15 Willie le Roux, 14 Jesse Kriel 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Beast Mtawarira, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Francois Louw, 21 Ross Cronjé, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Cheslin Kolbe
It's the same bunch of failures, just put together a little differently.
Rassie has finally discovered our best front row. I see he's persisting with the quotas as cover.
The only players worthy of the jersey are Kitshoff, Marx, Malherbe, Etzebeth and Dyantyi ... as for the bench ... Wilco Louw and RG Snyman make the grade.
The rest are second rate rubbish. Losers the lot of them.
What was the point of taking van Staden and Willemse along?
3 of the starting 15 are black ... 4 of the 8 bench players are black.
We're down to 30% black players after only 6 tests.
Yes ... fully agree BlueBok!!
That man has realized that he's bitten off more than he can chew. That a selection of losers cannot compete against carefully selected, merited players and pressure has brought on panic.
How does he get out of this fix?
He wanted to play the hero ... sadly now he looks more like a fool.
What do we do if he resigns? Give the head coaching job to Stick?
We are so deep in the dwang it's scary.
CC
I would add Du Toit to your list of quality players - would always be on my list as a top player.
Yes - there are problems and I cannot see how the team could win.
Of the players I cannot see why they are still selected I would say that it is time that Jantjies and F Louw should be sent packing from the squad. Louw is a farce - who contributes as near as possible to zero to the match performances and Jantjies has never been a test level player. -I for instance cannot see why Willemse is not on the bench ahead of Jantjies.
There should be positional changes to be made to the squad for the local tests to be played. It is clear that there are way too many passengers in the present squad.
I don't mind the team, there's not much more we could have done with the squad with some of the players going down.
I don't necessarily believe it's terrible, in fact going through the squad:
15 Willie le Roux - Think he's by some way our best 15, horror test against Aus but he's the best we've got, what alternatives are there? Gelant? He's injured though I think
14 Jesse Kriel - with Mampimpi going down injured not like we had much much choice, good suit him more than 13 in fairness, his time at fullback will be useful against the high ball
13 Lukhanyo Am - This is one where my view seems different to a lot of people, I like Am, he had a good super rugby season and that should rewarded, he's a good all-rounder, give him a few games to get a feel for it
12 Damian de Allende - Think Damian has been and gone unfortunately, I hope I'm wrong but I don't see him changing a fairly mediocre international career thus far. Would have gone for Esterhuizen, so at least Am and him have a connection
11 Aphiwe Dyantyi - He's great really, our best wing
10 Handré Pollard - I don't have any reservations about him, needs to improve that goal kicking though
9 Faf de Klerk - Our best 9 by quite a distance
8 Warren Whiteley - I like Whiteley, he's technically a very sound player, is he physical enough for a test 8 though?
7 Pieter-Steph du Toit - no problem here, at the lack of any proper grunt at 7, he's our best bet
6 Siya Kolisi (captain) - Like CC, I would much have prefered Van Staden. Think Kolisi needs to take some time to reinvent himself, he's good in open space and often runs good lines, if he improves his work rate and ruck ability, he'd make a good 7, for now however there's far better options
5 Franco Mostert - Mostert is decent, a good lineout exponent
4 Eben Etzebeth - our best lock
3 Frans Malherbe - Solid
2 Malcolm Marx - Best Hooker in the world
1 Steven Kitshoff - Really solid, when on song, there's no more destructive scrummager about
CC, I agree a lot of what you say but I don't think Beast and Mbonambi are quota bench picks, experience is an unquanitfiable thing but obviously important and Beast has that in spades, he's had a good super rugby season too. I did agree with you about Bongi but the England series changed my mind, he's more than capable about doing a job as back up to Marx
Bluebok
I can unfortunately not see a win by the Springboks at all.
I think a loss by less than 20 points by the Springboks would indicate an improvement by the Springboks compared to what happened in the last two years and a loss by less than 12 points will be an improvement on the performances during all of the Meyer and Coetzee years iro away games in NZ,
That should to my mind be the norm for really evaluating performance by the present team,
Impressive thread.
