What lies behind the failure of Serfontein/JJ

....and you can candy coat this, but failure it is. Neither is in the Boks 23, and JJ is slipping onto the Bools bench. They both had poor S15s, JJ's almost looked like a player giving up. Why?

Well let's go back 15 or so months. JJ was the flavour of the day for the new player groupies. Fast, an elegant runner and crucially a Goldilocks, neither too big nor too small size.

Then there was Serfontein, fresh off a succesful Junior Rugby Cup, the player of the tournament....the guy who ostensibly was going to knock Jean off his perch. Jan burst onto the scene with lots of energy, his confidence infused the sometimes listless JJ with energy. They ended the S15 well, although the brighter fans noted Serfontein only stepped  inside and were reminded of Meisiekind.

Still all seemed set fair as the Boks pummeled the Bargies at home. But then in Mendoza Bosch ran straight through JJ for a try that should never have been scored.

Gradually while Serfontein was on the bench, Engelbrecht lost elevation....ending in a disastrous Ellis Park test where he was responsible for a swing of 21 points. He has never started again and is no longer in the mix at all.

Serfontein had an unfortunate bench season last year. But when he got on the park, he was unconvincing. His   stats from the Ellis Park test when he came on for Habana are shown below. He made zero tackles and incredibly given how much we defended, zero tackle attempts. He ran 3 times, made 5 metres and lost the ball twice.

His supporters will claim he isn't a wing, but guys like Jean and Fransie played all over the place and looked like test players. And wing or no wing, those stats are terrible. An engaged player, who was trying to help his team just had to make a few tackle attempts. In my view he was frozen.

The decline in his fortunes continued at S15 level this year, where crash ball and inside stepping were totally expected. Some want him to replace Jean, but no serious coach would entertain that.

But why have they flopped that badly? My guess is because they had fatal flaws all along. JJ just can't go low, he is one of those guys who dislikes tackling....nor does he have any vision. Steppie is a trier but not particularly strong by international standards and quite slow. So how is he going to beat defences? It's not going to happen.

In short this is just another example of too much hype before there was any proof.

Jean had little to do with it.....the try was set up by the flat Morne pass and the work Hendricks had to do to make the line.....there was no overlap, for had there been one, Hendricks would have breezed over the line.

The real issue is just how bloody ineffective Jean has been in his last two tests. He should not be there.......Serfontein is way, way better  

Jean had little to do with it.....the try was set up by the flat Morne pass and the work Hendricks had to do to make the line.....

I am not too bothered about whether Jean did or did not......the real issue is how kak he has been.

Vlagshit.....yeah that flat pass from Morne is the one positive I have seen from him in the last 5 years.......it 1 to Morne 100 to the opposition......start Morne I say!!!!!!!!!  

Bozo shut the fuck up we are not interested in your points of view

de Wet Barry is all that needs to be said  

I am not too bothered about whether Jean did or did not......the real issue is how kak he has been. I want Jan Serfontein at 12. I am prepared to bullshit and say anything to support my man Jan.