Sharks disappointing

We can blame it on cobwebs, horrible weather and a poor ref, but ultimately the Sharks should have beaten a Sarries side missing 9 of its starters.

The ref awarding that first try was shocking given he had stopped the clock and the second try was a dreaded intercept. The two locks being yellowed just before the half did not help. PSDT's card was a poor call.

The Sharks scrum with the Bok frontrow struggled.......which was concerning especially when you think Sarries had Matt Stevens at 3 and Brits at 2.

Individually the Sharks players played well enough, with 19 year old Esterhuizen being the standout.......wow what a player this mountain of a player looks. He was swatting players out of the way like they weren't there. This lad will be a Bok sooner than later.

Fisher had few opportunities out of position at 15, but took the ball up well when he did. Pity he got injured in the 35 min and did not make the second half. Mvovo and Ndunagne were ok at best. Jordaan was at best average and Esterhuizen at 12 was a real handful. Swiel had a solid outing, nothing too flash. Reinach disappointed in taking steps before passing.....McLeod was better when he came on.

Jannie was ok as was Beast. Bismark was strong in general play. PSDT had a good physical game and Oosthuizen was a handy enough lock partner.

Alberts and Deysel were very physical and I am not sure why Jake took Alberts off as he was very good. Mtembu had a very good game with one great break.

Esterhuizen was the star of the Sharks show and one to watch. The Sharks should play him at 13, with Frans at 12.

Disappointing start for the Sharks, but it was their first game and I see the Cheetahs were not much better against a depleted Kings side.

Saffex

I told you way in advance about Esterhuizen - he is special.  However he is a 12 specialist and should replace Francois Crashball Steyn  in the starting line-up.       

Saffex

Not nonsence.   Esterhuizen can perhaps be moved to 13 - but he will not function properly there - because he would never see enough ball to do anything - Francois Steyn is a notorious ball hogger who crashballs 80% of the time and rarely passes balls.   Happened constantly since his return from France.  That is why he is such a big disappointment.

Unless there is a massive improvement in performances of Steyn - another Super 15 season of disappointing performances is on the cards.   I am hoping against it - but I have very little f aith that it would happen,   

Duplication

Diplication

Saffex

You don't get it - now do you.   Steyn virtually never passes balls to players.  Go and look at what happened statistically on ESPN.   For every ten balls received by him - he crashballs 7 and kick one away.   If his form since his return from France persists - he is the best guarantee ever to ensure that the backline will be as dead as a doornail. 

Hope it changes - but it is unlikely to happen.   I know that Steyn will play at 12 - but is it going to last - highly unlikely unless White performs a miracle in getting him changed,      

Saffex

You don't get it - now do you.   Steyn virtually never passes balls to players.  Go and look at what happened statistically on ESPN.   For every ten balls received by him - he crashballs 7 and kick one away.   If his form since his return from France persists - he is the best guarantee ever to ensure that the backline will be as dead as a doornail. 

Hope it changes - but it is unlikely to happen.   I know that Steyn will play at 12 - but is it going to last - highly unlikely unless White performs a miracle in getting him changed,      

Saffex

A class act deliver the goods - what has Steyn delivered since his return from France? Very near to zero.   Just like your other class act in T220 cricket - Graeme Smith.   He was left out of the SA T20 squad with a promise that he could become eligible should he perform well in the present series.   He failed miserably and the Cobras sent him packing in that format of the game.   S o he has zero chance of selection to the national squad.

Continuation of zero deliverance in future - like Steyn did over the past 18 months  - would soon see him joining Smith on the pavilion watching Super 15 and T20 cricket games respectively     

 Sharkbok

Your assessment is correct as to what is required from a 12.   I want to quote -

"The crashballer must be big, heavy and fast."

'The crash must be a run between 2 backline players to pull in opposition backs to create space. "

Those are two critical issues and one has to ask some serious questions I intend to deal with in this case.  

Big, Heavy and Fast issue

There is no way that any athletic player can be the height of Steyn weighing in at 118 to 120 kgs.   The accepted ratio between height and weight of such a player is somewhere between 105 and 108 kgs,  118 to 120 kgs may be fine for a prop forward  - provided they have a broad bone structure, but certainly not for a backline player like Steyn.   He does not have the built of a prop - he was a rather slim and stringy guy of about 98 to a 100 kgs in 2007-08 - when he was in his top form.

