There has been a funny evaluation of the performances of Esterhuizen and Steyn on the case of the first ion site and in the case of the second in the media and on site. Much hype in both cases.
Esterhuizen was involved in carrying the ball for about 5 meters in the case of the Janties first try. Positive - but not entirely impactful - the real work was done by Nkosi and ultimately Jantjies. For the rest he was good in whatever tackles he made - bit was too often absent from the defensive line leaving tackles to be made by especially forwards. On the negative side he made four serious errors costing the Springboks dearly, namely -
* the knock on of the ball at roundabout minute 13;
* the intercept afterwards was good - but the subsequent directly into touch kick was poor;
* the tripping of the pacier Du Toit in following up a kick of himself; and
* the illegal tackle on Banks and resultant yellow card.
His absence from the field had a direct impact on defense in the case of the Haylett- Petty try.
In the case of Steyn - even though Pakie claimed differently and saw two tackles supposedly made by Steyn - in the 28 minutes he was playing he made no tackles and missed one. He charged up out of line to defend and the ball carrier dodge him with ease resulting in a major gap in defense which Beale ran through with ease - resulting in the Foley try. He did carry the ball 6 times and crashballed every time. He only made one pass and one off-load in the whole 28 minutes he was on the field. In only one case the ball came back effectively and Jantjies used that ball to score his second try. In the other five cases the ball was recovered - but very slowly.
There was a huge write up about Steyn in the media and on site - but will Erasmus be influenced by that? Doubt it very much - he would evaluate things objectively and the two perhaps may get one more chance to show whether they can perform acceptably before the WC squad is announced. If what happened on Saturday is repeated they will not be in the squad at all.
