Springbok Positional Depth - the Achilles heal

The main issue seems to be depth in certain positions because if key players are injured, out of form or just having off days, there is no option B from the bench in many positions.

9. Scrumhalf-  

When Faff falls apart he becomes a deer in the headlights. He passes before he looks. Any other scrumhalf options are just, not test rugby standard, and debatable if even SuperXV standard.

Ross Cronje is crap, but he is better than the others. He has arthritis, but at least he can do the basics. Imagine Hougaard gets a call-up... 

10. Flyhalf

When Pollard falls apart he becomes a small loose forward that looks to make contact at any opportunity. Pollard has no tactical kicking game, and his pole kicking is so poor that Flab Malherbe may as well take over the kicking.

Jittery Jantjies is just a dummy runner on most attacking movements, as Faff skips him out.

12. Inside Center.

If Delande and Esterhuizen, were combined into one player- this possibly would be a test standard player.

Is it time to call up Frans Steyn? He at least offers a backup pole kicker, and some territorial kicking game. He is a better crash baller than the other 2 zombies.

13. Outside Center

Jessica Kriel was hopeless today, as is the case more often than not. 

AM is the better option- but butchered any easy try in the last outing vs Argentina by not doing a simple draw and pass to put the winger away.

15. Fullback 

Willie was woeful today, and his errors had errors. Kolbe looked like a lost fart in his time on the pitch and bumbled a mediocre chase back to recovery. If Willie is having an off day the Boks have no playmakers- and basically, are stuffed.

8. Backrow

Vermeulen is the best loose forward the Boks have and has a better game than Whitely - even when he does not play. 

6. Fetcher

The Boks want to play test rugby without a specialist fetcher..... Not that there is one nowadays, especially as Francious Louw is a spent force. Are the coaches in SA just stupid, or do they plan to just have ball carriers? Kolisi is the form loose forward, but he is is a 6.5 (not a 6, or a 7). 

7. Blindside Flanker

Stephanie is probably too big for a loose forward- particularly on a faster pitch which requires more distance from ruck to ruck. Especially if the Boks have no other recognised fetchers in the back row.

Tight Five 

The only area where there is lots of depth to cover any loss of form, injuries or players having a bad day at the office.

The major worry is Marx- Bongi was easily the better player today. Both were bad at the lineout. 

Wings

Wing depth is pretty solid, with decent depth. Lots of small wingers, but some good bigger fast wings as well.

...shrkbok WTF was Cronje doing passing the ball to Mapimpi for an easy try out wide the dommkopf..?...

Sometimes i wonder what SA even bothers putting their wingers on the park at all..just to appease the ANC you would think by the amount of ball they see...

... plenty of glaringly obvious overlaps that went begging and a crashballing automaton option selected instead...SA it's own worst enemy

Esterhuizen hasn't put a foot wrong all season. A long way ahead of Damian. This test was a perfect one for Esterhuizen, but we had the tractor. Damian really did nothing of note. Kriel was the better of the two. Am and Kriel is a tougher decision to make. 

We saw runners onto the ball against the Pumas. However, it depends on numerous factors. Quality ball. While the pack was on top today, this backline was inferior to the backline for the Puma test. Which is very disappointing. It was Rassie's decision. 

Sometimes i wonder what SA even bothers putting their wingers on the park at all..just to appease the ANC you would think by the amount of ball they see...

I will completely leave out the BS of Mozart and co and comment on what SB wrote above.

Scrumhalf

There ahs been a huge problem here for years and I cannot see much coming through either.   I actually think recalling Du Preez and continuing with Pienaar was part of the problem.   Instead o trying to get other players to test match level and giving them opportunities - eyer fiddled around with those two in the main and with Hougaard,

I do not think Cronje is the answer and bioth Papier and Van Zyl is still very immature,   The only player that is left is Reinach.   How is he doing in England?

Flyhalf

I was hoping that Pollard will do better at flyhalf than he did in the England tests and the first Argentine test,   The last Argentine test was a disaster and he was no better yesterday when eh came from the bench,   The balls he got yesterday was poor - especially in the second half and that could have contributed to an under-par performance.

You did not mention Willemse at all - he is ten times better than Jantjies and under proper management he is bound to develop further,   If Pollard goes sour - the only other flyhalf we have in the wings may be Goosen.

Centers

This has been a problem for years  and I think Erasmus do not have much of an option,  laying Esterhuizen and Am represents a backline with poor defense in evidence,  I frankly do not know what Rassie can do about it because there are no centers coming through from lower level.

Back Row 

Since 2012 we had a problem here.   Meyer preferred a back row that would be an extension of the Tight 5 - slow and very close to useless in ball protection and recovery,   Should at least have a specialist in that aspect of the play - but we have none.   

The present back row is a problem.   Vermeulen is the best - but how long will he last?   He is already an age where performances show a declining curve.  I am sorry - but we have even in his case  problem.  Louw was supposed to be the player that could do ball protection and recovery and in all tests this year he made ONE turnover,   He is  too slow to even reach breakdowns timeously.   

Thinking of the future I would still move Du Toit to 8 and get a real specialist into the squad - we have none at present.  

Esterhuizen and Am have been the best defensive duo. If you think the did anything wrong. Cite references. If you know I am wrong, you must know where and when. Provide the details. 

Goosen will never be a test flyhalf. I'd have Lambie before Goosen. His test performance at 10 for the Boks is the most shameful I have ever seen. Willemse is one of the future. Pollard wasn't great, but better than Jantjies upon review. It was his worst showing of the year though. 

Did you see some of the new things Rassie implemented? I'm very curious to see how much you picked up. 

We cannot continue with any of the centers Rassie has in his squad. None of them are test standard midfielders. Why he persists with them is beyond me.

Faff doesn't have a decent pass and his kicking game sucks. He is however the best we have at the moment, so whatever are we to do? I still rate Shaun Venter as our best 9.

For heaven sake ... do not call the utterly useless HouGat back. He's a proven loser ... in every position they've tried him in.

Kolisi is not our form loosie. He should be carrying the luggage to the players rooms and back ... nothing more. Useless as useless can be.

In short ... Rassie needs to get rid of at least 50 - 60% of his current squad to be competitive.

The only dark skinned folk that should be in his squad on merit are ... Willemse, Dyantyi and Nkosi. The rest are all tokens ... quotas.

What test performance of Goosen was the worst you ever saw?    Come clean and tell us.

What test performance of Goosen was the worst you ever saw?    Come clean and tell us.

You asked for it Lügnerin. 

Zero quota players. None has the level to join the squad. Over the past 25 years, SA rugby have not trained one half decent player from the mass of the population. They never will.

Including one of those is setting up a platform for excuses.

The setting is simple: rugby must exist on merit in SA. It must be a lucrative activity bringing money to SA, no the debt sink it is now. As it can not be representative of the country population, victory is mandatory.

Win in SR. Win in Pro 14. Year in, year out.

Win every incoming WC, win every incoming 4N.

When failure occurs, then termination of rugby.

Then exploration on the process of introduction of rugby in one of the only places in the world that can not put out one single half decent player from the main population.

Because that is a serious case of misallocation of resources.