Top locks of all time....ranked

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1778736-ranking-the-best-6-locks-in-rugby-history

Matfield at his prime was a top  lock and nobody ever disputed that.   His return from retirement was an unmitigated disaster for his reputation and the Springboks.      

Victor was brought in because the next generation was uncompetitive. Lood, Kruger, Steph et al were hopeless, amongst others. Victor's last campaign successfully exposed Lood. Victor was top quality. 

And he was less competitive than they  were and was a disaster when it came to any element of performance - even in line outs he turned out badly.    Despite all the warning signs Meyer was stupid enough to select him for the WC squad,   He was even poor against Japan and that says a lot.    By 2015 Meyer was scraping the bottom of the barrel insofar as the Matfield was concerned and  he effectively became  one  of the 8 unplayable players in the squad.        

I’m guessing one of the 6 best locks of all time was money whenever he played.....proven by his MOM in the WC 2015 3rd place match. Lomp was the disaster gifting Kaino a try in the semi.

Victor, Schalk, Kirchner were three of the best players against Japan. Where was Steph? Kriel? Coenie? Lambie? Lood? 

Coenie was on the bench with a yellow card.....apart from Kriel’s pathetic missed tackle that was the incident that lost the Japanese  game. I’ve noticed everybody is blamed except the two guys who actually are mainly culpable.

The misfits do not realize that it was not one incident that lost the Japan test in 2015 - it was a series of blunders by the over-the-hill players - most of whom should not have been in the WC squad.    Among  those were Matfield  as well.       

Wanker what you are not processing is regardless of what anybody else did, the match was still going to be won until Coenie got his card and even then it was likely going to be won until Kriel tackled like a girl.

Is there a flicker of understanding or is it still too hard to grasp?

Mozart

There should never against Japan have been a point difference of    less than 7 points in any test against Japan - a team that was much weaker than their 2019 counterparts in any event,   In 2019 the Springboks played the much stronger Japanese team and the smallest point difference in those tests were 23 points.

No excuse Mozart for the loss resulting from a string of f#ck-ups by especially the senior players in the team.   That is the real situation and basing the loss of the game on one incident is as simplistic as most if not all your rugby postings normally are on this site,

If my auntie had balls she would have been my uncle.   You cannot dispute the fact that the game was horribly buggered up from the beginning by the Springboks  and that gave the Japanese a chance to win.   After the game Jones said the Japanese used a move against the Springboks which should have been covered  if  they had proper defense coaching  and he expressed surprise about the try - FACT,

However, how the hell do you account for the Springboks being only 5 points ahead near the end of the game - then fuck up the defense totally for a try being scored?    Those ae facts you totally disregard and become simplistic when trying to dilute the facts surrounding the whole game.

The positive from that loss is that it was the final reason that convinced SARU not to renew the Meyer contract and save SA Rugby from further embarrassment and decline.   I sometimes wonder why you never attacked Meyer - even when he was a disastrous coach - but you are constantly  attacking Erasmus from the time that he as appointed, - to my mind that is a sick situation.   

Will have to ask a doctor friend of mine  - I am getting worried about you having Stupidity Disease  attacks all the time.   You urgently needs help.  

 No, given your proclivities she would have been more of a man than your uncle. Look at Kriel’s face...he knows he has just lost the game.

Sorry, but Kriel did not lose the game - the team did and the team played horribly badly in the full match.      

Kriel directly blows the defence and we concede a game losing try, but it was all Matfield, Schalk and Kirchner's fault. Great logic. The yellow card and try don't count. Typical logic. 

No dimness

Your logic is BS as per normal.   The Springboks played a much weaker Japan side in 2015 than their  2019 world cup side.    How the hell could the team allow the Japanese  to be within 5 points from the Springboks in 2015 -  a 5 point win against that Japan side would also have been  a disgrace.

It happened because the unplayable oldies buggered up badly throughout the game.     Meyer was a shit coach - but he wanted the forwards to control the Japanese,  He therefore had two issues,   Pass the ball mostly to Burger and not the flyhalf and enforce driving mauls.   While Burger knocked on \balls constantly giving away scrums - Matfield decided that driving mauls were for the birds.     Bismarck  also decided that he can make the rules and play accordingly so a string of penalties went against him.   

