The Boks are within 2 points with time still available. A Bok penalty will win the game, instead Dud Toit gifts the Lions 3 points.
The Boks now need a try….the ball goes to Lomp, he gets smashed loses the ball and 7 metres. But they pass to him again and he loses another metre. That’s physical by the way.
Then with no ideas at all we launch a series of toothless phase drives and Elstadt coughs up the ball, as was pretty much inevitable.
Depressing stuff.
The sad thing, repeated mistakes. Come next test, Steph and Lood will be the string men superstars. Big players turn up in big moments.
Esterhuizen gives you that, but it's not how the Boks play. He has fantastic ability to read play and the courage to push the envelope. One of the best distributors in the country. The movement Damian flubbed in the WC with Willie, you see Esterhuizen often take up good positions in those situations and get players into space. Operates much better in congested areas and has a much better boot with a range of kicks. Has a feel for the flow of the defence/pressure and is massively stronger than Damian. When Andre hits you, you feel it. His defence can singlehandedly shutdown the best offences in the game, being able to mark anyone from 1 to 15 out of the game. It's depressing thinking what this Bok team could be. Meyer's Boks played much better rugby. He didn't have an Am, Andre, RG, Mapimpi et al sitting there, ready to be played. This coaching team has no ambition. The analytics are shockingly poor. Even by Snor standards.
The thing with battering rams like Allende is once you identify them, you can shut them down because they keep doing the same thing. Just like the Irish sussed out Pollard after his destruction of the All Blacks through the inside gap back in the day by putting Heaslip and a buddy on him every time he touched the ball, neutralizing him as an attacking threat. Likewise running at Biggar was never going to work forever. You have to evolve your play.
Becoming multi-faceted. I like the Spies and Big Joe comparison. You couldn't earn Van Niekerk, the threat of getting the ball away was real. One of the Joubert tries in the last game at whalloped them, Joe ran off the back of a scrum and they zeroed in on him, slipped a pass to Joubert with acres of space. Spies couldn't do that. The lack of a pass is what bottled him up. Damian doesn't think which compounds the predictability. The Boks are now a team of dead end predictable phases. The more desperate they become, the more they put the ball in the hands of these cul-de-sacs. They deserve the humbling.
Not one South African forward managed an offload on Saturday. All the South African forwards including subs managed 9 passes….Lawes, Curry and Conan managed 16 between the three of them.
It’s a cul-de-sac game plan.
I have to agree, for such big men, why doesn't Rassie allow his forwards to off load. Only Duane had a great back door pass. Now we got Kwagga who gets knocked on his Arse, kolisi had one run from the maul, but no drawing the defence and off loading in the tackle.
Just imagine if you bring Kolbe to run off the shoulder, how much space we'll get.
But I also think it has to do with our coaching setup. We don't have a backline coach. Stick doesn't know how to coach a backline and I question what he really brings to the team.
The boks have based their game on kicking, scrumming and defence. Using the counter attack to capitalise on mistakes. If just 1 one of the 3 counter attack chances stuck last week we wouldn't be talking about it this week, but the boks have no plan B
Unbelievable, not even a RWC trophy is good enough for you...thin soup indeed...
I say amen to that Draad, what more do the naysayers want...to win by 50 points. Something wrong here. What more in the last final in WC did Organ and Moz expect to win by...bloody insanity...they can analyse , shoot videos to negate their pet hates (cannot understand that either...to what possible purpose) so they can prove they are geniuses and experts.....hahahahahaha....baaaaaa
How bloody stupid!
The plastics scoff at the hammer that cracks their skulls. You know what stupid is? Being emotionally invested in something for a reason you do not know. Then scoff at someone who actually did some research. Everything you have stood by has been an easily evince evicerated sham. Ende.
