What is hidden in the Game against Scotland

Besides the fact that it was as clear as daylight that some backline players have been shown up badly in aspects of the game, the backline immediately showed some spark when -

*    Pienaar was replaced by Van Zyl;

*    Morne Steyn was replaced by Lambie; and

*    Jan Serfontein came on from the bench.

I always rated Pienaar highly - but his perrformances for Ulster was not that hot in the Heineken Cup this yeatr and he is likely getting too old to be competitive.     Morne Steyn was very poor and he showed the same signs under stress thast he did last year.   When I wrote about three weeks ago that there may be a return of the Steyn of last year - because there were signs that things may not go as well as expected - some Board members said I was mad - Morne is tops.   After his poor performance I am scared out of my wits that like last year Neyer will stick with him until we have lost any competitiveness in the Championship,

I believe the time for some changes are clear now and that is yo select the following backline for the test against Samoa:-

15   Le Roux,  14  Engelbrecht,  13  De Villiers,  12  Serfontein,  11 Habana,  10  Lambie,  9  Van Zyl

However, I would lay a bet Meyer will not do that - so lets wait and see what he comes up with next.

 Disagree. Nothing happened when van Zyl came on, except a few passes along  the ground. Lambie really did nothing either. But Serfontein made a real difference. I'd play Lambie next weekend. But today Serfontein made his case....frankly the others scarcely had time.

 Mike..What was hidden in this game or conveniently ignored by Saffer fans was the ineffectiveness of Itsabutt!

I tried to look at him from an unbiased perspective but the only positive contribution he made in my view was in the lineout. Other than that his contribution was:

Seagulling out in the backline

Being anywhere other than where the ball was

Hanging around one off the ruck

Occasionally arriving at the ruck 2nd or 3rd and simply either just flopping on the top or resting one hand on it

One good thing he did was not punching the Jock who was trying to needle him although I'm sure he would have had another Scottish player not held him back! Other than that, he made a few tackles but none of those were bone crunchers, nor did he drive anyone back.

Hardly the form of a supposed superstar.

Tell me I'm wrong but there's a whole load of Boks being critisised after this test and his performance should be mentioned first and foremost!

 Spark came when LeRoux started showing up at 1st receiver. Hardly happened first part of the game, but the last 30 he was more prominent there. Reminds me of Foley and Cruden when he does pop up there.

 Moola hope you realise the fact that our pack was useless negated Etzebeth's work, nope as soon as you said 'unbiased perspective' you basically gavr away the fact that you're being bias.

Scotland attacked the 10 channel. Morne stood up well but its really worrying when your 10 have to make 10 tackles. Which is almost more than the whole backline put together.

We are predictable. Plain and simple. What saved us in the end is that the Scots ran out of air thx to the high altitude. Think also the Nelspruit atmosphere is nothing like a Loftus so the players struggle to get fired up. SAd but a habit of our players.

Kruger did nothing?  The guy made all his tackles and won all his line outs. What more can you ask at least he did his job and not go hang around inside center

 Shezza, the pack might have been useless but you can't accuse Itsabutt of being part of it cos he was fannying about one off the ruck and hanging around on his own! As I said, I watched his every move on the replay and he basically played Rugby league by joining in every now and then. A dismal effort which you could not blame on the rest of the tight five!