Victor Matfield was a better player against Oz in the RWC......

.....than he was when he first donned the Bok jersey. Likewise F du Preez, likewise John Smit. Forwards generally get better over time, so do half backs and inside centres. The positions that show declines are wings and outside centre. Hell at 15 Monty was better than ever in that 2007 RWC final.....bloody magnificent.

So what's the rush with introducing new players. Already thinking about the 2015 RWC? Hell haven't we had enough of living in the future. Let's live for today and win the 2012 TN! Let's keep the core of our RWC team, we have none better.

I have to disagree. 12 has been the weakest link for all of the past four years. The only opposite he outplayed was the highly mediocre McCabe. Fourie has been in fine form.

Regarding the rest, I agree very much. Matfield and co were colossal. In fact, I have never seen the Boks dominate Australia to that extent before and the men most vilified were the tallest figures. There is definitely a contradiction in what the media are trying to sell; a team for the future that will win everything right now. It just doesn't work. I also do not agree in picking 'form players' either. We all saw how Straeuli and Viljoen fared with selection musical chairs, never selecting the same side consecutively in four years! Identify your best, play your best and identify the next best in a carefully orchestrated procession plan. Jake had it right and had only one iffy year in his four year reign.
 

It's amazing how so few people understand that Jake's insistence on a stable team, not the flavour of the day, brought our rugby back from the brink.

Moz and Card, seems neither of you can get it right re the center position. Jean had a great WC and Jaque was just fine.

As for lardy and wee victoria how much better would we have been if we had Bissie starting and had a decent lock to replace the show pony victor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It would have been a totally complete massacre.

Fourie Du Preez had a poor world cup but that may have been because of his lackof game time etc. He is currently 29 so not too old.

I hear the bulle are doing fine without wee victoria. What a blessing for them that he is gone! Most overated player in the history of the game. The supreme con artist - but of course has never fooled Beeno.

Bet he pulled the wool over the eyes of ou maaik! Well at least Dave now knows victoria is a 107 kg stringbean but still finds it hard to admit wee victoria never cut it as as tight forward. Airlight matfield- how true.

Jean had a very poor World Cup. His ONLY good game against, as I have stated many times, the woefully inept McCabe. That being the first time he has outclassed an opposite number since the second Aussie test in 2005. Bismarck made very little impact, but smit showed class all over the park. Great hands and linking play, rock solid defence and made the hard yards in carrying the ball up solidly in heav traffic. Bismarck's best two carries coming on the wing. One against Fiji and the other Australia. He made zero impact anywhere and actually weakened our powerful scrum. It seems living on the wing making bursts against wings in space is how he and Beast have built their reputations. It didn't work against New Zealand though when he was dumped on his backside like a sack of potatos. Victor was flawless throughout. Particularly the Aussie test, his defence and lineout work was phenominal. He went a long way to savaging Australia and denying them any platform for their backline.

If Jean had a poor RWC, Fury had a disastrous one.....he outgained Fury 2 to 1 in half the playing time, would be my guess. And Jean didn't blow two tries that could have given us a chance at the RWC. Nor did he miss a tackle....as Fury did on the Welsh number eight.... that cost us a try and almost an embarrassing pool loss.

That Welsh try came from a forward pass, not Fourie's fault. But Jean was ruthlessly put to the sword by Roberts before crying off again. Take away Jean's stats in that Aussie test and the reality starts to come to light. Fact is that Fourie has been the better of the two throughout 2011. He saved what would have probably been a whitewash in the TNs with his supposedly poor defending. He had no trouble backing up Fransies breaks either. Fransie being much faster than Jean.

You keep persisting with this fantasy about our centres, regardless of the hard evidence. So  let's assemble a few facts shall we?

Fact 1....de Villiers was substituted  with an injury at minute 24 of the Welsh game.....to that point Roberts had seen little of the ball.

Fact 2...Fury charged out past Faletau, his man to mark, and Felatau rumbled through the gap. The Welsh try was 100% Fury's fault, although our sycophantic media would never admit it.

Fact 3....Jean made several clean breaks in QF.....Fury never backed one of them.  So our best bet was a long pass to Lambie who could keep up. If Fury was on Jean's shoulder, as he should have been given they were lined up at the start of the move.....it was try time.

Fact 4 Fury had the ball close to the Oz line in a two on one. All he had to do was draw the last tackler....he did neither, he passed too early and behind  Bryan. Simple execution would have meant.....it was try time.

Fact 5.....with the test in our hands , F du Preez executed a great charge down.....the ball bounced straight to Fury with open men outside him. He went on a glory boy hunt turning into the pack and got snuffed. If he simply passed the ball....it was try time.

Fury had a rotten RWC not an "ordinary" one as so many euphemistically state. No Bok player, except perhaps Spies, did less.

Fourie's World Cup Overview:

v. Wales
Kick/Pass/Run: 0.3.4
Metres Run: 16
Clean Breaks: 1
Defenders Beaten: 2
Offload: 0
Tackles: 5/1

v. Fiji
Kick/Pass/Run: 1.7.7
Metres Run: 56
Clean Breaks: 1
Defenders Beaten: 2
Offload: 0
Tackles: 4/0

v. Namibia
Kick/Pass/Run: 0.1.3
Metres Run: 50
Clean Breaks: 0
Defenders Beaten: 2
Offload: 1
Tackles: 3/1

v. Samoa
Kick/Pass/Run: 0.4.2
Metres Run: 9
Clean Breaks: 0
Defenders Beaten: 0
Offload: 0
Tackles: 8/0

v. Australia
Kick/Pass/Run: 0.3.8
Metres Run: 8
Clean Breaks: 0
Defenders Beaten: 3
Offload: 2
Tackles: 1/0

Not a bad World Cup at all. He made a better impression than several other players at the very least!
 

Your outside centre gains 8 metres against Oz, 9 metres against Samoa and 16 metres against Wales and that's a good impression????? Raise your standards man, JdV gained 77 against Oz alone. 

The fact is Fury was less than ordinary and was a big factor in us losing the QF as I documented.

But the truth is we are never going to agree on this. I see in Jean a classical centre that does his job, maintains a high tackle count and provides opportunities for the players outside him.

In Fury I see an opportunistic player, that wanders all over the park, looking for chances to make himself look good. When the opponents open the game up....he hides on the blindside. When we are near the line he pops up almost anywhere looking for a chance to fall over the line, to the massive detriment of constructive back play. As for making others around him better, he can scarcely throw an accurate medium length pass.

His tackle count is always low, his participation in cohesive backline movements is minimal. His tries are scored at close range. He is a rover, somewhat like, but not nearly as good as Campesi.

With Fury's departure, I am really looking forward to a Bok backline with a full compliment of participants.

Like I said, Take away the stats from the Aussie test and Jean really gets exposed. first of all though, he missed his one and only tackle in that game, and it was a rather clunsy foul-up. That however has become the norm from him over the course of his career.

Runs et Metres Run (A truer reflection)
v. Australia: 9/14
v. New zealand: 7/25
v. Wales: 1/0

You also fail to note that Fourie is far more adept at breaking the line than Jean. Jean on the otherhand is content merely crashing predictably into a clumsy heap. The sooner this worthless excuse of a player is gone the better. His 2007 injury should have been his last piece of action for the Boks and but for him running home with his tail between his legs back to the Stormers, he would have disappeared entirely. The main culprit to our backline woes centred on Jean, but the media predictably drew attention away from him so as to target Morne. Shameful stuff.