Stop the long kicks....asseblief!

When Goosen lined up his first bomb I cringed....why rattle his confidence with a low probability kick? These kicks very seldomly go over....and when they miss they make the next kick harder.

More to the point if you have a kick 60 metres out....you can ensure a lineout 15 metres out. That in turn can lead to a try or more  likely, a much easier kick close in to goal.

How many of these 50 plus kicks have we tried this year.....10 or more? How many have succeeded....none I can recall. We have wasted many points by attempting these kicks.

There is a role for the long bomb....mostly if time is running out. Or if your kicker is really on song and you want to make the point that any infraction means points. But not when you want to keep up the pressure and also settle your kicker's nerves.

I have posted this before, it's so obvious, but we just keep making the same mistake.

Field position. If the kick misses the whole opposition is behind their try line. The only option is usually to kick the ball back. If the opposition kicks for touch we regain possesion and gain territory.  It is debatable if we would gain more territory with the opposition kicker standing behind the tryline, or if we kicked for touch from the penalty instead of going for posts. 

Frans Steyn has scored many many times with long kicks, with a very high strike rate. It is only this year that his kicks have been poor. 

Mozart

Taking long  oenalty kicks should be determined om accordance with the circumstances of the kick and even the kicker.   I was somewhat surprized by the poor kicking of Goosen on Saturday.   He has landed distance kicks far more regularly than Francois Steyn - until O read that his bruised ankle was bothering him during the match - a fact confirmed by the fact that he did get treatment for it during the game.

For the Cheetahs in Super 15 Doosen regularly converted long distance penalties.   The joker in the pack is in fact Steyn - who has a 30% conversion rate on long distance penalties  

What I am trying to say  is a 30% rate is not acceptable and the available kicker's success rate  should rather be the norm.   If in a game you are up and the penalty would result in the need for the opposition to score twice or more to win - then by all means try a long distance kick - again depending on the proven ability of the kicker.   The other alternative is if you are down by say one or two points and the team is struggling to score points then a gamble is worth taking.   Otherwise I am in full agreement with your point of view.