The Myth of the Missing Fly Half

You guys are forgetting a few things, but before I go on let me go over some things and set the stage. New Zealand have had three full package fly halves since around the late eightees, fox, mehrtens and carter. The Boks have had Naas, Stransky, Butch and Morne. Australia have had Ella, Lynagh and Larkham. So its pretty much on balance there with the other sanzar sides. New Zealand have had a lot of biit part 10s like brown, spencer and few more i forget their names, south africa pretorius, jaco, de beer, lem and others. Australia giteau, cooper, flately and barnes and now toomua. So its basically raound the same type of output.

So why then are you guys putting so much on your 10s? I have been hearing for years how much your 10s must "get the backline" away but it always ends in failure. goosen and lambie are the next pair to be on the scrap heap, lambie unfairely becaiuse you guys excpect WAAAY too much from your 10s. The cheetahs have got the right balance in how they play the ball because no matter who comes in at 10 they still have the right patterns and fuinctionality to be able to attack anyway! new zealand as well yeah carter is mr big balls and all that but they can still attack hard without him. So why cannot rsa do the same? because you guys do NOT have the centres to compete. Your game is unsophisticated because your centres do make space or create enough deception or threat to MOVE the defence around or manipulate it into CREATING gaps. A 10 that does too much on his own is even EASIER to stopp than an attack trying to work it around!!!!!!!! Think about that for a sec, thinking of cooper here! His worst games are when he tries to do it all on his own and we get our asses shut down totally. No surprise then that the boks play their best rugby ball in hand when you have a more balanced centre pair like Barry and Joubert, Frans and Fourie at the 07 and 11 world cups. You guys just dont produice the centres like australia and new zealand, especially new zealand who produce more test quality centres than the boks do front rowers, centres and 8th men combined! This is the big obstacle for you guys, and having a retread 12 who is really a wing aint going tpo help matters. This is the biggest challenge that meyer has to solve and quickly.
 

 Goosen is the real deal, he's proven himself so in the Super XV and if you think not I suggest you watch all the games he's featured in. The game against the Wallabies in Australia last year, in which he came off the bench in the 60th minute is a omen for things to come.

Goosen was savaged by New Zealand and the Cheetahs havent missed him at all!

 No he wasn't? What made you say that because you couldn't be more wrong, think you'll find Goosen practically beat the Crusaders in Bloem back in 2012. Seeing as Naka has switched between 3 different flyhalves this season (not including Goosen) it's pretty certain the Cheetahs have missed him.

 Actually Goosen looked a lot like Gafie against NZ. That kick from right in front that's duck hooked and just got over the bar. He was very rattled. When and if he comes back, does he have the nerve? Who knows?

 Goosen shouldn't of played for the Boks last year, he's got the ability and such but his body needs maturing to be able to withstand everything. 

Mozart, think you'll find that Goosen was playing with bruised heel, that can affect everything. The fact is that he managed to impress even with this injury shows what a good player he is.

i think that goosen has the potnetial to be one of the best, but IMO he hasnt lived up to that hype, not by a long shot.
he may have showed some nice touches in the handful of appearances he has played for the Boks, but he showed some pretty average moments too, two i can think of that played key roles in conceding trys.
consistency is the key and thats something he hasnt done.
at Bok level he just hasnt had the time and at spXv level, hes missed two thrids of his spXV career to date.
he needs to prove his physically capable of playing at spXV level and then show his body can handle Bok level, cos so far thats been a resounding fail.

plenty of talent and potential, but what good is potential if its going to do nothing but tell what if stories to the nurses in the first aid tent.

@shezza
goosen never played the crusaders in bloemfintein in 2012, it was in christchurch and the cheetahs lost that match. goosen did play very well though.

With the game time he had for the Boks you could not fully assess him, but the few touches he had Goosen showed class. The only average moment that springs to mind is when Whitelock bull dozed over him to score in the Soweto test and that's acceptable as I wouldn't expect any Flyhalf to be able to prevent Whitelock from scoring. 

I must've got mixed up with the Sharks game in Bloem, just watched a highlight video of Goosen.

@shezza,

correct, the gametime he has had means no one can fully asses him, but IMO at Bok level he was as bad as he was good.

its not being able to not stop whitelock that made it average, it was him being down and leaving the Boks line vulnerable which the All Blacks took full advantage of with quick hands leading up to the whitelock bulldozing him, unfair to blame him though, but the fault was his none the less.

the other one was aaron smiths try in dunedin, the breakdown where a smith darts around greyling to sprint away and step in side krichner for a try was 100% goosens fault, he was the only other player there, but not only did he run back into the defnsive line and leave greyling with a horrible mismatch against one of the fastest halves in the comp, but he ran back to the lien and turned his back on that very breakdown.
aaron smith looks up, see greyling  and goose running away with his back turned and kapow, aaron smith gets 5 points.

of course u live and learn, but im sure that if goosen manages to play and get more experienced, im sure he wont make such errors again.

Smith wasn't Goosens man to mark, that try was Dean Greylings fault as he mistackled him if anyone's and a bit of brilliance from Aaron Smith who gave out a decent hand off. 

You may say it was a mis-match but then that would mean it was Pienaar at fault. 

The Whitelock try was right by the touch line, Kieran Read managed to breakthrough and offload to Whitelock who in turn managed to bull doze to the try line despite the efforts of Goosen and Strauss, Goosen was supposed to be there, Taute should've been there.

Goosen shouldn't of been there, it was good awareness by him for noticing the space in which the All Blacks could attack. 

*edit from comment above, things went invisible on me so could edit properly*

 sas for a new zeland guy im very surpised you dont think that gossen has fired while i was over there in january march time playing against some colleges and unis they all sung high praises of goosen saying that they reminded them of dan carter and that he could very easy go passed dan if he stayed healthy! you cant really judge goosen in this years super mainly due to he played like 3 games the sharks one i think he out played lambie with ball in hand but the boot was not there and very simular to the other 2 games! also was the sam whitelock try in sa? because if so am i right in saying goosen was out of position due to the injury to his knee he was trying to avoid contact to prevent further pain while elton could get on! if so it showed balls to go and try and take a guy who is easly 5 stone heavier for the good of the team! but i do agree with ihi we do put the most pessure on our 10s and sometimes do expect some mircales however a 10 is your most important position i dont give a fuck what anyone says you aint got a good 10 you aint got shit! no world cup winning side has had a weak 10 and the lions is a prime example of it connor playing out of position at 10 showed he couldnt hack it and messed up on many occasions! maybe he expect to much but your 10 is key to winning!  

@shezza,
each to their own, but at high school level in NZ, it was basic fundamentals to not leave gaps around the fringes of any breakdown, goosen not only left a gap, he did it with his back turned meaning he had no chance to react when smith sniped his run perfectly.
greyling maybe be a meatsack, but no prop would stand a chance against any halfback who had that much room to move in a one on one.

@keganzulusmith,
ive too have siad in the past that goosen reminds me of carter, but when u miss 2/3 of ur rugby career to date, it makes me seriously question his bodys ability to handle this level.
but i think i was being harsh now that i think about his spXV career some more, he really has been outstanding in most of the spXV games he has played, but not so much the Boks with game time being the main but not the only factor.