SA Team of the Week

After looking at all the games and taking into account the starting line ups only - I think the following players did bes in their repective positions:-

15  -   Ludick 

14  -    Aplon

13  -   Jordaan

12  -    Bosman

11  -    Van den Heever

10  -    Lambie

  9  -    Reinach

  8  -    Vermeulen

  7  -    Labuschagne

  6  -    Brussow

  5  -    Bekker

  4  -    Du Toit

  3  -    Malherbe

  2  -    Cooper

  1  -    Beast

There was some hessitation on my part as to the selection of Jordaan - but no other 13 showed anything of any value and he still showed real value in both attack and defence.   I also hessitated about Brussow - because of the number of penalties he gave away,  Malherbe was the best 3 of the lot on display.

Of the bench players Serfontein was most impressive when he came on and indicative of a player of real potential a 12.   Steyn did more wrong than right when he came on in the Sharks game and I cannot see him being in the starting line up anytime soon.  He may gradually be introduced at full back in time to come - that is if he can get back into form.   Burden was a flop and should be send back to Vodacom rugby.   Of the rest of the bench players nothing much could be said about them - since they really did not produce much of real value and in most cases was on for a very short time in any event.

 Actually Mike I thought Jordaan was dragged back in the tackle by metres in every tackle. He may just not be strong enough. Meyer certaiinly lifted the Sharks at 12, accelerating the line well. But Jean was massive for the Stormers

Mozart it is very difficult to discuss any total game performance  issue with you,  because you base your whole assessment on one singular incident and often enough found that your comments like Pieter-Steph Du Toit being tosed around like a rag doll- very unconvincingor baseless.    However, I will watch the game again and see whether I can find the tackling back of Jordaan anywhere in the game a, when and how it happened.

The interesting quetion remains - who do you want in that positin ahead of Jordaan - based on the performances over the past weekend?   I can assure you that my own observations and the statistical sources mentioned hereunder all onfirm that Jordaan was much better than De Jongh - butt then you only believe stats when it fits your purpose and your argument in matters - otherwise stats are no credited as usable at all.

I did the anove list based on mt own observations - plus the stats provided by ESPN Scrum. Foxsport and Testrugby and where I hessitate I would fall back on th stats - especially if all three mentioned sources come up with basically the same information.   All three sites give Bosman a higher rating than De Villiers - hence my final recommensation as listed above.

Lambie didn't play well on Saturday I don't entirely blame Steyn for the malfunction of the Sharks backline when Pat Lambie has become Morne Lambie, but that isn't to say Steyn has played up to par because he hasn't in fact he made some stupid mistakes (that way ward pass to Kankowski made me cringe but he has got a good step for someone who isn't at his optimal playing weight) and I think his efforts should go to playing at fullback and halt any future endeavours to inside center! Jantjie's played well for Jantjie's showing an attacking flair but his defence needs to be improved on but saying that the Brumbies 8th man did run over Kolisi so there's no shame in that for the young Flyhalf.

Well Mike here's a whole game of incidents for you to look at:

Jean was vastly superior to Bosman statistically, playing much tougher opposition. And Jordaan gained more per run than de Jongh....but turned over the ball twice against the Rebs.

Actually for the rugby connoiseur Jean had a great game. He took on the burden of stopping the big Brumbies loosies and made the hard yards.

On the Jordaan front it's amusing that you are so anti de Jongh when he and Jordaan are such similar players....and you do give Jordaan every benefit of the doubt. The truth is though, he is no more dangerous than de Jongh in space and not half the tackler. Nor does he push the defence forward the way de Jongh does.

If de Jongh is marginal at test level, Jordaan looks even less likely to succeed.

Wehe!

Not sure what is funnier . . . the pomposity of a self-aggrandizing old fool implying that he's some kind of "rugby connoiseur" (sic) or the fact that the puffed up old peacock can't even spell "connoisseur".

LMAO!

Oh shame, having had his head handed to him, poor RooiAAS is reduced to his editing function......hahaha......what a loser!

Yes, O great Moztrodumbass, but of course, you knew I'd expose your laughable lack of education! You predicted it!

Waaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

" One, two , three ....er....uh....five". There's lack of education.....not to even mention you being stunned by the occurrence of a perfectly predictable event. 

Mozart

Insofar as the issue of Bosman is concerned I also looked at the 10 points cscored by Bosman as indicated as well a the outcome of his passing and running game.   Bosman was a better balldistributor than De Villiers insofar as inside center than De Villiers and the outcome of the distribution was better.   However, it was a close thing between the two players and I think given the strength of the opposition they face I have no difficulty in saying that De Villiers could be a  better player on the day in question.

De Jongh is NOT any better than Jordaan in tackling - matter of fact he is worse and he does not get tackled going forward like you claim.   He is in fact a useless attacker who cannot make space for himself - he wants others to make space for him and even when they do he cannot optomise it at all.   Jordaan makes space for himself and is a much more dangerous player.   De Jongh on test level vanish into thin air - like happened in The Twickenham test - and the one thing that the stats do not show is immediately after kick off De Jongh did miss a tackle when he chased down the kick. He was one of the players that chased after the kick - the catcher caught the ball and although De Jongh touched his shorts in an effort to tackle him he just ran past him.  That also was a missed tackle - the one reflected in the stats was later in the game - when the brumbies scored a try because De Jongh missed his tackle.   Be it as it may De Jongh is useless and  a factor in any game he plays in attack wise and I will NEVER ever put him in a team like above - unless he shows what the outcome is of his play is and the seven times he carried the ball ended up the same - a maul barely 3 meters further and in at least three cases the ball was won by the opposition during the maul.   Jordaan did miss 2 things - a pass from Mvovo which he knocked on early in the game and a high ball he tried to catch in blisterig conditions.   The pass he received was suspect and he was less than a meter away when the pass was made after both followed up a kick and Mvovo caught the ball and passed it to him.    In both cases the misses should not have happened - end of story.   Jordaan's ball carrying was much more decisive - when he got tackled - the ball came back quckly and effectively and the attack moved on.

Bosman at 12 is a joke, did he play? Here is the real Bok side of the week:

15. Ludik 14. Aplon 13. JJ 12. Jean 11. v/d Heever 10. Lambie 9. Reinach 1. Beast 2. Strauss 3. Malherbe 4. Steph du Toit 5. Bekker 6. Brussouw 7. Elstadt 8. Vermeulen

Mvovo pushed Aplon at 14, Jantjies pushed Lambie at 10, Kitshoff pushed Beast at 1, Cooper pushed Strauss at 2, de Jager pushed Steph du Toit at 4, Labascagne pushed Elstadt at 7, v/d Walt and Kankan pushed Vermeulen at 8.

Saffex

Did Engelbrecht really play at all - yes I now remember - he missed two takles and made 5.   How the hell do you miss everyything in a gamee especially if you do not want to see it.  You have developed that into a fine art.

Labuschagne - you always want to run him down and you actually miss everything he does in a game purposely.   What a doos you are.

Crap, your fantasy rugby stats are a load of crap. JJ made more than 5 tackles and I dont recall a single miss. He was also the best 13 with ball in hand.

Labascagne was good, but Elstadt was better.

Am I a doos now?