So how did all the player predictions work?

And because of all my no's we will stay at 2 and probably slip to 3 in the rankings by this time next year........for the simple reason that Meyer has yet to select his best 23.......the man has no idea

Erratum....Jordaan...and we all know Jordaan is no Joubert.


Dave we have just had our third best year in the last 14.... Courtesy of HM. We are building a team, not operating a turnstyle  

@mozter,

ur player predictions thread is silly, jj was fine in 2013 better then fourie and sefontein who just about everyone wanted to play for the Boks by the time the spXV finals came along, was not given enough time to shine.
botth jj and serfontein are the future, but luckily for us ( and by us i mean NZ, meyers coaching and player development is a piss poor joke.

dont get me wrong though my bru, like u i hope he continues with his current selection policies.

as for this comment

"Dave we have just had our third best year in the last 14.... Courtesy of HM. We are building a team, not operating a turnstyle"

france ranked 5th
scotland ranked 9th
wales ranked 6th
All Blacks No1
wallys ranked 4th
All Blacks No1
wallys ranked 4th
pumas ranked 10th
pumas ranked 10th
samoa ranked 7th
scotland ranked 11th
italy ranked 13th

50% of the Boks opponents in 2013 at the time they played them were not even ranked in the top 8 countries around the world

66% were not even ranked in the top 4.

how very unimpressive for anybody whos not a kiwi.

keep feeding the Boks on that of diet minnows, as it will help keep meyers winning percentage against the All Blacks to zero,

Sushi the way we crushed France after you ABs were inches away from a draw speaks volumes. As for the Irish show....eina!
You were always a JJ apologist, but he cost us big time. Fury was never that great, but the way he  brought the defence forward and sealed off the outside showed exactly why JJ was so costly. As a matter of pure fact, JJ never made one constructive contribution in any game of consequence.

JJ was brilliant in his last game against the AB's completely outplaying the world premier 13 in Conrad Smith.......with the introduction of Fourie, we lost all our clout out wide, Fourie was useless on attack - pathetic selection by Meyer and sums his conservatism up.......the same conservatism that will forever stand in the way of the Boks progressing beyond the AB's.

There were absolutely no positives in seeing the likes of Kirchner, Basson, Fourie, Morne, Pienaar, CJ, Steenkamp, Cilliers, Bakkies, Juandre Kruger and Franco v/d Merwe being tried or invested in this year. These guys are not close to being our best players, they are not even our third best.

Meyer struggled to select Willie, look no further than early in the year and his team selection against Wales......the man is conservative and does not embrace the creative/flair type of player.......he prefers the predictable bog ordinary like Morne or Fourie.......his loosetrio is all about crash and bash, there is no finesse and thats why they cant live with the AB trio as these guys are better rugby players.

Meyer failed hopelessly in not giving Serfontein far more time at 12, disgracefully discarding our best 13 by some distance in JJ, showing blind faith in useless Morne, instead of giving a full season to the far better rugby player in Lambie, continually selecting the now very average Pienaar at 9 and failing to bring a youngster through behind du Preez. His investment in fat Steenkamp ahead of Kitshoff, Nkanyane and Marcel v/d Merwe is laughable as was the introduction of old man Bakkies ahead of Lood or Willemse. He failed miserably in not giving the impressive Steph du Toit game time at 5.

Come to think of it, what have been the positives under Meyer? We have seen nothing new, other than the obvious in Willie (reluctantly) and Etzebeth. All we see is the same old in Kirchner, Habana, Aplon, JP, Fourie, Jean, Morne, du Preez, Pienaar, Jannie, Steenkamp, Kruger, Bakkies, Louw and Alberts.......were is the progression in this? Do we honestly think this group would challenge the AB's.......dream on. When he does introduce the new like Serfontein, JJ, Kolisi, Coetzee, Lambie and Steph du Toit we see no faith shown, despite impressive performances.......look no further than JJ over Fourie.......it was chalk and cheese stuff.

