Good reward for 7 class players
Marcell Coetzee, JJ Engelbrecht, Francois Hougaard, Patrick Lambie, Willie le Roux, Coenie Oosthuizen and Flip van der Merwe
They join
Willem Alberts, Jean de Villiers, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Tendai Mtawarira, Frans Steyn, Adriaan Strauss and Duane Vermeulen .
I looked at the list and maybe Meyer thinks that Fourie is not the answer at 13 and still see JJ as a future prospect. Like that line of thinking.
The lucky players on the contracting list is the non-productive Steyn, Alberts and Hougaard. We will have to see how they shape up in Super 15 this year - but I must say I do not expect much from either of the 3.
Alberts is slow and ineffective of most facets of loosie play - I will change my mind on him the first day when I see him passing a ball or catching one passed to him and not knocking it on - provided of course he also up his tackle count and down his missed tackles ratio. Should also improve on his ball caries and break some tackles - that would also help.
In the case of Steyn - he only have to half his crashball addiction and double up on him passing the ball - with a further proviso that he ups his tackle effectiveness and at least try to effect line breaks by not ambling straight at his opponent leaning forward and going to ground as a result - plus not deliberately run into traffic when he gets the ball in open play or kick it away aimlessly. .
Hougaard - slow thinker and actor as Sharkbok said - needs a bit of thinking rugby knocked into his top storey I guess.