The whole game was a farce played in accordance with a farcical so-called game plan.    The only player who stood out on the day was De Jager - the rest was rubbish.

However, the loss had two consequences, namely -

*   since the loss meant that the Springboks had to win every other round-robin match,  and since the squad contained 8 unplayable players - there were no rest matches for the 23 playable players and by the time the play-offs came, the  frontline players were totally tired out  and less effective than they otherwise would have been; and 

*    the result was the final straw that led  to SARU deciding not to renew the Meyer contract  to save SA Rugby from inevitable demise. 

They buggered up badly by appointing an equally poor coach to replace him  and it took them 18 months to realize that as was the case with Meyer - same was the case with Coetzee,   Both were total  failures as coaches.   

To put the matter in real perspective the Springboks in 2019 played the much stronger Japanese side - that even got to the play-offs by beating Scotland and Ireland - by huge margins with the smallest winning margin being 23 points in the quarterfinals.

To blame Kriel for the loss is typical of Mozart and you - cover up the muck of the other players and the deficiency of a defective game plan that Matfield ignored is typical of you and Mozart.   Start thinking for a change as to what really happened and you may yet be showing a bit of unexpected thinking ability.     .                       

"It happened because the unplayable oldies buggered up badly throughout the game."

How many more times? You are the most boring, errant, petulant and childish poster I have ever seen. 

AO

Even though I try to get some sense into you insofar as rugby is concerned - it seems to be an exercise in futility,    However,  take the team against Japan and see how many of them got virtual starting game time afterwards,   Then see how much game time all the players had in he series.   

Two of the players who became unplayable was two who should for different reasons not have been in the squad at all - De Villiers and Matfield.   Be it is it may ultimately it was the coach and his foolish selections that caused the main problem.  

I saw Meads and  McBride playing and they were at the time top class locks.  Whether they would be the same should they have played in the professional era they might mot have been that great,   Both were 6'4" and both weighed 102 kgs.    They could perhaps make the scale of loosies nowadays.  

Very difficult to make selections like that stretching back to before 1995 when the s port became professional/

Talking about Matfield - being comparatively light in weightn at 108  kgs - he was easily lifted in line-outs and that was his special ability,   From the Tight 5 perspective he was physically not strong enough to be competitive, and Bakkies was the real lock that kept the Tight 5 going,                  

Another sneak attack on Matfield....I remember when you said the Bok tight head was suffering with Matfield behind him, only for me to point out Matfield was behind the loose head. A liar and a fool.

No Mozart

No sneak attack - just the real situation.    Matfield was physically not strong enough to compete in Tight 5 situations,  He made his name on line-out play and in fiddling around in the backline - even Bakkies remarked about that,     Was he a top lock to be included in a list like the .above is debatable - but as I stated such a list is always also debatable.

The game has changed over the last 50 years and the physical aspects now is vastly differen t from the 1970's,     .   

Must agree that the locks mentioned performed well in their day but Matfield was a disaster after he was recalled for the WC.

Locks that also should get a mention are:

Mark Andrews

G, Thorpe

Jan Pickard

and the one and only the great one the gentle giant Frik Du Preez.  

In his autobiography Matfield claimed his playing weight was 108 kgs,  Be it as it may his thin legs earning him the nickname  Kiewiet probably was the reason for his relatively low weight,   

Matfield was our premier lock for the WC, Eben coming close. The disaster was the Lood: Hands of stone, slow, ponderous, lethargic and untalented. Next was the Steph who Andrews said we should build our campaign around. Such egg that flowed that year. 

Matfield was as useless as possible in the 2015 WC  and played exactly in two matches and loafed through start of a third one.   He was the worst lock in that series and contributed to the loss against Japan - at least the Spnngboks were kept in contention by a very good try by the De Jager, and in the semi against the AB's.   The latter was a farce - he came on at lock and lost the first line-out on SA throw,   He then tried a neck wrestle with a AB player and caused a turnaround in a very kickable penalty.   Despite the fact that he was not the best player in the Bronze medal game against the Argentine B team - he was made MOM as a farewell gesture.

