Let’s start with Dud Toit…..rounding into form, an influential first 20 minutes….blah-blah-blah. The truth is Dud Toit had the ball 10 times, he coughed it up 3 times and he made 10 metres in those 10 runs and produced zero offloads.
Defensively he was better with nine tackles and one missed. But he was also a non factor at the breakdown. Perhaps with the inevitable injury to Lomp and the non availability of Snyman he should be shifted back to 5, assuming there are no other options.
Now Dud Allende who had a good first half with a deft grubber through. He made 34 metres in 11 runs and beat 5 tackles. No offloads though, so it was pretty much the usual die with the ball stuff.
The second half was anonymous. One kept looking for our ‘best’ centre to make a contribution but increasingly he was a non factor….and missing 4 of his 12 tackle attempts, he was poor defensively.
Kolisi was anonymous from the moment his standard anthem delivery was over. Two runs for 6 metres and a lowish 8 tackle count. Kolisi had some fine tests in the RC but today he was back to standard service….completely ineffective at the breakdown. His combination with Dud Toit more or less conceded the breakdown to our opponent.
The inability of these three key players to make a reliable contribution puts the whole enterprise at risk
