The Jaguares wiped the floor with the Brumbies

The Jaguares finally proved that they are too good a team to be ignored by rugby supporters and they are through to the final.     They comprehensively beat the Brumbies and the great display of the Brumbies really showed how poor the Sharks were last week.   The Sharks defense last week was non-existent and it was indeed a surprise that there were any Sharks players in the Erasnus squad,  

The Jaguares may have a home final if the Hurricanes beat the Crusaders in the second semi - but the sart money is on the Crusaders winning that game - so my guess is a Crusaders-Jaguares final in Christchu rch,    

Great to see.

I expected this.

Hope they can take it all the way.

When you look at the Jags you see a well oiled machine, well coached and playing smart rugby. 

There is Zero the Jags do that any SA side couldn't also do. 

In our teams there is.very very obviously a lack of smarts. 

Further we can never build a team as there is now a steady exodus of players going overseas. Not just old players but star players. 

Nothing is being done to sort out our problems either. 

So all we can hope for this year is that Rassie, a genuinely good coach, can by some miracle salvage something from this year's Super Rugby debacle.

Depending on who  is fit I reckon Rassie can select a good team. 

I would love to see Rassie's team without the enforced quotas.

It would be a cracker of a side.

A merit side would be better. 

That said the merit downside not as great as it was. 

Of last year's team, here are the non-white players: 

Nche, Ralapelle, Mohoje, Jantjies, Mapimpi, Ismaiel, Bosch, Notsche, Gelant, Orie, Papier, Mtawarira, Mbonami, Kolisi, Am, Nkosi, Dyantyi, Willemse, Mapoe, Kolbe. 

Of these players Mapimpi, Kolbe, Mbonami, Mtawarira, Mapoe, Am, Dyantyi (before EOYT) were especially successful.

Nche, Ralapelle, Mohoje, Ismaiel, Orie, Gelant only played one test. The opener against Wales. For the most part, they did their job in a game where they more than held their own. The game was lost through two consecutive charge downs via Robert du Preez for a game winning try. It should be pointed out that all of these non-whites outplayed the whites who replaced them for the last game against Wales! Kwagga Smith was the worst Bok on the day. The sheer volume of wasted minutes eclipses the two Robert charge downs, even though that lost the game. 

Of the non-whites, Kolisi, Willemse, Nkosi and Notsche were abject failures. Notsche was a lazy loafer and Kolisi was pretending to be a forward for a few phases per game. Willemse contributed an intercept try and a huge positional gaff in the home loss to New Zealand and failed to spark any attacking from 15 at Twickenham. Nkosi's positional sense was completely absent. Good in the air, scored a few walk-in tries, otherwise nothing. 

Of the non-whites, we find the worst players have the strongest support. Interesting. Willemse was a sure thing. We even had calls to drop Pollard for Willemse or start him at 12. Most asserted Pollard should move to 12 for Willemse. Kolisi was a great leader and contributor around the field. Better at the breakdown than Louw. Apparently. There were even some excuses for Notche. A certain someone labelling him "a class act". Papier had one good game and one poor game. I won't deal to harshly with him. 

Who were some of our other flubs? Damian is an easy one, Kriel another, Lood, van Staden, Willie had a couple of poor tests. Faf was very sketchy, especially with the boot. Marx was poor throwing, Steph missed a lot of tackles and many defensive situations weren't even accounted for by the stats. He was overpowered after the Twickenham test with ease. Pollard got better as the season went on, as to be expected after such a lengthy absence. Mostert was invisible in the second Puma test. 

So, when we actually break it down, we don't have a glaring problem with quotas holding the side down. The only quota who is a problem is Kolisi, but he is well supported. Many spat their dummy out last season when I singled him out. 

When you get to complain about Marx and Du Toit my hands go up. 

Nkosi gets stuck in. One could go on player by player. 

I rate Marx as world class, but he was far from perfect last year. I'd say his best contribution was at the breakdown, where he didn't concede a single penalty all year for the Boks. He botched a couple of try scoring opportunities as well. The point being though, we do not have a quota problem, in spite of the fact that the entire quota system is worthless. 

There were tests where Steph missed as much as 40% of the defensive situations he was involved in. I posted a video of the away All Black test, where he was routinely baited and exposed. None of those moments were captured by the stats. He is not a secure defender and our opponents know it. The manner in which he was handled by the NH teams is cause for concern. He had two very strong games. I'd say the home Wallaby test was his best, where I can't think of one error all game. He was solid at Twickenham. 

Nkosi has grown as the Super rugby season has progressed. He wasn't playing like that for the Boks last year. We'll see what he does this year for Rassie.