SA team against Australia - Umprovements and weakening of the team

I think the Aussies have been busy "Umprovening " their team by putting Beale at 10.

One has to ask, what does Papier actually do? Wasted bench spot. At least we have options on the bench, but you don't want to have to resort to your bench to rescue a match. 

To begin with one has to hope the Boks play with more spirit than the doomsayers on the board who have no faith in the Boks and the coach. Wee cc doubtless hopes the Goats get clobbered and others expect a loss with no chance of the Boks winning. These wrecks are already complavng about the loss before the game begins.

Therefore in the light of all this allow Beeno to bring some much needed perspective to the struggling oaks.

One expects the Wobblies to come out firing. This is a big one for them and they are desperate. The best way for them to win is through their backs and hence they will spread the ball around.

Rassie has picked a Mobile pack. The front row is the most mobile he could have picked. Two points. Firstly Malherbe was acceptable against the Argies at scrum time and gets around the park reasonably well. Marx, well obviously he has not been at his best and that is NO surprise given the amount of rugby he plays season after season. A less demanding test will set him up nicely for the wee abs. The second half should see a very powerful front row come on to demolish the Wobblies.

4 of the five starting tight forwards are Stormers and two of the loosies are Stormers. This should help with cohesion.

Mostert is picked for his mobility and huge number of tackles - he has as its often stated a big engine and can p;lay the full game vf needed. The excellent Snyman is the back up lock. Hence a powerful tight five can always be on the park.

The loose trio is also mobile and is what is needed as the Ozzies try to run the ball and go through multiple phases. Granted there in no specialized fetcher but lets see how that pans out given all the other strengths. Rassie has opted to play his fetchers in the second half - Louw and Marx.

Faf is reunited with Jantjes . Who knows whether he wvll fire. He will be desperate to succeed else he loses his RWC chance. Jantjes can play well and one expects the Boks also to attack with an exciting backline. Glad to see Allende and Kriel back. Back three are dangerous but defence need to step up.

Rasssie can bring on Pollard if Jantjes gets rickety. Then we have a player who could turn a close match as a super sub - Kolbe. Devastating in broken play. Very gutsy little guy.

Now ALL the above is written as if we had a decent ref. But we don't it is the bent Glen Jackson. Who knows but that Glen has been given a big fat cheque by the ARU! You know how it goes. Get the J arpie and all that stuff that has been going on for decades.

Other than being lifted into the air by his props and catching the ball wee victor was the worst lock ever. Thankfully we will NEVER see his like again - what a con man!

Organhuffer you need to understand the requi rements of what makes a tight forward.

Haaaaahahahaha!! Yes, I remember that Sebastien. I cringed every time he spoke to the media.

 Didn't Coetzee also say something similar?

We really have a had a torrid time with coaches the last decade. They should all have been given red noses and forced to join a circus of some sort.

Beeno taking a ride on the choom choom train again. Can't say I blame him. 

 As per normal why is Mozart lying about belly-flops of Malherbe in the last test?  When did that happen?   Once a liar - always a liar - that is our world rugby analyst - Mozart?

Now to your normal BS.   There were a number of cases where you accused Du Toit of a history of poor defense - it happened twice in one test,   When the same thing that Du Toit - who before this year rarely played as a 7 - happened in the case of Louw (at least three times this year) - you started with your normal BS excuses - none of them were of any value - since Louw - a career loosie was even worse in making mistakes than Du Toit ever was.  Louw get to breakdowns much later than Du Toit and other players - he is seriously pace-deficient.   And what was his defense stats looking like for the last two tests - 15 made and 6 missed.  

By the way - there would be a great advance in your famed rugby analyst endeavours if you can drop your prejudice and start making honest assessments bearing in mind the fact that Louw is showing real signs of being a has-been and his performances declining because of his age.       - .      

Malherbe was good outside the scrum for the first half of the first test. I thought he was generally good. The second test was not so good. I haven't seen a test where his scrumming wasn't suspect. 

Missed the last test where his scrumming was better than that of Beast.   But you also missed the fact that in the last test Etzebeth was carded and Louw - while supposing to help in scrumming did nothing of the sort.    

Bluebok, if Australia are winning by that time, you won't see fatigue set in. A team with their tales up is not easily put down. I know there are questions hanging over their conditioning, but they have more than enough firepower to put this game away before the 50th minute and shut us out. If Rassie thinks he can just unload the bench and all will be fine, he is a fool. 

Are we facing 4 losses from 4 ..... erm 5 from 5 in a row?

'Rassie is slowly losing the plot' ... Did he ever had the plot. Yes I know it is fucking difficult to select a quota team, but when he accepted the coach position, he also by implication said he can coach a winning Bok team.

There is a glimmer of hope and that is for Vermeulen to return and maybe Van Zyl surprise us all as a flank. PSdT is a good lock, but he is not a flank. We still do not have good centres, so why not try Willie there? 