On this road, Meyer will never achieve much with the Boks, we are regressing........next year we will see the return of Schalk, Matfield, Spies and Juan Smith

Meyer does not excite me at all, his selections sell us short and bore me to death

@mozter,

"Sushi the way we crushed France after you ABs were inches away from a draw speaks volumes."
mozter, so ur definition of "we crushed france" is a 19-10 victory??? o_O
what a very generous a praise u give ur mighty in ur eyes Boks,

food for thought, but we faced france 4 times in 2013 and we beat them
23-13
30-0
24-9
26-19

and we conceded only two trys across 4 tests while scoring 8 trys.

all in all we crushed the Boks three times in 2013, but if we were to lather the praise in accordance with what ur definiton of crushed, the All Blacks pulverized the french literally into fench dust before blowing them back to france on the back of a strong easterly, o_O

inches away from a draw??? sure, if they scored a try and converted it, which they didnt.
and if they could only score two trys in 320mins of rugby, is it hard to say its unlikely that the french would scored in extra time with that scrum???
answer, only if ur a rugby fan who dosent support the All Blacks, we all know how much it makes u saffas sick to see the All Blacks winn 100% of their games in a season and mostly against top tier teams and not a bunch of minnows.

"As for the Irish show....eina!"
oh u mean the irish who the All Blacks have never lost to???
whats the Boks record vs the shamrock boys???

even more so then the england and french test, the All Blacks had to battle hard for that win, but we did win ol mozter, we did win and thats all that matters isnt it???
well its all that matters if ur a kiwi, saffa standards arent so high though, but they can play the next year game which they do se well, and when that years comes round, the can play the balme the ref game, which they do even better.

uchiha cla, keeping it real,

 Moz you are speaking crap, JJ scored 4 tries in 9 starts......he set up Kirchner for a try against Oz and had useless Morne hung onto the ball going over the line against the AB's it would have been another set up after h is sublime beating of Savea........FACT

That's 6 very positive contributions in 9 starts, if scoring tries is your only judge, which of course it should never be. Much more happens in a game and in that last game against the AB's alone, JJ showed more with ball in hand than a Bok 13 has in the last 10 years.

That should have cemented his place, but instead clueless Meyer chose to reward him by investing in useless Fourie........that sums Meyer up in a nutshell......clueless and conservative. The last thing we need to take Bok rugby forward. We need vision and forward thinking................my list of players above are anything but

Well we had two perfectly good tries denied sushi. Dave, after the first Bargie blowout JJ made no contribution of any kind to the Bok score line. AWOL to all intents are purposes. But he did contribute 3 tries to the opposition.

 “He Who Marches Out Of Step Hears Another Drum”
? Ken Kesey,

For Dave

 Bobbok the sound he hears could be his high blood pressure as the Boks just get better and better and overturn his expectations 

@mozter,

"Well we had two perfectly good tries denied sushi."
and so did the All Blacks, but if u want to play that game, dont forget that BS try ur boys scored against wales.

All Blacks were not as fortunate and also had to deal with some over zealous officiating, but despite it all, the All Blacks ended up with this record for 2013,,,

08/06/13 All Blacks v France 23-13 (2:1) Eden Park, Auckland
15/06/13 All Blacks v France 30-0 (3:0) Rugby League Pk, Christchurch
22/06/13 All Blacks v France 24-9 (2:0) New Plymouth   
17/08/13 All Blacks v Australia 47-29 (6:2) Stadium Australia, Sydney
24/08/13 All Blacks v Australia 27-16 (2:1) Westpac Trust, Wellington
07/09/13 All Blacks v Argentina 28-13 (3:1) Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
14/09/13 All Blacks v South Africa 29-15 (4:2) Eden Park, Auckland
28/09/13 All Blacks v Argentina 33-15 (4:0) La Plata
05/10/13 All Blacks v South Africa 38-27 (5:4) Ellis Park, Johannesburg
19/10/13 All Blacks v Australia 41-33 (4:3) Otago Stadium, Dunedin
02/11/13 All Blacks v Japan 54-6 (8:0) Prince Chichibu Stadium, Tokyo
09/11/13 All Blacks v France 26-19 (2:1) Stade de France, Paris   
16/11/13 All Blacks v England 30-22 (3:1) Twickenham, London
24/11/13 All Blacks v Ireland 24-22 (3:3) Lansdowne Rd, Dublin

