Waaahahahaha....the good OOM does the deep dive

 De Villiers was horrible for the first 30, he nearly let the Argies score a try when he ran off the line, but Kruger managed to turn it over.

I must have missed the bit when he was horrible

 Mike, Morne played well and just thought I'd mention who began the move from our 22 to set up JJ's try? Morne Steyn did. He saw the opportunity and took it, ran with the ball and passed it to Le Roux and the rest followed.

 OOm let me be totally objective.....the Boks won by 60 points, not the 6 that you were predicting. Meyer did a fine job preparing his team. The loosies were powerful. Morne was superb, Jean was a force, and F du Preez was excellent. Is that objective enough for you or are you having trouble reading with all that egg on your face?

Mozart & clevermike: here are some unbiased player ratings for the Boks to throw into the discussion.

Overall they are very positive ratings against an outclassed team - seems Beano1 was wrong with his pre-game bleating about it not being fair that the Boks always have played the Argies first each year :):

SOUTH AFRICA Player ratings: 'Madiba magic'

Sat, 17 Aug 2013 14:38

“Madiba magic” had a greater effect on some of the Springboks than others in the record 73-13 thrashing of the Pumas in Soweto on Saturday. They took some time to get going, but once they found their rhythm there was no stopping the Springboks as they got their Rugby Championship campaign off to a flyer.

It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means, but the nine-try hammering highlighted how far the Springboks have come since the last time the teams met in the 16-all draw in Mendoza last year. Quintin van Jaarsveld rates the Springbok players.

15 Willie le Roux Came into his own as the match progressed but his shaky first 30 minutes must be a concern for Heyneke Meyer. Gained confidence when he chipped for JJ Engelbrecht to run in a try and kicked on from there but tried to be too “cute” on occasions when simple passes would have been sufficient. Overall, a good offensive outing. 7.5/10

14 Bjorn Basson Another underwhelming Test. Chased well but didn’t bring anything special to the table. 6/10

13 JJ Engelbrecht His blistering acceleration and hard-running had the Pumas at sixes and sevens and hinted at a long and successful Test career. 7.5/10

12 Jean de Villiers (captain) A strong performance by the Springbok skipper. Made ample metres in midfield, was resolute on defence, communicated well with the referee and bagged a trademark intercept try. 7.5/10

11 Bryan Habana Butchered a try early in the second half but his workrate and kick-chasing, as always, were of the highest order and he got his try in the end. 7.5/10

10 Morné Steyn An accomplished all-round performance. Not only kicked brilliantly at goal but proved to his detractors that he’s not just a kicking flyhalf as he got his backline firing on all cylinders. 8/10

9 Ruan Pienaar Very lively, much quicker to the breakdown and good decision-making. Solid in all departments. 7.5/10

8 Duane Vermeulen A beast with ball in hand and made some hard hits. However, his rustiness after a lengthy injury-enforced layoff was evident under the high ball as he dropped three up-and-unders. 7/10

7 Willem Alberts His workrate was rather disappointing considering the amount of ground he was able to make when he did carry the ball. 7/10

6 Francois Louw Like Alberts, he could have made a few more ball carries but he was good on the ground and tireless on defence. 7/10

5 Juandré Kruger Dominated the line-out following Patricio Albacete’s early injury-enforced departure and subsequently channelled a lot of his energy into general play. Made a crucial turnover inside the 22 and a fair amount of tackles. 7.5/10

4 Eben Etzebeth A near unstoppable force with ball in hand, swatting would-be defenders aside with relative ease. A dependable target and stole one against the throw at line-out time. Worryingly, though, his fiery temper reared its ugly head again. 8/10

3 Jannie du Plessis Anchored the scrum with aplomb. Like Etzebeth, guilty of ill discipline when he cleaned out a player from the side. 7.5/10

2 Adriaan Strauss With Bismarck du Plessis back to full fitness, Strauss had a point to prove and he did exactly that with a man of the match performance. His set-piece play was exemplary and a strong leg drive saw him power over from the driving maul. However, it’s his workrate and prominence as a ball carrier that were most impressive. 8/10

1 Tendai Mtawarira Took his young foe Matias Diaz to school at scrum time. 7/10 Replacements:

16 Bismarck du Plessis (on for Strauss, 54th minute) Stayed hot on Strauss’ heels with his strength and explosiveness. 7.5/10

17 Gurthrö Steenkamp (on for Mtawarira, 57th minute) Struggled somewhat with the new scrum sequence. 6/10

18 Coenie Oosthuizen (on for Du Plessis, 54th minute) Kept up his side of the scrum but one has to question the decision to have two specialist looseheads on the bench. 6.5/10

19 Flip van der Merwe (on for Kruger, 57th minute) Brought more physicality to the mix. 6/10

20 Siya Kolisi (on for Alberts, 64th minute) Not enough time to be rated.

21 Fourie du Preez (on for Pienaar, 54th minute) Simply sublime. Pienaar did little wrong but the manner in which the pace and fluency of the Springbok game improved once the veteran came on was eye-opening. His vision hasn’t diminished - as he showed with the cut out pass for Habana’s try - his speed to the breakdown was impressive and his distribution spot on. 8/10

22 Pat Lambie (on for Le Roux, 58th minute) Asked plenty of questions of the Pumas defence in an exciting cameo. 7/10

23 Jan Serfontein (on for De Villiers, 67th minute) Not enough time to be rated.

clevermike: for sure the coaches will have their own assessment of player & team performance. It will be interesting to see who the select for the next game.