The best lock by some distance was De Jager.   Matfield was unplayable and his minimal game time he did play caused De Jager to play in every test and that is not the situation players in a WC should ever be in.  The egg that flowed that year was all around the loss against Japan and the resultant effective firing of Meyer by SARU.   

The 2019 WC team in the final would have beaten the Meyer lot by a cricket score,   You remain the dumbest idiot on board - keep it up, you are always good for as good laugh.  

Cite one instance where Victor made one mistake or negative contribution to the Bok effort that day. If you want useless, look no further than the Welsh test: Lood was bullied and blew two try-scoring chances in the red zone with poor handling. We were nearly knocked out because he couldn't man-up when it mattered most. Surprise surprise, Twickenham 2018, Lood comes on, gets knocked around like a teddy-bear. We are attacking hard and he again knocks on in the red zone. Lost a lineout to Japan in 2015. Such shame. You get the stuffing knocked out of you in every exchange because you are a liar who lies out of your big, far liar hole. 

Listen dimness  I gave you three examples and cannot help if you cannot read or understand plain English.    Nobody ever knocked around De Jager in any match and your  assessment is made up imagination again.   The only player knocked around that day after he came on the field was Esterhuizen who isolated himself and then lost possession of the ball.    

Dave 

I do not know how AO comes up with the garbage he writes on this  site - the good players he rates as poor and the poor players he rates as good -  he must be  a replica of Meyer because he is as poor in performance assessment of players as Meyer is.   He is either a total idiot who knows  nothing about the game or he is trying to stir up controversy on site.    

I can clearly remember that Supersport in 2015 ran a series about selection in various positions which showed that before the WC Meyer  was waffling  about badly and nobody had an idea whom should be in the WC and who should not be -  please note their was not a similar program in 2019 -  the squad was as clear as daylight months before the selection announcement was made,  

However, back to  2015 when the lock issue was discussed on TV and the selections was proposed by two previous locks.   They did not even mention Matfield as a recommended selection and neither did anyone else,   The media at the time was so shocked by the squad announcement of some names and they challenged  Meyer about some selections and  he then stated that he is aware of what players were capable of in the past and his selections were based on that,  Present performances counted for nothing and some of the duds he selected did not play any rugby for more than 16 months before the WC,   

The 2015 WC squad had at least a third of the squad who should never have been in the squad - to my mind it was the worst WC squad ever selected by any SA coach,  

More utter tripe from Wanker.....this ‘worst’ WC squad beat at least as formidable a Welsh  team and missed the final and probably the WC by 2 points....playing what is probably NZ’s best team in the professional area. Wanker you are an old never has been in control of about half your faculties.

Dave..   Lood played in the WC semi where we exited, almost for the whole game....and was run over by Kaino. One of two tries conceded ...I suppose Matfield was responsible for that try?

He was great but he got run over....sure, got it!

Mozart

The three reasons for my statement are as follows:-

*   There were at least 8 unplayable players in the squad,

*   The loss against Japan - in itself a disgrace - had  nasty consequences  - since another loss would have eliminated SA from the series,    So Meyer effectively limited the real squads to 23 players from 31.    

*    A WC allows for 31 players - the idea being  that each player would get some  rest games in the series,  There were no rest games for the  playable Springboks given a rest and by the time they reached the playoffs the players were tired out,  In 2019  all  the players had  plenty game time and the main team players had in the main two rest games.           

If  the 2015 WC squad came from proper team selection  not providing for unplayable players the team could have done better,    And the Japan loss  would have been avoided.

Lomp....ball in hand vs Wales in 2015, 11 runs no defenders beaten, no breaks,  7 metres and he lost the ball twice. I am in awe!

A Springbok squad led by Siya Kolisi, that combines youth with some hardened experience, has been confirmed for South Africa’s seventh assault on the Rugby World Cup title.