It was particularly interesting to watch the CC games this weekend - especially since there are some players that served in the Springbok squad and was on display. There are other interesting younger players that I follow to see how they shape up.
The Lions - Griquas game. This was a very interesting and nice game to watch and the player that I watched in particular was Jantjies. Last week against WP - he made two criitial bugger-ups that could easily have led to tries by WP. This week he was much, much worse - he fumbled balls, gave many hospital passes that put the Lions on the back foot and he was defensively poor. Jantjies problem is the few - (normally sideways) steps he takes before passing the ball to the next player. He once tried a line break - but in the process lost the ball. He was by far the worst performer in the Lions team. No wonder he was replaced halfway through the second half. After his replacement the Lions backline started to function better and the result was two brilliant backline tries. This one is all hype - and I believe that I am entitled to ask what the hell was he doing in the Springbok squad if he cannot perform satisfactorily on CC level.
The Sharks - Cheetahs game. The Sharks barely managed a win - but the scoreline should have been much bigger in their favour - but for a serious of poor play by Ludick, Viljoen, McCleod and Botes. The latter had a horrible game giving away a try as a result of poor ball handling as well as numerous penalties. Ludick interfered needlessly when Jordaan made a break and would have scored a very good try and made a number of other errors. Viljoen and McCleod tried too much and the result was often that balls died with them. The result was neutralizing of the Sharks backline. Jordaan could have scored a try - but for the stupidity of Ludick. He "made" the last try of the Sharks through a brilliant break and the only reason he did not score was because he was ankle-tapped. However, he off-loaded brilliantly and the result was an inevitable try. Daniel had a very good game and it was evident that he remains a top-class player.
The Province - Bulls game. There is no doubt that blessings rained upon the Province team. The main one was that De Jongh was not there to neutralize their backline play. Their backline functioned brilliantly and they scored three very good backline tries. That shows what a bad affect De Jongh has on their backline performance. They over-shadowed the Bulls completely. The players I looked at in this game was Engelbrecht, Aplon, Kruger, Serfontein and CJ Stander. The problem for Engelbrecht and Serfonetin was they never really got quality ball from their forwards. In essence whilst Serfontein at least tried some things and defended well - Engelbrecht did nothing of note and his defence was really also not up to standard. Aplon was solid - but for one bad mistake he made when he stood back and allowed a high ball to bounce in front of him - the ball never arrived and that nearly caused a try for the Bulls, Stander was part of a sub-par forward combination that was completely outplayed by the Province front-rankers. Kruger in particular was POOR in capital letters. Of the younger players I was particularly impressed by Elstadt, the young center Du Plessis (who replaced the normally pedestrian De Jongh) and the hooker they brought in to replace Fourie - who was moved to no 6 flank. Du Plessis was better than every other backline player on dsplay and is a star in the making, The young hooker played an extremely good game and he was MOM.
The above raise a serious questions about Meyer's selection criteria. If he can select Kruger, De Jongh, Jantjies and Engelbrecht for the Springbok squad - the real question is whether his selections are based on performance or on hype. When players selected by him come back and disgrace themselves on CC-level, there is really a major problem in evidence.
