20%

So lets accept that Morne has become a weak defender over the past year.     

Mozart

With Steyn at 10 - they need not aim for anyone else - he is a defensive nightmare.   They only need one channel to attack.       

 The Morne Steyn brigade of dodgy and mostly delusional rugby commentators are out in full.   Discredit everyone else but St Morne is the icon of rugby.   And then we must have De Jongh at center - he will only miss 23% of all attempted tackles.  The more they miss - the happier this lot of clowns are.  

I bet the NZ people would love to see Morne at 10 *they already do) and De Jongh at 13.  They would regard that as a blessing to them based on stupidity of the part of so-called Springbok supporters.  

Ceradyne

I will be civil this time - I will respond to facts properly - but verbal distortion of situations as attempted here - are not facts, but fiction concocted wilfully.   The facts are clear for all to see.  Morne Steyn made a feeble attempt to tackle Barrett going high and failed - JJ went high and he failed as well.  The tackle attempts of both failed.  To exonerate one and blame only the other is UTTER BULLSHIT - end of story       

Saffex

Mozart idolize Morne and will never admit that he was  partly to blame for the Barrett try.   Morne was according to him poorly placed to make the tackle and his feeble effort in doing so is minimized to the point of it never happened and this story about Morne successfully forcing  Barrett to step outwards to avoid him is a feabrication to ensure that Morne gets off blameless.  

After stepping De Villiers Barrett RAN STRAIGHT TO THE TRYLINE and only moved out slightly to  brush off Morne's weak effort to tackle him.            

 Mozart

Wardad is stating a fact and that is they WANT Morne as SA flyhalf - because the AB's knows exactly what his weaknesses are and adjust their game accordingly.   The Springboks cannot seem to beat New Zealand and one of the main reasons is the poor pe rformances of Morne over the past two years whenever they play New Zealand - the other being a totally unbalanced back row.      

 Mozart

Wardad is stating a fact and that is they WANT Morne as SA flyhalf - because the AB's knows exactly what his weaknesses are and adjust their game accordingly.   The Springboks cannot seem to beat New Zealand and one of the main reasons is the poor pe rformances of Morne over the past two years whenever they play New Zealand - the other being a totally unbalanced back row.      

Mozart

Please - I asked you before please check  facts and remember by doing so you will end up lifting the toilet seat cover before you sit down for a natural disposal of human waste.   This is a reminder once again - do lift the toilet cover before you sit down - the effect is always devastating for you and for the rest of the bathroom.    

Duplication - sorry

Sun Tsu

You say he made two try saving tackles - good  for him if he did - but what about the 4  tackles he missed - two of them leading directly to tries.  

That first try of the All Blacks - absolute Garbage - Smith ran straight through a weak tackle effort by Morne.

The stats on Morne for the Ellis Park test was as follows:-

I tried rather unsucc3essfully to reconcile your account with the above - please explain the differences.

Morne played no role in the first Messam try minute 25 -  the one that should have stooped the try was useless Sloth Alberts - who instead of trying recover the ball from a tackled Aaron Smith - clumsily fell over his own feet.

Morne's idiotic decision making was the direct reason for Messam's second try.

Sun, Morne is covering no one other than Barrett.......the forwards were in front of the ball so he would not have been covering them.

Wrong Morne had every opportunity to tackle Barrett, he goes high........and with little conviction.......a result of the Jean miss which throws the defensive line.

It is the inside defenders (Morne) responsibility to tackle the ball carrier. The outside defender (JJ) is covering wide and would have trusted his inside defender to make the tackle.

However, we are not dealing with a routine tackle here.......we are dealing with a situation where the Jean rush has disrupted the defensive line and as you say.....both Morne and JJ were trying to mop up.........their initial attention and commitment was elsewhere as they would have expected Jean to make the hit.......both had to adjust last minute and try make the tackle........in the process neither were in a postion to effect a low hard tackle..........and this has been my point all along when it came to JJ's miss...........the miss was anything but a routine one on one tackle.