The above is as superficial as it comes and not a real evaluation
of the situation. Obviously it is music
to the ears of Mozart – but is it really the case?
First of all there are a number of issues to be addressed in
any evaluation of the situation and these are the following:-
The lacklustre performance
of the Senior players
The senior players in
the team – those with 20+ tests showed an amazing degree of lack of interest in
playing. This was evident n the
performances of especially Vermeulen,
Louw, Etzebeth,Strauss and Pietersen.
Anybody would have expected leadership and effort on the part of that
core – but it was curiously absent and none made a real contribution to performance.
Most of the penalties were in fact given away by the above
players and ball possession retention by them was non-existent. There was a serious absence of any
contribution by the loose forwards.
Pietersen was a joke – a serious one at that. The fact is that he has deficient pace and
that was clear from his near walk when he collected a kicked ball and ambled forward
in ultra-slow in carrying the ball.
Under-performance of
Players
There was a serious level of under-performance by some players
– De Jager was not a shadow of the player he was last year and was ever of any
consequnnce during the game. Malherbe
did well in scrumming and put in more tackles
than Vermeulen and Louw – but gave away two penalties, which was seriously defective
on his part. He showed some interest in
playing the game and the deficiencies of the other forwards in showing no
enthusiasm in the game was probably to blame for his penalties.
The Merit
selection of Players
There was a serious
issue as to merit selections. Players
like Jantjies and Mapoe were selected purely on merit – while players like
Kolisi and Nyakane was part of the BEE selections. Both Jantjies and Mapoe were excellent
playing for the Lions his year – but they seems to be unable to make the step
up to the next level. Jantjies looked
like a scared rabbit in the headlights and made some really poor decisions during
the game – he made one good pass leading to the Mvovo try – for the rest his
performance was seriously negative. Furthermore
Jantjies’ defense was basically non-existing.
Mapoe never featured at all and he was really not of any
value. Can this player take the step up
from Super Rugby to test rugby – I have my doubts. Maybe he should be utilized on the wing.
Kolisi carried the ball a few times – but lost ball
possession in two cases because of no support by players. However, he never was a real loosie covering
other aspects of loosie play and in 2016 he was as a result frequently on the
Stormers bench. He has no idea of
loosie play and is of limited use in defense and non-existent insofar as ball protection
and recovery is concerned.
Nyakane was a product from the previous coach and his contribution
was virtually non-existent when he came from the bench.
The absence of a
game plan
There was a serious deficiency in a game plan and the
existence of the Meyer plan – ie to cut out the backline and with forwards
loitering in the backline was evident.
Far too often there was serious disruption of the game by forwards
losing ball possession while loitering in the backline.
There was no plan in evidence – much like the c ase was under
Meyer and while Coetzee was the Stormers coach over the past few years. The absence of proper backline coaching is
another problem – but for some the backline is there to defend and any backline
attack is a mortal rugby sin.
Proper coaching of the payers and the backline in particular
played a major role in the loss of the game.
The “A” Team and
Under 20 Team
These two teams were a joke – merit selection was out and
the whole scenario was based on BEE selections.
The two teams were not representing the better selections so necessary to
enhance performance of SA teams.
