That man Jantjies

 Jantjies went through a very bad patch in 2013 and was slightly better in 2014 - but definitely not good enough to be considered for higher selection.  However, the stint in Japan benefitted him and this year he has been substantially better than he was in 2013 and 2014.      

Jantjies is like Goosen, a nippy little player that can't play too close to the gainline. He blows hot and cold. More. Cold than hot. 

And for the record, the Japanese have a far better technical understanding of backplay than South Africa. It's not the best place for forward play, but backplay? Vastly superior. 

What utter rubbish, Jantjies plays it flat and the notion that he is small is another load of crap  

If Faf is the reserve 9 Dave, do I take it that  you agree Hougaard has to play on the wing? 

"Right now he (Jantjies) is our best 10. Pollard is our best bet as the starting 10, but Jantjies would be my bench 10."

That seems a bit contradictory. If Jantjies is the best #10 then why wouldn't you start him there? Why would you start with the second best player and bench the best?

I think Pollard is our best flyhalf at the moment but I'd be tempted to pick a fit Pat Lambie if we were playing on the slower NH pitches.

If either one is crocked then I agree, Jantjies is the next in line . . . and if Jantjies can solve a quota problem then I'd understand Meyer promoting him up the pecking order.

Jantjies is playing brilliantly. Best form of his career and its a pleasure to watch. What an impact he had in the second half against the Highlanders.
But he's not the same player that the Stormers had, or were hoping to get. My opinion is that his world was rocked by the sudden passing of his dad, who he was very close with, right before his season with the Stormers. 
Either way - its great to see him playing the way he is now.

No, I'd play Hougaard as my starting 9 with Faf on the bench......Reinach moves to number 3  

Reinach is an athlete, not a scrumhalf. 

I wish I could believe Jantjies will reproduce that form at higher level. He certainly is showing an eye for the gap and his tackling, a prior weaknesses, has looked good. But whether this lasts or not,  one has to admit he is a big part of the Lions' success. 

Morné and Pollard are the only 10s in SA who can reliably defend. 

You do know who Morne Steyn is right? 

Do you?

Yes he can. That's why he isn't targeted. 

Well Moz there is only one way of finding out.....select him, show faith and don't ditch him after 3 tests......the Meyer way.....look no further than de Allende  

You don't stick with something that clearly isn't going to work. 

 Janjties has been excellent, and in fairness to Saf he held hope for him when a lot of people (including me) wrote him off. Whether he'd be in my Box Squad is a different question all together

 Well I read it all - players are accused of inability to attack the gain line - which they frequently did - but Morne (whose attacks on the gain line in a year can be counted on the fingers of one hand) is better.
Morne who missed 8 of his 15 tackle attempts in the Perth test is according to Letsal the best tackler we have available to play flyhalf for  SA.  Is the guy who makes the above comments sane or does he show total disregard for all facts and just dream up things to write on this site?   

I must admit he looked great last weekend, and has been solid the whole year. 
He is starting to look like the player he was when he first played Curry Cup under John Mitchell. 
Mitchell pleaded for Jantijies to not be made a Springbog too early, but he was called up to the EOYT in his first season. 
Most of what I have seen from Jantjies is good stuff at the lower levels like Curry Cup where he has more time and space. Or SuperXV matches when overseas teams have won the game in the 1st half and opened up their bench in the 2nd half. He has seemed to struggle in tighter games where their is less time. 
All credit to him in improving his game. I am not sure how good he would be at test level but he does have a decent kicking game as well so on current form perhaps.

 Whether you play flat or mid level or deep depends on what you are trying to achieve Michael. 

 Letsal
Morne has virtually never varied his depth in the pocket.  Because he is so slow in decision-making he had to stand deep in the pocket.   You cannot accuse him of varying his game - since he does not attack the gain line and if he managed to  pass the ball along the backline the real result is the recipient would have three defenders on top of them by the time the ball gets to the unfortunate player - because of Morne's predictablity .   If I read your praise-singing on Morne I always think you have taken over the performance of another flyhalf and attribute it to what Morne should have done - but never did.   
You talk about other players being demoted - but Morne was dropped twice because of stinkingly poor performances.   The first drop was after the Dunedin test - the second after the Perth test.
In essence I agree  with Dave here - Morne is a good goalkicker - but for the rest one of the worst flyhalfs ever managing to play on Super Rugby and test level.           

Does anyone Morne in 2012? This was his worst performance that put him on a pedastal with Braam Van and Louie Koen. The crowd resorted to booing because he wanted to make sure he destroyed any form of a spectacle. 
Morne varied his depth- sometimes he was in the car park, and sometimes in the stands.He consistently made sure all of his team was offside and could not partake in the game.
Morne has had some decent games but usually behind a dominant pack. 
On the back foot  it is kick and chase and from very deep because Morne puts everyone offside. 

His weakest aspect to his game is his running where he asks no questions. He runs like he is sitting so it is not possibale to step, and he tackles like an Egyptian Mummy.
Sometimes the rest of the team play better when Morne is on the pitch for what ever reason. I could just be that Leroux takes on more responsibility with Moane on the pitch.