thank u mighty All Blacks for such an amazing season.
the joy u gave the proud kiwis for ur efforts, seems to be matched only by the pain u give the vast majority here who seem very envious indeed,

bottoms up boys,

Yes Sushi of course you are right, who can argue with success. But I sense a certain ennui. All these worker bee phases until the opposition are weary are very effective....but ugly, really. And there seems to be no punctuation mark in your backs....all very worthy, but Barrett aside, who did anything surprising?
Honestly I'd rather watch Willie le Roux, and among the forwards...Etzebeth. The Bok tries, even at Ellis Park were more appealing....clean fast breaks.....one phase strikes.
Can the ABs sustain all this winning? Do we care.....yawn, I'm not at all sure.

Moz after all the coaching I have been giving these kiwis how can you NOT be SURE.

Ah yeah Moz good one, so his putting Kirchner in for a try against Oz was not input to the score line and its hardly his fault useless Morne could not hang onto the ball going over the line against the AB's, so gain you are failing to report the facts.

JJ had a sublime test against the AB's and thats a fact - but our clueless coach rewarded him by playing Fourie who achieved an insulting 13m in the 3 tests, not beating a single defender or making a clean break.......let me guess you conclude that these pathetic stats are better offerings than JJ's contributions???????

JJ missed two telling tackles all year, both of whom were as a result of the primary defender not doing their jobs.......other than that JJ's defensive stats against Oz and NZ were better than Jean's - FACT. 

Sure Dave...JJ had such a superb test that every rating published had Conrad Smith well ahead of him....and then Meyer who created him, dropped him for Fury of all centres. Wake up man and accept reality, JJ is just another mirage. 

No Moz every Kiwi on here admitted that JJ completely outplayed Smith on the day and the stats confirm that. It was not even close......JJ owned Smith on the day. 

Meyer is no measure, the clueless fool brought in Fourie who gained all of 13m in three tests, beating ZERO defenders and making ZERO breaks........in effect Meyer completely cocked it up

Fourie's performance at 13 in those 3 tests has to be one of the worst ever.......even de Jongh and Adi did better jobs. It was pathetic. How the hell can a test 13 only gain 13m in three tests......one of those tests being against Scotland and the other against Wales without Roberts and Davies at centre - its a joke

If Meyer had any brains, he would have stuck with the impressive attacking skills of JJ.......JJ brought us some clout out wide with his pace and feet, only a conservative clown would see otherwise

 No Dave...Smith never missed a tackle and was the highest rated AB back. He helped his team win...JJ helped the Boks lose.

No Moz.......you are so wrong. Given JJ ran straight through Smith, you will find that, that accounts for one of Smiths misses. 

Here are the stats for that game...........there is only one winner and its not even close.

Meters gained in the match - JJ 96m, Smith 27m
Clean breaks made - JJ 1, Smith 0
Defenders beaten - JJ 4, Smith 1
Offloads made - JJ 1, Smith 1
Tackles made - JJ 3, Smith 10
Tackles missed - JJ 1, Smith 2

Its impossible to conclude from these stats that Smith was better than JJ. And seeing JJ beat those defenders and cream Savea on the day confirms those stats. Smith had a very average game by his standards. JJ owned him on the day as he did in their S15 clash

And for good measure, I will give Smith the edge over JJ in the first test......a test where the Boks only played with 14 men for 40min, so would have had little opportunity with ball in hand.

Metres gained - JJ 19m, Smith 33m
Clean breaks - JJ 0, Smith 1
Defenders beaten - JJ 0, Smith 1
Tackles made - JJ 9, Smith 3
Tackles missed - JJ 0, Smith 1

So much for JJ having a defensive issue - as I have maintained all along, its a load of bullshit

Well given the fool who gave that rating missed the two tackles, there is no surprise he came up with an 8.......what a joke.

I know for a fact, one of those tackles missed was JJ running straight through Smith.

The stats make a mockery of the rating of 8