This was a sobering weekend. Most concerning was watching a Brumbies pack, with Alexander at tighthead out scrumming the Sharks. Our tight five play has slumped with all the injuries. Here are a few random observations on our players:
Those thinking Mvovo is a cinch for the Boks need to think again...as the pressure mounted, he became less effective. Taute by contrast raised his stakes by some good close quarter running, but the lack of pace and pop gun boot will ultimately discount him.
On the wings de Allende had some good moments....but again, measured against Basson he may be 5 metres too slow for test wing duty.
Sadie and especially Jordaan had tough outings at centre. Jordaan is too small in my view. JJ was irrelevant...again. Best centres were de Jongh and Serfontein. De Jongh is always dangerous in space....and Steppie is fine if you like your centres as sort of de Wet Barrie clones sans the crash tackling.
At flyhalf Pollard is the one positive. Frans finally had a meaningful game in general play...but his boot was horrible. Goosen is playing a very remote passing role and his tackling remains poor. Coleman was very weak in his clearances nd predictably Jantjies missed the winning kick...why did Ackerman sub Boshoff?
At scrummie Reinach was pretty ineffective. In fact apart from FAF no scrummie showed much. There is a lot of Hougaard hype, and he certainly is a little crisper...but do we want another Bools kicker. He still hasn't made a meaningful scrummie break, the part that seemed guaranteed.
At prop Jannie and the Beast were worked. Bismarck is looking less effective....what price Strauss?
The Bools locks were good, but the rest were pretty ordinary.
I thought Schalk and Vermeulen had effective games in adverese circumstances.But apart from some good work by the Lions loosies, that was about it. Kankan was awful. Deysel, great when the Sharks are dominating physically, was emphatically put back in his box. And who would pick Du Plessis ahead of Schalk....nobody who values finesse.
In the captaincy stakes Bismarck's ambitions took a hit today. He was lucky to escape a card when he lost it.