The fact that he is 20 kgs heavier means that he carries too much fat in his system.  That inevitably means that it effects his speed and athleticism.   It has one other negative.  In defence Steyn has shown deficiencies stemming from his lack of speed.   If a player runs straight at him - no problem - running at an angle and at speed and there is a grave problem.   Just go and look if you can at the brumbies game last year and you would see what happened.   Unfortunately that was not the only game it happened in  and his missed tackle ratio is higher than it should be.

Summary :   At present Steyn is BIG - but way to HEAVY for a backline player - with a NEGATIVE AFFECT ON HIS SPEED.    

Running Lines of Crashballer

There are a number of issues here insofar as Steyn is concerned.   One relates to the line of running - ie aiming at a position between two defenders - ie drawing in one defender to create space.  A second equally important one is his bodily position and aim in carrying the ball.

The problem with Steyn is he does not aim at a space between two defenders - he runs straight at his opponent.   That could be the result of his speed deficiency already mentioned - but one thing is obvious and has been proven conclusively since his return from France and that is that he has never created space for his teammates by drawing  in defenders.

The second problem is more difficult to explain.   I have looked at Steyn's bodily position when carrying balls.  He is bent forward in running with balls - aiming to brush defenders aside by using his shoulder and arms (much like a Bismarck, Etzebeth and other forwards do)  and in the process rather than to try and break through defenders by carrying the ball at speed the  angle  result in two things, namely - 

*   his aim has an inevitable result - already aiming to be going to ground when tackled - he goes down when the first tackler gets to him; and

*  the bodily position prevents him from making accurate ball off-loads in tackle situations.  

Insofar as the latter issue is concerned - Steyn's off loads consist of dropping balls back and not passing them in tackle situations.   However, it also means that the crashball and off-loads result in an inevitable maul - not carrying on with the attack.

Members of this site thinks I am against players because of prejudice or ignorance - but I make a study of players in virtually every game they play in and if there are tendencies I would pick them up.

One other requirement missing in Steyn is ball sense and making of quick decisions.   He was tried at one stage as a flyhalf - but it did not work out - he took too long to make decisions.   At center he plays a one-dimensional game - he is utterly predictable and he hogs balls because of that single-minded approach.

Steyn - when I first saw him play at full back - was a miracle player.   He then had speed as well - something that went amiss in recent years because of the weight issue.    He has had more time at full back to decide at issues - and can with speed run at an angle to make life difficult for opposing teams.   Last year he played at full back a few times and he did carry the ball - but was ineffective because of his speed deficiency.   In one case where he did succeed in breaking a tackle and put the next player in space  - and that was a sole one -  the resulting pass by Steyn went so far forward the recipient could not get to the ball.

SUMMARY

There are in fact a number of issues White would have to get right before Steyn would be an effective no 12.   He would have to get him back to the required athleticism by getting him to a reasonable weight of not more than 110 kgs at an upper limit.   He will have to get him to run faster - which could be done only with a reduction in weight.   He would have to get him to change his running lines and style - and ultimately - he would have to get him to become effective in off-loading of balls after making space for other players.

Will White succeeds in getting the improvement and will Steyn be successful in getting over his deficiencies is he big question?    I hope to see better results - but have my doubts - there are just too many hurdles to overcome in this  case.                 

“Now we’ve got him down to 110kgs and his best fighting weight will be 105 or 106kgs.”

 Ceradyne

Thanks for pointing out my typing error in a decent way.   I obviously referred to Sharkbok's mention of 120 kgs.  You are referring to 118 kgs - which was all over the media last year.  I know that Plumtree tried to get him down to 110 kgs - which is just above the playing weight of SBW - but I do not think that it worked out.   After a month of effort - information was that Steyn was still weighing 115 kgs - and that I believe was the ultimate reason for Plutree's decision not to continue with him at center.