Am had good moments containing the Pumas and sealing off the egde. So too Mapoe. Kriel doesn't do this. I am thinking Rassie views Kriel as a bigger threat on attack. As a runner, yes, but he is no playmaker. You want your 13 to have a good step and some distribution. He doesn't tick those boxes. Maybe wing? Only G-d knows what Rassie sees in Damian. 

Never will I apologize for exposing your lies on site - you accused Malherbe  of belly-flopping in the last test - but could nor find any,    So you came up about a scrum while Etzebeth was off with a card and it was a seven-man scrum.   However, why don't you post a video clip on that scrum?  It will show that Louw decided to turn it into a 6 man scrum - he offered zero support in that scrum and was scrumming behind Malherbe.  He was looking up - his shoulder was not behind Malherbe and his hand was on the lock back.    

Wonderful effort liar,  Try again liar. . By the way the second case you referred to is also lie.  Malherbe was penalized twice in scrumming - the one at minute 31 - you lied about and the other one his last scrum before he was replaced , In both cases the scrum went backwards mot down,   Happy Liar Day to you.       

AO

The top rugby analyst in the world has spoken ands Rassie has the cheek to ignore his wisdom.   Sorry - you have my sympathy.

Have a look at the following data on the Japan test and please explain why De Jager was a failure in that test:-

I am waiting with baited breath for your response.

Blikkies ... I see you feel much like I do.

We could easily find ourselves returning home without a win ... maybe even ranked at 8th.

The hype that came with Rassie has moved on. Now all we see is a state of confusion. It also looks as if his latest team was selected during a tantrum.There's no logic to his selections. 

The calm, cool Rassie seems a little rattled. I wonder if we can expect further outbursts from him? He pointed his fingers at himself for the loss against the Pumas ... but that was just done to make himself look cool. One can see by his new team that he blames the players for that loss and is punishing them.

I think there may be a little strife in the Bok camp.

What makes you think that Willie will do well as a center? I doubt he can be any worse than what we currently have.

Van Zyl? Who are you talking about?

His promise of a winning 50% quota mix has slowly moved closer to the 30% mark. He has no choice but to persevere. He wanted to play the hero and it's come back to bite him on the ass. 

I have no faith in him.

Whether there is strife in the Bok camp is debatable. There is no evidence of that. However, I must concur with the remainder o f your writings Herr Drache. Rassie is lacking composure and is making panic selections. He should have retained the bulk of the prior team and reworked the loose trio. With that centre pairing he really has hamstrung Jantjies. I'm no Jantjies fan, but he can play well. Having Bill and Ted outside him won't help. The loose trip is very weak. I think we'll get beaten in the scrums.

Rassie lost the second Puma test primarily because he was outsmarted by Ledesma. If he turns on his players then he has to be the most arrogant and foolish coach alongside Peter. Maybe worse. Particularly when one considers that he is returning to a group of players who have largely proven to be losers. 

Jantjies is not test material. He has proven himself as totally inadequate and I don't see that changing any day soon. He hasn't had one good test yet, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. 

Rassie hasn't come close to selecting our best yet. Losing to the Pumas was as a direct result of poor selections. It had nothing to do with being outsmarted. The media used that as an excuse and it seems you believed it.

Don't believe everything that's written, Poepol. Form your own opinions. 

Rassie believes that he can compete with the best in the world while using 2nd rate garbage. At least 50% of his squad are proven failures and yet he hangs onto them as if they're his only life line.

Talented guys like Jaco Kriel, Ruan Ackermann, Chris Cloete and van Staden are all available for selection. They are all being overlooked for the sake of his beloved quotas.

As jy nie will hoor nie moet jy maar voel. Hope I didn't slaughter that expression.

Could i suggest that some oaks blowing a gasket here even before the Boks have actually played, have actually lost etc calm down and take deep breath. The first thing you have to realize is that Rassie has more rugby acumen in his big toe that the ignorant oaks wailing away in a most unbecoming way. How embarrassing to the real rugby men here!

"if you can keep your head when others are losing theirs then you are a man my son" so saith the poet and how applicable those words are here.

Go Boks make us proud!

He rr Drache, you need to calm yourself. It's very important that you keep your blood pressure under 130. I hope you don't forget to take your Zoloft. Remember, it's 50mg, not 100mg. 

Organhuffer if the oaks are so unhinged now what will they be like i f we do lose. To ghastly to think about

Mozart

Listen prejudice BSter/   The scrum was stagnant until Louw opted out of hard work.   It is no use lying Mozart - it won't help.

The ABs smashed us by almost 60 points last year & its conceivable that it could happen again  ........ perhaps worse, a 75 point thrashing. How soon before we concede a ton? Sounds unlikely, but so did losing to Japan & Italy.

Actually I like the 'umprovement' word ......  there's quite a bit about the Bok team that makes me wanna say, um, um, fcking um. The one true rockstar in the team sits on the bench.