Playing the Argies for a second time will still be a warm-up game but what more could you ask for as a coach? It has to be a good thing.

My assessment is the Boks are looking good & we are building towards a fantastic matchup between the RWC (ABs) v the Boks. Couldn't ask for more.

Moz when was JJ swotted by an Argie, that is simply not the case. JJ's running skills are sublime and his defence was sound, not that we had to do much defending.

Jean was good, but Serfontein in his short time on was even better.

Good preformance by all, except for Basson, Morne, Pienaar and Kruger.......cant say I saw much from Louw either. Steenkamp was useless, he was the only prop who got folded twice.

Lambie showed with his few touches what a class act he is. Why on earth he did not replace Morne is beyond me. Basson and Kruger were anonymous, Pienaar was at best solid as was Louw and Morne.

What the hell has happened to the Argies in one season? Great Bok performance - a few tweaks and we have a side able to challenge the Kiwi's........we need a real wing, a 10 with attcking clout, a real lock and a real fetcher........Mvovo or v/d Heever, Lambie, Lood de Jager and Brussouw would improve the Bok side tenfold and get rid of fat Steenkamp and play the impressive Kitshoff.

Mike a few points.

You largely credit Willie Le Roux with "the thrust that got the back line going". He did play well enough yesterday but let me tell you, he will not play against the AB's if he continues with the "twinkle toes, I must do everything" nonsense instead of keeping it simple. The AB's will have him for breakfast.

I cannot undertand why you keep comparing Morne to Lambie. Lambie came on as a fullback, not flyhalf so you cannot compare the two. In fact in the little time Lambie was on he showed exactly where his best position is.......fullback.

Saffex

Status: Rugby Legend
Posts: 5178 RE: Waaahahahaha....the good OOM does the deep dive
August 18, 2013, 11:43:38

Jean was good, but Serfontein in his short time on was even better. Agree. I think JDV is realising that as well. Could that be why he has been seen (uncharacteristically) getting his team together and talking to them, as well constantly harping in the ref's ear?

 Steenkamp was useless, he was the only prop who got folded twice. Agree to some extent. I would not say that he was useless, but he was not on par either. As for getting folded, I think Pollock has been doin a bit of guessing again. Steenkamp was the culprit when he was pinged shortly after he cam on. He had his flippin arse higher than his shoulders, which is why he hinged. Later on in the game, after his opponent was replaced, the exact same thing happened again. His hips was once again higher than his shoulders and he hinged again, but this time the ref decided that it was his opponent who was the culprit. The times that he got his body position right, i.e. his hips lower than his shoulders, he had the upper hand over his opponent.

Mike dont worry to much about ou windpomp he is a prick much of the time, lies and is one confused puppy.

Up your game windpomp no need to get this nasty with Mike - keep that to ss board.

Mike there are some players under performing. However I think the return from injury of certain guys will eliminate the problems. Morne however had a very good game in all departments. To me the only players who were ordinary were Steenkamp and Basson. 

Meyer generally is getting it right.

Vlag, I just see no point in a fat old Steenkamp off the bench when we have impressive young props like Kitshoff, Nkanyane, Marcel v/d Merwe and Mellett as loosehead options.

Kruger added no value other than the odd line-out take, Etzebeth was far more impressive in the line-outs. Move Etzebeth to 5 and bring in the impressive de Jager at 4.

du Preez was far more impressive than Pienaar, but what's the point he is hardly available, how to you achieve consistency when a player is hardly available. 

Jean was good, so it's ok that he remains, but Serfontein is just on another level. As for Basson, he is a complete passenger and you knowmy score on boring Morne.

Mike no way in hell should JJ be moved to wing, it would be a very poor move and it would harm his impressive progress at centre. 

I can live with Jean being retained at 12 and Serfontein playing off the bench, its not the way I would go but at least Jean is still a good enough player........unlike the likes of Basson, Morne and Kruger.

Alberts was fine yesterday, Louw was less impressve. Vermeulen was by far our best loosies and Kolisi was great when he came on

 Mike a very atacking backline and one I would like to see have a go. 

But when jean Retires JJ and Jan are our two best centers. We need actually to find some class wings. JP being relatively young was a big loss,

That guy Volmink was it, playing fo the lions looked very promising to me. Size wise he also looked okay - speed foot work and some rugby smarts

 Morne has been playing well. Oh that he had kicked like that last year and the RC would have been ours and left Meyer with a 90 odd percent win record.

But Moz I have to warn you ou saSUE  thinks the crude walks on water and is the world best flyhalf. He will be frothing over his warm chocolate milk his mum so kindly provides (She must be a great saint).

We looked amazing … that is … against an awful Pumas side.

One’s as good as your opponents allow you to be. We were never under pressure and had our way with them in every part of the game. They were clueless, didn’t have a game plan, and to be quite frank, it looked as if they weren’t even coached.

I realize its early days for the Pumas but honestly … that was really bad. Question is … do they belong in this competition? I expected a hell of a lot more from them.

I know there will be a lot of people singing Meyer’s praises and perhaps he deserves it … however let’s not go overboard here. Any team on the planet would have crushed Argentina on Saturday.

I’ll wait for the Bokke to take on the Wallabies and the All Blacks before I get all excited.

Talking about the All Blacks … wow … they looked fearsome … with all their geezers. McCaw impressed me. He’s at least 10kg over weight but certainly kept it going right to the final whistle. Hats off to the codger!!