The result of the Talkshops

SARU was talking about player performances and playing a more ball in hand game - rather than the rubbish dished up last year.   So how effective were those talk shops?   I would give the franchises points out of 10 on that issue:-
Stormers   -   8Cheetahs   -   6Lions         -   6Sharks      -    5Bulls         -    5Kings        -    4
So where did the problems occur?  
Stormers
The backline as very effective.   I was most impressed by the performances of Du Plessis, De Allende, Viljoen and Marais.  
The center combination flourished with De Allende being a completely different player from what he was last year.   He had an extremely effective partner in Viljoen - who was really a massive improvement on De Jongh.
Viljoen had 9 carries making 52 meters and De Allende 9 carries making 63 meters.   Viljoen also created a try by Kolbe.   The latter is a clever player and a real eye-opener in playing at center.   The to players also made 17 tackles missing 2. 
Du Plessis seemed to have picked up some extra muscle in the off-season and was very effective a flyhalf - also showed some real thinking ability - eg the Kolisi try.
Cheetahs
Although to some extent hampered by an in-effective forward display, I was impressed by  Zeilinga and the centers of the Cheetahs as well as Raymond Rule on the wing.  Blommetjies was also effective at full back. 
Lions 
Jantjies was the saboteur of the  of the Lions backline - he was totally poor and utterly useless.    When attacking in the opponents 22 Jantjies moved to center and was not first receiver -  what was he reason for that?   So was Mnisi when he was on the field of play.  The Lions backline actually improved when jantjies was replaced by Van der Walt.     
Van Rensburg was exceptional and when Vorster came on he was very effective as well.  
I would play Combrinck and Mapoe on the wing and Van der Walt at flyhalf - with Coetzee at full back.
Cronje is also better at scrummie than De Klerk.
The Bulls
The Bulls backline was destroyed by a extremely poor performance by Pollard.   Is he another Fat Fransie - top promise as a youngster goin sour early as well?   His passing and kicking game was poor and his reading of the game virtually non-existent.   There is massive  room for improvement here and one hope he does improve.
On the whole the backline was not effective as a result of Pollard - but that can also change..   The Sharks
Although Lambie was effective the Sharks has a problem at center and the combination was not effective at all.  

       


    

Tokkie....... Pollard has come back from a severe knee injury and an infection from the surgery that almost killed him......it's his first game in 15 months. Show some decency will you.

 OK - Pollard was rusty - but that showed with a string of poor passes and kicks.
I was very disappointed in his game f or an entirely different reason and that is not a sign of rustiness.   Pollard  showed no ability to read the game and make good decisions.  
Physical rustiness can be overcome through game time - the reading of the game and decision-making is not so easy to rectify.   Maybe he would and I hope so - but what I have seen of him on Saturday put him on par with Fat Fransie and he must be careful - he can go sour if he does not improve.