Incorrect. Our troubles in 2012 were generally related to a pack rebuild, set pieces, restarts, goal kicking and Pienaar's high balls. 

Flyhalf is the most important match winning position on the field ....you don't win a TN and a S15 with a weak flyhalf. Morne is not a runner, but he has a superb pass... witness his pass that turned the Bargie away test last year. He is an able defender at 10... Witness the fact that his channel has never been systematically attacked in all his tests. Do these fools think the opposition is stupid?
The level of the discussion by the Morne bashers is about at local braaivleis level...obvious and wrong.

 Mozart
This is ridiculous - the Morne story is one of a flop being credited with characteristics based on one or two incidents in a career stretching over years.  You said that a flyhalf is the most important match-winning position on the field of play and previously that 90% of the functions of the flyhalf is his kicking game.  
Just answer a number of questions being - accept for extremely rare cases - how effective was Morne's passes over the years when again with rare exceptions he stands to deep in the pocket and since he does not attack the gain line meaning that the defense is geared towards covering the recipient only and Morne is totally ignored by them.   Since the pass happens behind the gain line - the tackle of the recipient is behind the gain line too.
As to his defense - how come Morne's tackle stats constantly in Super 15 in 2013 indicated a miss tackle ratio of 20% - going up in some tests to as high as 40%.  That is not reflective of any good defense on his part - it is in fact way below par.  In 2014 it was much worse - in his last test it was a missed tackle ratio of 55%.   In that test the opposition did attack his channel systematically and he failed miserably.
There are two questions that you shy away from and never respond to, namely -
*   why is it that Hansen before the Ellis Park test had serious reservations about how to deal with Pollard and stated clearly that they know how to deal with Morne at flyhalf, but in the case of Pollard they would have problems; and
*   why does Stade Francais not use Morne as their starting flyhalf and in the main only uses him when Plisson is not available if he was such a good flyhalf as you makes him out to be - or better still, why is a Club bench flyhalf a suitable flyhalf for SA?
Hansen made that statement because with Morne the position was always 100% clear insofar as the defensive counter-strategy was concerned because he was robotic and utterly predictable.   You obviously did not read the NZ newspapers about how easy it as to counter Morne's plays and never saw on this site what the AB supporters wrote about Morne - they loved him since he was so easy to handle  and consequently was beneficial to the AB's to have him as Springbok flyhalf.  Hansen's comments were on the spot - Pollard did something Morne never did against the AB's inasmuch as he attacked the gain line and in the process scored two tries.  Even the try scored by Hougaard in the said test started from an attack of the gainline by Pollard. 
There is no way that other than for kicking at goal - Morne never in reality was an acceptable international flyhalf and nowhere was it proved more effectively than what happened insofar as his Stade Francais record is concerned.  He is regularly kept out of the starting line-up by the third best flyhalf in France.   
Morne has one more season to complete with Stade Francais and the chances of his contract being renewed by his Club is zero-minus.  His chances of getting another favourable contract at more than 20% of what Stade Francais pays him with any of the other NH clubs is also zero. 
Morne is a very nice person - a real gentleman - but not a star rugby player some of his groupies makes him out to be.                  

Morne is fucking useless  

Ha this site makes me laugh, 90% of us would not enjoy seeing Morne at 10 again for the Boks. He is not the worst player to ever exist and I don't hate the guy with the vigour some of you do. So what are we arguing about?
Elton on the other hand is looking very promising again. I haven't seen an S.A 10 with his timing of pass for a long time. As others have mentioned, his defence seems stronger and his kicking game is good. If being on form is not reason enough to be given another chance at a higher level then what the hell is? 

Spot on Wine......I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than ever have to  endure useless Morne at 10 for the Boks again 

Winesy, I have to say, posting one comment a year is a good way to make sure people read what you have to say!

 I can't help myself making comparisons between Quade Cooper and Jantjies.....question is...will Jantjies at test level  meet with the same fate as Cooper?

 I think the problem is, when we, in the rest of the world, discussed Morne Steyn and talked of the limited game plan approach by SA or the Bulls because the teams stuck very much to his exceptional talents with the boot, we were always shouted down as being jealous types and how dare we criticise any SA player ? None of them have any inadequacies ! But that just covers a basic fact, and one still talked about today. It's a difficult choice when a player will win you matches with their exceptional kicking ability, do you select someone with lesser ability in that area but one more creative in others and one who will most likely make better use of the back line ? The Coaches dilemma. Now, however, it's a moot point. He shouldn't even be in the equation and time to move on....

But this is an topic you will never agree on and I think you will be arguing about it forever more  

What is the issue with Cooper at test level.....one of the best test flyhalves in the game by some distance  

 Jantjies did ignite the whole pack when he came on against the Landers.

 Ah well it was great while it lasted. Jantjies resumes normal service.

 I was not impressed by Jantjies in the game yesterday - he was not good enough and his decision-taking at times was poor - while he got run over in defense.  There are still  serious concerns about his performance under pressure, like was evident yesterday.