25 Nov 2014, 11:34#2
Good point King, the way Meyer refuses to deviate from what he knows, Bakkies probably would have played at the world cup, but by doing the right thing he will not. Good on him.
He may have stayed on past his expiry date, but in his prime was was really special! A player that will be remembered for a long time.
CLclevermike
Coach57,555 posts
CLclevermikeCoach57,555 posts
25 Nov 2014, 12:00#3
kingcorn
As you said above Bakkies made a brave decision to opt out - but also the right one. Problem is with international sportsmen - not only in rugby - that they overstay their wekcome and then disgrace themselfs in the process. Bakkies felt tht he could not produce the goods anymore - as ws evident from his performances in the tests he played since last year - and left in time - ie before eh really get in the pits performance-wise.
Lets lookat cricket - for instance - and mention two players. The first one is Graeme Smith. Since the previous WC in ODI's Graeme had a string of poor performances and last year was the pits. He was in the Gulf states November 2013 series against Pakistan - basically was very poor in the two ODI's and then went home and was replaced resulting in all the other ODI's in the series being won by the Proteas. After two flops against Pakistan at home in the succeeding series - he was told so by the selectors h would not be selected again in ODI games and h e took at badly - left the squad and went to Cape Town and the next match was won by the Proteas.
The second one is Kallis - to my mind the greates cricket player ever. He realized he was going down in performances and age caught up with him. he consequently announced his retirement from test cricket and in his last innings he made a century - he was honoured by everybody for that achievement. However, he inicate that he would like to go to the OI 2015 WC - and was selected to go with the Proteas to SriLanka. In the two ODI's he did badly - relaized it - and on his return announced his retirement from ODI crickt as well.
Get the difference - Kallis realizing that he was not up to standard anymore - did the honourable thing and announced his retirement. Grame Smith disgraced himself in the last 4 ODI's - was told he was not good enough anymore and left in a huff.
25 Nov 2014, 12:16#4
Agree with you Mike, some players Ego's just gets to big. Look at John Smit, he should have stepped aside and even then Matfield was poor.
I think that some of the winning boks of 2007 really made it hard in 2011 when they Hijacked the team and only looked out for themselves. Not to mention that PDV was a complete clown and didn't know how to control these guys. Bismark was at his prime then and could have made a huge difference in the game
