Yesterday was a typical example that some teams do not have the will to win and consequently play negative rugby -especially when their opponents upped their game and shows determination and guts.
It happened in the case of the Hurricanes, the Sharks and the Bulls. Typical examples involved are the tendency to kick away balls and not to know when to pass balls and play positive rugby. The teams looked disinterested and tired.
The Sharks were a case in point. They never really had a functional backline this year and showwed a different side when Lambie was ta flyhalf - especially the first game in the Super series looked completely different. The second game was a fiasco where the backline was totally absent from the game and since then the provess just got worse and worse.
The reuslt is the low number of tries scored by the backline players. Where they did it was rare if more than one backline player was involved and was largely the result of individual efforts. The Sharks seemed to concentrate on defence and that concentration cost them dearly in the games they lost. The situation has been to aimlessly and without proper thinking kick away balls that should be passed and pass balls that should be kicked.
In the case of the Sharks it wqwas clear that the main problem is a total void in thinking rugby and there are clear indications who the main culprit is. In the case of the Bulls it is somewhat different. Their center combination was in the main harmless with especially JJ Engelbrecht being very poor in attacking play. To this was added yesterday an absolute lack of thinking play and poor ball handling as well.
Yet the main culprits are all in Meyer's squad - so one thing is obvious - there is no desire on the part of Meyer to address this hopelessly poor problem. We are in for a tough rad ahead and the si gns are anything but positive.
