The first try against Wales unleashed the Boks for a great YE tour

The Welsh match against the two time NH winners populated by Lions was a tough ask. And the Boks had a jittery start as two Welsh breaks off a bouncing ball and a dummy runner split the defence. But it ended there.

A few minutes later Steyn at his 22 delivered a long pass to Habana who gassed the Welsh hooker and North. He timed his pass well to Bismarck who astonishingly got up in support.  Bismarck flattened a Welshman who was promptly dispatched for a concussion test and fed Jean in the next tackle. The pass was way behind but gathered and the captain powered over. Four superb contributions.

After that the Boks played relaxed rugby for the whole tour and never looked in any trouble....they were quietly dominant. Why was this northern tour markedly better than anything from the Boks in recent years? 

Certainly our scrumming was better and our defence was stingy. Our lineout work at times disappointed. And while we scored some fine backline tries....the backs were hardly dominant. I believe it comes down to the breakdown. Fetchers like Warburton were simply blown off the ball as there seemed to be an extra Bok at every breakdown. Odd for a supposedly immobile pack. But when you have structure in your game plan, the players appear in the right places.

It augurs well for 2015.

 ..i liked that first try against FRance...Steyn failed to find touch ....as intended of course...leading to a returned kick charged down and TRY...silenced the crowd and unsettled the French...fortuitous and just as well Lambie was'nt playing as he definitely would have nailed that touchfinder...

...that was the defining try of the tour was'nt it that knocked the stuffing out of the French led to breaking a 16 year jinx against France albeit a complete fluke ...

...way to celebrate your 100 yr anniversary against France anyway...

Mozart

Sloth Alberts ran over them when?   He caught one ball at the back of the line out was in the clear, ran about 10 meters with the ball and was tackled by the first defender he came up against.   Hardly run over anybody.   For the rest he was tackled by the first defender every time he had the ball - with a territory gain of less than 2 meters per carry.

Kindly explain the myth you mentioned above.  

Man of the Match. He has enjoyed his best tour with the Springboks and has been outstanding in every one of the Tests. Very physical again and very strong in the tackle. He also carried the ball well and contributed to the Boks' gainline advantage.

 Mozart

Thanks for the quote - but that type of general comment is meaningless - it is called hype far removed from reality,   I rather believe the actual performances on the field of play mostly supported by the stats.   Those were s follows:-

Alberts

0/0

0

0/0/5

19

0

1

0

0

9/4

0/1

0

0/0

How with those stats a player can get 9 is a real mystery.   Alberts had one reasonable ball carry described above - gaining about 10 meters - the others were totally insignificant,  He made 9 tackles and missed 4.   With a missed tackle ratio of 30%  - totally inacceptable in any game of rugby - he should get a rating of 5/10.

 Mozart sounds like SA dodged a bullet.. but you make your own luck as they say ...unless your the All Blacks then it's pure skill and ruthless efficiency...

First of all Morne is becoming known or it.  A penalty kick is awarded to the Springboks and Morne missed finding touch.   Pietersen followed up the kick quickly and charge down the return kick of Para - the second bugger-up, this time by Para.   So - in the end the Springboks - who never really threatened the tryline of the French later on in the game - won the match because of  double bugger-ups - one by Morne and one by Para.    

 Sun_tsu

He is not the mighty ball carrier he is reputed to be and his defence stinks to high heaven.   That makes him a liability like he was at Ellis Park.

Alberts has a problem - his ball skills are non-existent - he never passes balls and his carries ends up two meters away in mauls.  Normally there is no speedy ball recovery and by the time balls come out - the opposition defence has been organised and it does not create space for his teammates.   He consequently  never has a role in any attack by the Springboks or the Sharks.   

The Sloth has a mindless following that ascribe mighty ball carries to him and huge tackle capacity - but there is no indication that he is successful in either.   Since he is so slow he is easily beaten by opposition players and if he tries to tackle them he is mostly unsuccessful.   In the French test he missed 4 tackles completely - but he did make nine tackles.   There was a huge hoo-haa about his performance in the CC final - but he actually made less tackles than he missed.

Because of the hype I watch Alberts carefully in every match he plays in and he does not do regularly anything he is credited with by the media.   In the French test he got the ball by accident because of a defective line-out throw-in by the French   hooker - he was in the clear and ran about ten meters, got tackled by the French flyhalf and a maul ensued.   The question was - since he was in the clear - why did he not pass the ball to another player who would also be in space allowing for a proper attack to continue?    The answer is simple - he has zip ball handling skills.

As long as e have a player like Alberts in the back row - our loosies will always be at a massive  disadvantage compared to the All Blacks.  I cannot wait for the return of Arno Botha - at least he is a proper loosie.

Sun-Tzu

My friend I am a Shark supporter - have seen too many times how Alberts fail as a loosie while playing for the Sharks and I did not like what I saw.   His record in Super 15 over the last two years was atrocious. .  You need three loosies as you said and Messam, Read and McCaw out played our loosies every time we meet the AB's.

Dominate the breakdowns - another flawed term - they recover their own  tackle ball - but slowly and ineffectively from an attacking perspective.    This is done by other players with Alberts been rarely in evidence.   If you watch the CC final carefully - you will notice that Alberts rarely goes into mauls - he normally is arriving late and hangs around behind the mauls for others to do the work. 

You have sussed out a lot of players mentioned by you - but why is Morne Steyn missing from that list?  After all Stade Francioas has sussed him out and he was foun d wanting.      

 Arizona

Sloth Alberts is and Sloth he will remain.  He is slow and clumsy - the Sloth of the rugby world.  He has another problem - he also has zip ball handling/passing skills - so he is even worse than Sloths are.  

 Mozart

As long as Sloth is in that team - together with Morne. Fourie and Bsakkies Botha - so long we will never beat the AB's - irrespective whether Meyer is trying to make candy from  cattle manure.   He has as much chance of turning  Alberts into a top loosie as he has in achieving the latter.  

 Mozart

As long as Sloth is in that team - together with Morne. Fourie and Bsakkies Botha - so long we will never beat the AB's - irrespective whether Meyer is trying to make candy from cattle manure.   He has as much chance of turning  Alberts into a top loosie as he has in achieving the latter.