What is Vermeulen about?

Vermeulen came back with huge fanfare to play for the Springboks in June 2018.   He did extremely well in the first two tests,   At the end of the second test he complained about some aches and pains and then produced nothing in the third test,   

He then said he was going to play in Japan and would not be available for the Rugby Championship in August to Ocotber 2018 and came back to play in three of the EOYT tests,   In those tests he was very average in performance - nothing much to write home about.  

It was then announced that he would play for the Bulls in the 2019 season.   In the first two matches he was very good and that was followed by two very average performances.   In the fifth game he went off injured after showing zilch performance-wise,   

Now there was the following report on his injury:-

"The Bulls have been boosted by the news that Duane Vermeulen is available for Saturday's Super Rugby clash against the Sharks in Durban.

The Springbok No 8 left the field in the first half of his side's 56-20 loss to the Chiefs at Loftus this past weekend and Bulls fans would have been dreading Monday's injury report. 

But, according to team doctor Herman Rossouw, Vermeulen is fine. 

"Duane left the field early in the first-half with a badly twisted knee," Rossouw explained.

"Luckily this morning he is looking much better and he is already going to start training with the squad. He will be available for selection."

The news on prop Dayan van der Westhuizen, meanwhile, is less encouraging.

"His knee is not looking that good. He went for a scan this morning and we are awaiting the final results," Rossouw said. 

Johnny Kotze is expected to be available for selection for this weekend while lock RG Snyman faces another week out and should be back for the April 6 fixture against the Jaguares at Loftus. 

Kick-off in Durban on Saturday is at 15:05."

Coming back on Tuesday into full training raised a serious question mark about the seriousness of injury on Saturday,    I think it may be that Vermeulen did not put in a credible performance and saw a way out of completing the game.   An injury like he pretended he suffered would have kept any player out for weeks if not months  and the fact is it did not in this case.   We know for a fact that Matfield used the same stunt in the 2015  Super Rugby Season to keep his name in the headlines so as t o ensure his selection for the  WC squad in 2015,   Is that what Vermeulen is up to now?.  

The man is old ... his body is tired ... he can longer recover as quickly as he used to ... and his hunger is long gone. 

He is not the best 8 at the Bulls and should not be a part of the Boks.

He'll suffer many more injuries this season because he's old.

He should do the right thing and retire from rugby altogether.

CC

I am afraid  that is what is going on in the case of Vermeulen - though I did put it as bluntly as you did,   I do not know why players want to end their careers playing in WC's and often enough use reputation and not performance as a means to get into the squad,  

In the end they are often passengers in the WC squad if the squad selection by Meyer in 2015 are borne in mind.   There were quite of number of players who were on the bench  or not be on the bench at all - with the result that many players had to play in every test played in the WC.   Easy to blame those unfortunates who had no rest games in the series at all.   

SB

The problem comes in when the player has to play games in the WC - which can entialk as many as 7 tests in seven weeks,   You cannot have a player that perform well in to tests and then vanish in the rest of the tests,   

I agree with you about Du Toit playing well in game after game - Mozart and co will not nut they have a constant hate campaign for years now against Du Toit, but most of the Springboks managed to have positive performances  thus far,   Some have real injury problems - so we have to bear that in mind.

Why should older players have a lighter playing load than younger players - after all performance and no age should be the  criterium for selection?    

Dave - Beware

Mozart and the Silly Billy crowd  will attack you outright

Nice to see one of the standout Boks of the last 6 years now being slandered as a cheat who puts his own ego ahead of his team.

Pakie

Standout Boks of the last SIX Years?   He played no rugby for SA in 2016 and 2017 - so hw was he a standout Boks?  He came back in 2018 - playing three tests in June and 4 in November,   

In the first two tests in June 2018  he looked like the standout player he was before his neck injury in 2015.   His third appearance that month showed up a poor performance.  He then ducked out of the RC tests in 2018.   After that he played in the November tests and was on the whol;e just about average.

2013   -    Standout  Bok

2014   -    Standout Bok

2015   -    About average in performance

2016  -     Played 2 tests - 1 Standout Bok - 1 poor performance

2017  -     Non-player

2018  -    2 Tests Standout Bok - rest of tests average to poor - Non-player in RC tests

Nobody said he is a cheat - he is just on an ego-trip to ensure he gets  into the WC squad based on his reputation.    Hope Erasmus does not fall for it like the stone coach did in 2015.,  

Fuck it Mike, do you have to turn every single thing into a stupid argument? He's played 46 test matches for the Boks over the last 6 years, including 4 tests in 2016 & 2017. So yes, he is one of the standout Boks of the last 6 years.

