SA Players of the week and general comments on future Springbok selections

15  Marais, 14  Nkosi, 13 Kriel, 12 Esterhuizen, 11  Mapimpi, 10  Willemse, 9 Warren, 8 Whiteley, 7 Van Dyk, 6  Vosloo, 5  De Jager, 4  Botha, 3  Louw, 2 Van der Merwe, 1  Mtawarira

16  Marx, 17 Kitshoff, 18  Janse van Rensburg, 19  Lewies, 20 Smit, 21 Cronje, 22 Pollard, 23 De Allende

The abov represents in no way suitable candidates for Springbok selection.   In some cases the situation is so poor that for instance Whiteley was the pick at 8 when he was injured fairly early.   If Whiteley is out for a while and not available I would have difficulty to finding a suitable 8.

So lets look what a potential Springbok team could look like taking into account the present injured players as well:-

15  Le Roux, 14  Combrinck, 13 Odendaal, 12  Pollard, 11 Mapimpi, 10  Willemse, 9 Cronje, 8  Whiteley, 7 Wiese/Du Toit, 5  De Jager, 4  Etzebeth, 3  Louw, 2  Marx, 1  Mtawarira'

16  Van der Merwe, 17  Kitshoff, 18  Malherbe, 19  and  20  Wiese/Du Toit/Van Dyk, 21 De Klerk, 22  De Allende, 23  Nkosi        

Fact is the scrummie situation is desperate - Cronje is deficient - but no other scrummie has really shown being worthwhile.   The center situation is equally desperate - hence my suggestion that Pollard be used at 12,    I think that Odendaal is the best selection from a desperately poor lot.  

If Whitely is not available I would think Du Toit is the best option - ut what about Vermeulen?  Hee was constantly injured playing rarely for Toulon and when he did play he ws not a house on fire,   There are apparently serious problems with his fitness level - so will he be useful as Springbok no 8?         .      

Lol Mike

Your potential Bok team. 

Did you not see Jantjies yesterday?

Kicked all his kicks. Again dominated with out of hand kicking. Making 50m gains on multiple occasions. Found gaps yet again and as seems to be his habit put players.into space. 

He is yet to be outperformed on a weekend by any other SA 10. 4 out of 4 1st places thus far.

Ismael and Dyanti also not making your squad? I guess Nkosi outperformed them? No Mostert?

Lol Pollard at 12 huh? 

Downfall has been ordinary this year too. Done zero special.

Weirdness for a guy who picks on form and not reputation and bias.

Plum

My problem is I saw the whole problem the Lions displayed yesterday.   They lost the game because the backline defense was so defective that it borders on rugby suicide,  

The backline players missed 40% of their attempted tackles.   Jantjies was one of the worst missing half of his attempted tackles (5 out of 10).   There is no way any thing can be done about that and anyone selecting him knowing  that deficiency would be a lunatic,  

There is a thread started by Mozart on the issue.   In brief the Lions backline missed 27 tackles and made 42 and that was the sole reason for the loss against the weakest NZ Super Rugby team.   The problem is that Jantjies and the other backline players have missed a lot of tackles in the past  as well and that is the reason why Mapoe went off the selection screen,  Dyantyi is new to the game - but he will advance only if he can overcome that deficiency.

Winning games removed the problem from the screen - losing games  immediately caused an analysis of the reason for the losses and Rassie would not overlook defense deficiency.    

We must remember that some Lions players have had  a spotty defense record and the deficiency is nothing new.    .   

 Incidentally Mostert's defense was equally questionable and the rest of the work done by him was minimal - 3 ball carries in a game by a loosie is really not acceptable.   Mostert is a lock - not a loosie and he cannot be selected because of his lock reputation..   Despite the hype he showed nothing much during the two games he played at 7.      

plum - I know I will be crucified for the above by many members - even though I rarely agree with Mozart about anything - but in this case he has a point where I cannot find grounds for disagreement with him.