The greatest locks of our time....

World Cup final Man of the Match Victor and his good compadre Bakkies. With all the   fan venom sloshing around on this Board, I thought I'd post the image to remind folks of our greatest player since readmission. Victor has never brought one off note to besmirch South African sport....I can't remember one test we lost because of him and plenty we have won. In most countries his longevity would be celebrated not resented, its a shame so many South African fans can't find it in themselves  to behave with as much dignity as he does.

Yep one of the best of all time as was Bakkies but he is blighting his status by still playing as he is now nothing short of a bloody physical liability.

Its really sad to see him still playing......it reminds me of the great Danie Gerber pushing it beyond his time.......very sad.

My lasting memory of Matfield will be of the crap player he now is  

Yes Bloo I would play Matfield ahead of Steph he remains our smartest forward ....as Matfield clearly demonstrated by outplaying Steph  when they went head to head, according to every expert except the "experts" on this site. A fact that has been conveniently forgotten with comments like "PSDT the form lock of the tournament".

Hell our St ormers Bargie lock took his lineout ball right on the Stormers line as Victor did at Loftus.

How the fuck did Matfield outplay PSDT in their head to head.....what utter fucking rubbish.....its bloody insulting to say as much.

Imagine selecting Vic over PSDT.......its the kind of selection our useless Bok coach will make......and the reason he is a loser

Moz we bark because you are speaking crap...starting by saying that Matfield out played PSDT in the head to head this year......it was not even close as has been well documented.......unless gaining 6m in a whole game, beating no defenders in the process or taking 1 line out all game and conceding one is the measure of a player that outplayed his opponent who gained 28m in the same game, beat defenders in the process and took more line out ball.

It was not even close.....much like Matfield being a factor in the line-outs still, its simply not true and its all based on the historic fact that he was great in the line-outs in his day. In the games to date, his line-out work has been no better than the next lock.

He is a physical liability and as correctly pointed out its no co-incidence that the Bok pack has lost the physical edge and with it the results since Matfield joined the ranks.

Check the stats since Vic joined the Boks......we lost 4 of the 9 tests played against major rugby sides.

Vic is a physical liability.......in the modern game, you cant afford to have a lock playing like a linking flanker.  Hell we might as well have Luke Watson playing lock for the Boks.

Vic is joining the line nicely and making nice open field tackles.......that's not the role of a lock.......we need our locks clearing out rucks, smashing players back in the tackle, going on the charge and making a physical impression.......providing grunt in the scrums and mauls.....something Etzebeth, Willemse, PSDT, Jacques du Plessis etc do

Wrong Moz, not a single commentator said that Matfield out played PSDT......it would be impossible given the stats quoted. The foolish commentators at first thought that Matfield was the one stealing all the line-outs and then conceded that they were wrong as he had only stolen one with du Plessis and one other stealing one each.

Matfield only took one line out ball all game and had one stolen off him.

He gained all of 6m all game......so how on earth could he have outplayed PSDT given he took more line out ball, had one steal and gained 28m on the day beating defenders in the process? Its not possible.

As for the Bok scrum being weaker, of course it is.....we failed to win the physical battles partly because we have a physical liability in Matfield on board.

He is different these days.......in his prime he had muscled up to a respectable 113kg, we now see him down as 105kg......big difference. In his prime we saw all the open field play plus his share of the grunt work.......the grunt has gone and he is no longer the master of the line-out.

He is a huge liability in the Bok side......in fact he is our weakest link  

The pretender to Matfield is Sharks No5 lock Pieter-Steph du Toit. And on Saturday Matfield was against the master and Du Toit had to be content with the role of apprentice.

It isn’t the first time in Matfield’s distinguished career that he has been written off. It also won’t be the last time questions will be asked, within the media and by the public, about his potential World Cup contribution this year.

Matfield was the player of the match in the Springboks’ 2007 World Cup win against England. He has been the best No5 lock in the professional era and he is rated by peers as the most complete No 5 lock. Matfield’s understanding of lineout play and his contribution to restarts are unrivalled among locks in SA and, in his prime, in Tests.

If one were to ever look for a titan of South African rugby, the nearest stop would be to look to Victor Matfield, who, at 37 years old is still playing good rugby for the Bulls and many would hope he still does for the Springboks.

Dubbed as one of the best number 5 locks in the world, Matfield has not lost his touch. He is known for starting campaigns slowly and then picking up as the season goes on and this season was no different. Writers took to their pens and said he is racing against time and was even said to be ‘playing like an old man’.

Matfield, who has always been an embodiment of positive talk in the media did not respond to any pieces written, instead he stood tall against the Sharks at Loftus and did the same against the Cheetahs with the former  match seeing him play against the esteemed heir to the Boks number 5 lock throne, Pieter-Steph du Doit. Matfield schooled the young lad and showed him why he [du Doit] still has a lot to learn from Matfield.

Now England is a very unfortunate example for you Moronic. The Poms scored two maul tries when Victor was off.....offset by a clever piece of work from MOM Schalk Burger. One of the maul tries came from 30 plus metres out.

My guess is that's a distance record for a maul try against the Boks....stunning evidence of just how much Victor was missed.

To  keep this a little competitive, avoid shooting yourself in the foot....hahaha. How stupid does Moronic have to be to bring up that example!