Given the complete and utter shit I have read about JJ's performance yesterday by some clearly one eyed posters, I feel compelled to put the record straight here and challenge anyone to go watch that game again and come back and tell me JJ had a poor game, was a weakness and best of all cost us 21 points.......I have read some shit in my time but this takes the cake.
Sas, a Kiwi supporter was spot on, JJ was awesome with ball in hand. I watched that game again and JJ had his best game for the Boks by some distance, that break of his that left Savea for dead was awesome.......it was the perfect in out and he beat him on the outside, picked up the pace, drew the defender perfectly and put Willie into space passing to his left.......Willie came so close to scoring only having Morne cock it up trying to pick it up going over the line.
Moz's take on JJ's performance is the biggest load of nonsense I have read in ages, sorry bud, but true. The stats speak for themselves for a start..........JJ gained 97m, made 1 clean break, beat 4 defenders and made 2 off loads and on the negative side, missed 1 tackle thanks to Morne being the inside defender missing Barrett first......but surprise, surprise JJ gets blamed for that one. Compare JJ's stats to Conrad Smith who ran all of 26m, made zero clean breaks, beat zero defenders and missed 2 tackles, one of which was on JJ.
Here is a true take on JJ's performance:
55 seconds......he tackles Conrad Smith
2.50 min......he receives pass from Willie, runs well at pace, draws the defender perfectly and puts Jean into space.....had Jean not slipped we might have got close to scoring.
6.18 min......receives ball and at pace attacks Read on the outside, draws Savea perfectly and puts Willie into space.
10.49 min.......he and Vermeulen smash Whitelock
13.29 min.......takes flat pass off Morne at pace and goes straight through Conrad Smith to set up next phase. Conrad Smith owned by JJ
13.58 min.......takes a high pass from Willie on the touchline and gets taken into touch.
21.15 min........he stops Nonu along with another defender
24.55 min........he and Kirchner take out Savea
35 min.......runs a great line at pace and tries to take a flat pass from du Preez that was delivered behind him.........according to Moz, he should have taken this and scored......yeah right!!! Had the pass been like the flat one he took off Morne and ran through Smith......then yes, we could say he should have taken it.......du Preez's pass was behind JJ and JJ was in traffic.
40 min.......this is a Moz classic here. According to Moz, JJ should have slowed down here. Well we have Jean his captain looking to attack, JJ runs a great inside line off Jean, takes the pass, steps Cruden, beats Nonu initially but goes down and places the ball, with du Preez and Kolisi right there with him. Sadly Read gets the better of the situation thanks to no pressure being put on him by du Preez or Kolisi and Read scoops the ball out which goes bouncing back some distance. Now according to Moz, JJ after this great break is responsible for the Kiwi try that resulted......I kid you not!!
41.44 min......steps Conrad Smith and is tackled by McCaw, placing the ball well to set up next phase.
45.18 min.......receives ball from Jean steps nicely getting past Smith initially and goes down setting the ball well for next phase.
49 min......this is JJ's classic bit of centre play in the match, mouth watering stuff.....goes inside Savea throwing him off balance and then leaves him for dead on the outside. Picks up pace and then perfectly draws the defender and delivers the perfect pass to Willie on his inside......it was a good long pass to his wrong side. So much for JJ being predictable and only having pace and stepping inside. That bit of play blew that label out the water.
56 min......takes ball from Strauss and runs hard at defence, setting up next phase.
60 min.......the Barrett miss, yes he missed Barrett but that was thanks to first Jean, who makes a complete hash of rushing up and trying to tackle him. Then we had Morne, who was Barrett's inside marker. Morne makes a pathetic attempt at tackling Barrett by going high. JJ would have expected first Jean, then Morne to make that tackle so he was never fully committed and his attempt was poor in the end. But circumstances dictated that and JJ was certainly not responsible for that try.............Morne was and thats a fact.
67 min........he tackles Dagg
68 min........receives the ball in traffic and gets tackled, setting next phase up
76 min........good inside out run and sets up next phase
77 min........takes the ball wide and he and Jean lack communication and he ends up popping a forward pass to Jean.
That is hardly the performance of a weak link. Moz with all due respect, you were speaking complete shit. JJ might have had 3 quieter games previously but with ball in hand he announced his international arrival yesterday against the best side in the game. As Sas said, he was awesome, just like Jean was.
Just on another few points, I cannot begin to see why Serfontein was out of his depth given he only got the ball once or twice and was out of position on the wing.
I also struggled to see your point regarding Coenie......with him at 3, the scrum stood as firm as it had all game. Not bad considering he had the less physical Strauss at 2 and the liability in Steenkamp at 1.