You said he faked an injury. That's cheating. In other words you called him a cheat.

Mozart 

Four games of under-performance - his record in 2018 was  good enough in 2 of the  7 games he played in - the rest he was poor.  .

I am afraid that Vermeulen has indicated that he is past his sell-by date,   It happened to all players  so why not to him..  

Vermeulen started off well in his first two Super Rugby games this year and ten went backwards  fast.

No reputation players please.  

Pakie

A player gets injured on Saturday and  left the field - on Tuesday he is back in full training - not a sign of the injury that forced him off the field on Saturday,   Work that one out!!!!

Thor is definitely one of the few world class players in the Bok team. We need him fit and ready for the big matches...use him sparingly in the rest of the games.

Shezza

The problem is that  the age has nothing to do with it - what ahs to do with it is what he produces,

Fact is at his best Vermeulen is a huge benefit for the teams he plays for,   However, when it comes to performances  there are problems and very severe ones at that,    Vermeulen was never really the same player he used to be before his neck injury in 2015,   

The real problem is that there are consistency problems,   In the rather limited number of games he played in he is the Vermeuelen of old.  I would say that he played well in the following cases:

2015 WC   -  2 good games and 4 indifferent one

June 2016   -  1 good game and 1 poor one

June 2018   -  2  good games and 1 poor one

Nov 2018    -  3 indifferent games

SR this year  -  2 good games and 3 poor games,

So what determines the difference leading to games be classified as indifferent and poor?   For that one has to look at ball carries and the effectiveness of such carries, the role of the player in defense, the ability to serve as a link between the forwards and the backline players, the ability to make turnovers and breakdowns  etc.   

Unfortunately the situation is that at the start of series Vermeulen does very well in all categories of the game - but that does not last past the second game in such a series,   By the third game  the good qualities largely vanish and he becomes a very poor competitor,   It could be for  variety of reasons -

*    his long professional career as a player.

*    the long list of injuries he suffered

*    loss of pace and his struggles to keep up with the pace of games;

*    his exceptionally low tackle count as a loosie; and.

*    possibly losing interest in games,

I do no have the answer,    Vermeulen due to injuries played very little rugby in 2016 and 2017 and fact is he did not play  many games in 2018  before the start of the June 2018 test series.  He then went to Japan - thus skipping the  RC tests - and the idea was  that he would get ample game time in Japan.  tams for six weeks and his name was not on their team sheets,   Before the November 2018 test it was reported that he came back from injury,   He did not show much in the November tests.   This year he played in five games for the Bulls.   He was excellent in the first two games and the reverted back to what can at best be described as indifferent ganes,  

What is wrong really with the guy?   He may not be really fit enough to last for more than two games or he may for a variety of reasons lose his drive in games.

At his best I could love to see him in the WC  - but if he is no delivering in games would it be worthwhile to have him in the squad.                

The nonsense about Alberts - the lowest work rate player at loosie I have ever seen playing for the Springboks bubbles out again.   Lets think a bit of the loosie who played about 3 matches in the year before the 2015 WC and was selected by Meyer to be the key loosie to play in 2015,   

He really enjoyed the holiday in the UK that year - please was he on the bench once of was it twice - with his playing record  for that tournament being about half an hour in total?  Was Meyer's whole strategy to get the scrummie to pass the ball to Alberts - but since  he actually never played in the WC Burger was unfortunately to execute that silliness of  the stone age coach.

No Mozart - it is clear that with his present level of performances of Vermeulen it would not be necessary for the AB's to worry about "eating him up" since he would not be any problem for them and ignore his name on the team- sheet and the menu would be stuffed up anyway,  .    

Mozart

Do I need to remind you what I wrote above,  I wrote that Vermeulen was top class in the first two tests in 2018 and since then he vanished out of sight in the remainder of the tests he played in.  The same happened in the SR matches this year - 2 very good gams and then the vanishing trick,

Alberts respected by the AB's - surely performance will be the basis of respect and that was curiously missing in his case,   Vermeulen, Louw and Burger when in their prime yes - but unfortunately  Burger's prime  ended in 2012  and both that of Louw and Vermeulen in 2015,.  In the case of Vermeulen some flashes may still be observed on rather rare occasions,        

And it is supposed to matter in every match on a regular basis - that is what is expected from real performers in games - not so?    