The cause the quota that never was keeps declining is simple: SA rugby have not trained one single half decent non white player over the past 25 years. And have trained a fistful of others. Meaning that the pool of players to tap in gets depleted faster.
It will get even worse as there is less and less replacement, the pool is declining.
SA rugby failed to promote rugby on a local spot and kept to their globalist scheme.
Not one ounce of self respect. Tremendous.
Its pressure CC. The need to win (and save his job) now outweighs the need to please the politicians.
So this line reads the selection was conditioned by the will to save the job.
A few lines down
so his job probably isn't on the line, even if he hasn't figured that out
This line reads the job is not endangered.
Basically, the head coach made that decision in order to save his job even if his job is not endangered.
Brilliant. The tale people on this board are willing to tell themselves.
Going further, if SA had a quota policy, this coach would have taken by this selection a decision that would endanger his job. A loss in NZ would not endanger his job. Of course, as SA has no quota policy, well...
The need to win
That turns pressing when meeting NZ playing at home. NZ squads have not lost at home for ages now but the need to win is pressing.
Of all games, this game is the one SA could have lost because of that.
Losing only this game and winning all the others might have ended in a final victory.
Yet this game is the one to express an emergency to win. Not the others.
Incredible stuff.
Maybe time to consider using heavy drugs because there is not much left to lose. Maybe, even, drugs will help achieving better tales or no tales at all.
The HC can select less quotas because this game is lost. Quotas are introduced in teams in order to justify losses. They are the ones to be blamed. ABs are not expected to lose no matter the team composition, so it frees the HC hands to field less quotas. All white player SA team would lose so why bother with quota players.
Quota players will be reintroduced any game when a loss must be justified. The nightmare outcomes are when all white player team lose.
Cutting down the number of quota players against teams like AU and AR is taking the risk of exposing the all white player SA team tale. The less quota on the field, the less they can be blamed.
What successes... There are none of that.
SA rugby is the result of politics driving a sport. Rugby was chosen to deliver a quick political message. Rugby is much less competitive than football so it is easier to climb the ranks and other african nations do not practise rugby, saving from the disgrace of losing to a bunch of non white people as it could have been the case in football.
Because of this huge misallocation of resources, SA is now saddled with a sport that is not appropriated to the main population and that brings no money.
SA football is a disaster because rugby ate the resources.
Even a communist regime would have done better as they shut down rugby and promoted football.
Today, SA football could be an engine of growth for the country but instead, that industry of debt is what sucked up all the resources.
SA football, despite the SA economy size, is one of the poorest in all the african continent. The difference is that other african countries got their priority right, they did not promote rugby over football.
Even african countries got that decision right...
This is somewhat good. Am at 13 is good, Damian at 12, less so. I'm particularly interested to see how Kriel copes on the wing. Kolbe suffered against Australia, I don't understand why Rassie thought he earned a chance to play New Zealand.
Steph wasn't as bad as I thought he could be against the Wallabies, but he was exposed a few times. Not the best player on the field. Obviously Rassie feels he is capable of martialing the touchline, like Kolisi. I didn't see it work quite the same way as Rassie.
I was a little harsh on Malherbe, upon review he was actually very good in general play. On defence he made an incredible tackle to stop a guaranteed try, in our 22 from behind. He looks immobile sometimes, but it doesn't show in his work around the field.
Mostert and Whiteley had moments where they were overpowered. Granted it was against that big islander, but it still concerns me. The All Blacks have a fair bit of grunt. It's the first time Whiteley was shown up, but Mostert has been disappointing in general.
We don't play through our centres for the most part, so maybe we can live with Damian. However, with Barrett in the kind of form he is in, I don't feel comfortable with this gamble. Not having Esterhuizen on the bench could be one of those decisions that costs Rassie his job. Damian had a lot of ball against Australia, alot of front foot ball, coming onto it at pace. He couldn't inflict any meaningful damage. Esterhuizen has been more productive, but without having plays that give him those kinds of opportunities. I think it's ridiculous for him to have been demoted so hastily.
