In view of the controversy about scrumhalf selection for the Springboks - I watched the scrummie displays this weekend and rated the scrummies in their respective games as follows (bearing in mind Duvenage was only on the field for a gew minutes - I looked at the display of the replacement scrummie):-
1 Groom
2 Pretorius
3 Bondesio
4 McCleod
In dealing with the evaluation I looked at ball distribution (ie effective passing), running with the ball, kicking and tryscoring ability. The selection was based on a fair evaluation of the play of the four players involved.
McCleod really played poorly - he tried all the stunts normally in evidence in the play of Hougaard and was very ineffective. He was not an effective ball carrier and was erratic in his display - the main problem was he tried unsuccessfully to do too much and his service was slower than required. Incidentally h can be good and bad in the same game - and that makes him a risk. Really th worst scrummie this week by far.
Bondesio was very average and in general his service to the backline was acceptable - however not really a house on fire - but he was better than McCleod by the proverbial mile.
Pretorius met most of the requiremnts accepted as a requirement for scrummies and he did score a try for the Cheetahs - albeit after a lunatic mistake by the Sharks.
Groom did 95% of what is required from a top scrummie. He strategically only kicked the ball once and the kick landed the Bulls in serious trouble - similarly in the whole game he made two efforts to break through defences and both was successful and placd the Bulls on the back foot. He scored a try as well. However, he did a couple of top things as well. he never stood around waving his arms to players to form up and his passing game was excllent - fast , effective and consequently accurate. Never in the whole game did he run a gew steps before passing or stood behind the mauls waiting to pick up the balls - he did it forthwith and got it to the flyhalf.
Although he is obviously not fit to be Springbok scrummie - he showed what a backline can do through an effective scrumhalf disply. Maybe they should play and replay that performance to Hougaard as a means to get him to change into an effective scrumhalf.
