I watched the latest game of the Bulls and Morne Steyn was replaced in the team by a youngster by the name of Chris Smith at flyhalf and the Bull's backline functioning improved as a result
Smith was for two years the top inside center at the Varsity Cup playing for the Maties and a key to their wins in the competition. He after completion of his studies went to play for the Pumas - but is now apparently employed by the Bulls, I identified him as a top future player and thought that he would become a wasted player at the Pumas, Now he is back in the limelight where he deserves to be.
I still think he is an answer to replacement of Francois Steyn in the Springbok squad and that we will hear and see a lot of him in future - he really is a class act. Why invest on a 36 year old never-has-been like Steyn when you should invest in a player like Smith?
That brings me to another issue and that relates to tennis. We had three of the greatest players ever in the history of the game entertaining us since 2003 and their is no doubt that they rewrote tennis history in the world. However, Federer is now 37 years of age and is moving down in the rankings rapidly - while Nadal and Djokovic are 34 and 33 years old respectively, Federer never made it to the 2020 End of the Year tournament where the top 8 ranked players in the World feature - while Djokovic and Nadal did. The players are divided into two groups of players of four member each where they play each other for a place in the semi's, In the first group Djokovic played against Medvedev and was disgraced by him and even though it was a much tighter game Thiem beat Nadal in the other group. The result was that both Djokovic and Nadal came into the semi's as second on the two respective logs,
In the semi's Djokovic played Thiem and Nadal played Medvedev, It was massive battles - but in the end both ran out of steam and the finalists this year are Thiem and Medvedev, In the semi's that each went to 3 sets - both capitulated and it was evident that the "olde bones" could not make it anymore. In the first semi Djokovic led in the third set tiebreak by 4-0, but then lost the tiebreak. In the other match Nadal won the first set 6-3 and in the second set tiebreak and then surrendered - losing the tiebreak 7-5. In the third set Nadal suffered two los t games on own serve,
Another proof that even the greatest players in the world in all codes of sport in the end start going backwards due to the age factor.