I am not disputing the Lomu issue - but thought his playing weight was in the vicinity of 102 kgs - very heavy for a wing at that time.   If he was 120 kgs - he really was extremely big for a wing.  Lomu was famous for running over players who at the time normally weighed in the vicinity of 85 to 90 kgs ( for instance his direct opponent James Small weighed in at 89 kgs).   He somehow never scored any tries against the Springboks. 

Talking of centers - I think the pick of the centers at present is SBW - he is the same height as Steyn - but weighs in at 108 kgs.   The benefit SBW has over Steyn is his running style and lines, making him a very difficult player to tackle and a very  effective off-loader of balls - which Steyn is not. 

Ceradyne

Nothing like that in the 1995 WC - was there?

I am not sure - and there was no proof I am aware of - that his weight ever got down to 110 kgs.   I was at a game inn February 2013 when his weight was given as 115 kgs and I am not aware that it ever got down to 110 kgs.  What I was aware of is that Pluntree was ultimately disappointed with the lack of progress made in getting Steyn in good enough physical condition before he actually dropped him from the Sharks team.

 Denny

I know there is no comparison between SBW and Steyn - but used SBW as an example to illustrate where Steyn falls short.   It is like comparing chalk with cheese between those two.  Problem is there is very little likelihood that Steyn would ever come right and perform as a 12 - he is likely to remain an ineffective crashballer.  

Ceradyne

Nothing like that in the 1995 WC - was there?

I am not sure - and there was no proof I am aware of - that his weight ever got down to 110 kgs.   I was at a game inn February 2013 when his weight was given as 115 kgs and I am not aware that it ever got down to 110 kgs.  What I was aware of is that Pluntree was ultimately disappointed with the lack of progress made in getting Steyn in good enough physical condition before he actually dropped him from the Sharks team.

“He’s a quality player and that won’t just dry up and go away. I think he has a bit of work to do and he’ll admit that himself. It was only two months ago the guy was at 118 kilograms. He’d comeback from a bad ankle injury and he hadn’t played for months.

“Now we’ve got him down to 110kgs and his best fighting weight will be 105 or 106kgs.”

Wow so Frans is past it at 26, what a load of rubbish.

Mike you are just lying as per usual......Frans does not hog the ball  

 Sun Tzu

I really think that you make some unproven sweeping statements to try and detract from what I wrote above and will consequently dealt with it statistically:-

Steyn - the ball hogger 

Steyn's bad reputation started off when he played in the tests in 2012 - where he jept possession of balls 725% of all balls handled and rarely passed balls to other players.   However, those stats are not readily available and I am now going to give you the stats for the four games he played in for the Sgarks last year before he was dropped from the team:- 

Balls handled     =      68

Balls kicked        =       9   -   13,4%

Balls passed       =      27  -   39,9%

Balls kept          =      32   -   47,9%

The above figures was an improvement on what he did in the tests in 2012 - but is still way sort of acceptability.   Is Steyn a ball hogger?   with those stats it is clear - he is one.  The chances of another player getting a ball from Steyn is less than 4 out of 10 balls he handled.

Off loads

Because he is in tackle situations in the wrong bodily position effective off-loading of balls in his case is non-existent.  In the vary rare case he may try to off-load balls it is a case where he tries to throw a ball back towards team mates - but since it does not represent a pass to anyone in specific - they must scramble to recover the ball and the end result is that they are even in a worse position than Steyn was.

None of his passes or off-loads in fact resulted in appreciable terriroty gain by the teams he represented.

Defenders Beaten

In the four matches under review Steyn -

*   made 1 line break beating 2 defenders; and

*   in the other three matches Steyn broke  4 tackles,

Not at all impressive taking into account he handled the ball 32 times.   That is not convincing at all - he does not routinely beat defenders at all.

Summary

I do not hate Steyn - I always was an admirer of his and am severely disappointed in what I saw of him since his return from France.   What I wrote is not based on lies and in any way ignorant or deceitful.   It represents FACTS and not generalized hype of big words without proven substance.

I have written before that I wish Steyn would be back to the player he was in 2007 and 2008 and hope to see him recover form - but he has not recovered form and the question is - will he recover it in future?   If he keeps on with what he has been die since his return fro France - he is no asset to any team he plays for.