I think that Meyer would watch every segment of this game and do his own analysis of each player. I watched the game three times and want to state how I see the player performances - since there are various opinions expressed on this site. The question is how will Meyer see the perormances and what may be the result. Lets try and see what happened to some of the controversial players:-
Kirchner
He likes to get involved - with the result he is conctantly out of position. In the case of the attack by the Springboks there was a two on three situation. Habana would certainly have scored if he gets a proper ball. The passing was no good. Steyn passed to early to Kirchner - who passed the ball behind Habana's back - very bad pass.
The next incident was the try scored by Dagg. Kirschner was amongst the forwards and tried to tackle Hall - was bounced off and afterwards taken out by an All Black player - what was he doing there and not in his full back position?
Kirchner did not even make the slightest effort to tackle Smith when he scored the try.
Kirchner entered the backline on three other occassions - made a small distance and then died with the ball in maul situations.
He followed up one of the more effective kicks of Pienaar - but was not able to tackle Dagg.
Under the high ball he made a flaw and did not gather the ball - luckily knocked on by an All Black player afterwards. For the rest his positional play was alo questionable - but his relieving kicks were in general effective.
On the whole there was not enough positives in his performance to justify an acceptable level of play.
Hougaard
Hougaard tried to run one ball at an angle once - but was tackled and the result was a penalty against the Boks for hanging onto the ball. Gor the rest of the game he handled the ball three times and broke a gew tackles - but his attacking play always ends up in maul situations. Not a star performance in that respect - but best to be described as average.
Where he did show very good skill was kicking the ball forward when it came out of the All Black maul early in the game - followed up by a dribble kick by De Villiers - and followed up by him, gretting and retaining posession. That nearly let to a Bok try - but for the inability of Kirchner to pass balls properly.
Habana
He was the star player on both sides and further discussion not necessary.
De Villiers
Got the ball six times. In general he did not attampt to break any tackles and his one pass to Habana was atrocious. Gor the rest his passing game with the other four balls was acceptable.
Francois Steyn
After watching the game again - I came to the conclusion that he was better than my original rating of 6 given originally by me. He broke the line twice and the second one could easily have led to a try - but for the fact that the pass in field went astray - the nearest player to take advantage was Kirchner - but he obviously did not contribute to that one at all.
Morne Steyn
When watching the game again - there is nothing to disprove my allegation that he was useless and his kicks in the main aimless and ineffective - so was his passing game. I still believe a rating of 3 out of 10 remnains appropriate.
Pienaar
After looking at the ame again I came to the conclusion that my previous assessments were correct and that he played according to a plan devised by the management. He made 6 kicks - two of them too far to be effective - the rest quite effecive. His passing game was as a rule fast and effective. I do not like it when he stands behind a maul and kick the ball forward inside th maul (happened twice) - and that is when he generally wait for forwards to come into position to pass to. Deadly and ineffective - since it alwats lead to a further maul since it gives the opposition time to form up in defence. I don't think Meyer will downgrade his rating and he is likelyto remain as scrummie.
Vermeulen
Actually had a very good game and was strong in attacking play. He will remain as number 8 - was the Springboks best forward.
Louw
In fact he had a good game and was penalized twice by the referee - when he was onside and standing up while trying to wrestle the balls from the All Black player lieing on the ground hanging onto the ball. These penalties should have gone the other way - really inexplicable. For the rest he was good in defence and carried the ball over th gain line a couple of times. I would say - he will probably be retained at number 6.
Alberts
After my reviewing of the game - saw nothing to change my mind about his performance. Solid nothing more.
Kruger
Largely invisible - Bekker made a mark difference when he came on. The latter very effective in line out play - the former had a serious question mark in this case.
Van der Merwe
Better than my initial assessment - really tried hard. Would remain in the mix as a back-up for Bekker in the next test. Thereafter on the bench I believe.
Strauss
His line-out thows was not particularly accurate and we lost two line-outs as a result. For the rest his game was solid - nothing special.
Jannie Du Plessis and Beast
Saw nothing to change my original assessment.
Greyling
He was even worse than initially assessed - he was on the field for 20 minutes only because of the yellow card. In that time he was very poor in scrummaging as well as giving away penalties as if he was playing for the All Blacks as a bonus for them. The worst Springbok player in the past two decades by a mile.