No Mozart

Does your explanation cover the Japan disaster as well?  No Mozart - players who pace themselves as you put it are normally out of pace when it really matters.   When players under=perform regularly - what does pacing help?

Did you ever learn anything from what happened  in the 2015 WC.   Some players paced themselves so well that they nearly never played.   A  number of squad members had a few bench games - while the same players had to play in test after test without a break ever and all that because the others pace themselves out of playing. 

How much game time did players like Alberts, Matfield, Morne Steyn and other duds actually played in the WC.   In the case of SA the total playing time was  7 times 80 minutes =   560 minutes.   

Alberts        -       53 minutes       -      9,5%

Pienaar        -       85 minutes       -     15,2%

Matfield      -      194 mintes        -     34,6% 

Steyn          -         15 minutes      -       2.7%

Kirchner     -         80 minutes      -      14,3%

Paige          -         20 minutes      -        3,6%

Magnificient  pacing  in evidence.   It is in fact a disgrace  that so many players spent so little time on the field forcing other players to play week in and week out in every test without any rest time.   They get blamed for two losses - against the AB's and against JAPAN - the latter game in which  Matfield paced himself so well that in the rest of the tournament he only got 114  minutes game time,

All the 6 players above should never have been anywhere near the squad - pacing or not.        

Lets explain the above calculation a bit clearer - there were three locks selected - Matfield, De Jager and Etzebeth - so they were expected to play 560 x 2 minutes  =   1120 minutes.  So what percentage of that total time did Matfield play?  The answer is 17,3% - the other 82,6% had to be covered  by De Jager and Et zebeth.      

Injured - he did the same as Vermeulen did on Saturday.  Walk off the field because he could not keep up.    Anyway he did play in the Semi - where he played for 18 minutes and buggered up twice,     In the Japan game he paced  himself very well too - he did bugger-all of value in the game.    And there was a report after the match that he ignored the game plan of exercising forward supremacy and as instructed by Meyer,  

That is why I did not mention De Villiers a really serious injury in his case.   But fact s he should not have been in the squad as well, 

Bad news Mozart - what about the rest though?   Remember how you defend the squad selection in 2015  when people said it was a farce,  

Happy pacing day to you.    

Mozart

After the Japan debacle they dropped down to the number 6 ranking.

But that is not the issue here - the issue is about Vermeulen and his performance level,  I always was and still is a supporter of Vermeulen - but that depends on whether his performances are good enough to justify his selection for the WC squad,

I said the same before the first test he played in in June  - and still say the same now,  I praised him after his first two tests and I listened carefully what he said when receiving the MOM for the second test,   

However, the warning lights started flashing in the third test and I am afraid I was very disappointed after that test, 

The next episode was when he skipped the RC series saying he was off to play in Japan,   Before the November test against England there was a claim that he was returning from injury.  I then asked on site whether he did play for the Kubota Spears team in the period between  the start of the series in middle August  until the end of it the end of October,   In the series there were 11 games played  and when initially found no further particulars on his Wikipedia profile at that time  and then tried to study the team sheets of his club and in the first six matches there was no Duane Vermeulen playing.   His latest Wikipedia profile indicated that he played in 7 games - scoring 1 try - so I may be wrong.   Also he may have been injured during the series, 

Now what followed in the November tests?   I do not think that Vermeulen was all that good and there was in fact no indication that he is WC squad material.   So far playing for the Bulls he was good in the first wo games and ineffective  in the other three games,

Let me state clearly - I have no problem with Vermeulen's  inclusion in the  WC squad - zero,  bit there is one requirement bearing ibn mind Meyer's dishing out WC caps for a nice holiday by too many players selected purely on reputation with total disregard of performance - I would not like to see a repeat of that,         

. 

Just to point out Vermuelen  is 32. That  is not too old for a loose forward. Vermuelen will probably put  in a big performance once  in a while to make his selection assured. At 117 kg  he  is the powerhouse forward you need against an English or Welsh pack. Against weaker packs like the wee abs not so necessary.

Personally  i like the look of the Stormers Coetzee and nice balance between pace and power. Should give the guy an chance in the upcoming test.

The Du Preez twins are solid but being guppies maybe solid between the ears as well But be fair play then in the 4 nations as well and see.

But please no more of Dave's fancy pants players like Notche. Wee Kolisi is about as much as we can afford.

Beeno

There is one requirement and  that is proven performance.   The fact is that Meyer lost the plot in that regard  in 2015 - we cannot afford players going to Japan and leaving playing to players who gets tired because of overplay during the series.