WP - Sharks Game - who put their hand up for selection and who did not

The following players made their statem,ent today why they are first choice players for the Springboks:-

Patrick Lambie

His top class ball skills and reading  of the game was sublime.   After his recent performances there is no way that he is not the no 1 flyhalf in SA at present.   After seeing a bumbling Morne Steyn three weeks ago - it is time for a change for the better at flyhalf.

Lambie  and Goosen are definitely the future and there can be no better in SA.

Pieter-Steph du Toit

He put in a huge performance - was in fact today better than Etzebeth.   At last we have the celebrated lock partnership we have needed for a long time.

Frans Malherbe and Stephen Kitshoff

The Sharks scrum struggled early, because Kitshoff was strong  in scrumming and showed du Plessis up a number of times - but Cilliers did not getting the better of Beast.   Kitshoff played throughout the game was strong throughout.   The situation for WP changes when Malherbe came on.   The latter also carried the ball and made some tackles.  Two definite selections for the Springbok squad.

SP Marais 

Excellent positional play - and was very good on attack.  A real star of the future - this guy has got the X-Factor.   Was today better than Aplon and has some real claims for inclusion in the squad.

Now lets look at the existing Springboks

On the whole the existing Sprinboks did not have a particularly good game.   All of the following had average games with nothing much to report:-

De Villiers, Beast, Etzebeth and Vermeulen.   Vermeulen made a number of handling errors - the one was particularly costly - whilst the others did not make any glaring errors - neither did they show anything brilliant.

Alberts did nothing in the first half - and carried the ball 4 times in the second half.    One carry let to a penalty against the Sharks - and one contributed to some  extent to the second try scored by McCleod, while the other two he was stopped in his tracks.   A less visible game than is to be expected from a Springbok with a very few tackles in evidence. 

Francois Steyn had a mixed sort of game.  He did a good tackle on De Allende - but then missed another one on him.   He tried wide passes twice that showed something good - neither let to anything because of earlier penalizable offences by the Sharks.   On he negative side - he gave away two penalties.   Really very questionable whether he is ready for selection - there was no sign of reasonable speed expected from a backline player yet.

Burger - played about 35 minutes and really did nothing noticeable - other than a time when Coetzee ran over him.   Very, very far from the form he was in earlier in his career.

Kolisi - did he actually play?   If I saw him twice in each of carrying of the ball and making tackles on players.   He played less than half the game - but really should have shown more that half.

Players that Could be considered for selection

Of the players mentioned to be in the squad - I would say only De Allende did some things to enhance his candidature.

All of Fourie -  who this time contained the number to penalties to 2 - but like Kolisi was very invisible - did nothing to enhance his candidature.

Steyn and Burger should wait till next year and show their value in Super 15 before they can be seriously considered.  

Ceradyne

Thanks for the correction - Morne should stay in France and keep his mediocrity there.  

Lambie looked good, but there are two issues. The obvious....goal kicking. The second is, did you actually see him do anything to spring the backline? The boxes I ticked were drop kicking (excellent), tactical kicking, and decision making. I saw little positive or negative on defence and those sitters he missed could have swung the match.

Sharkbok

It was crazy of Meyer to select Kruger for the Ellis Park test ahead of Du Toit.   The latter did not miss a single kick in ball today where he was the main recipient.  Thinking of what happened in Ellis Park in that regard makes me cringe.

His line out play was the best I have seen for a long time in SA and rivals that of  Etzebeth.  

I do not think Jannie was all that good in scrumming today as well - Kitshoff gave him serious uphill while he was on the field of play.    The person to take over from him is Malherbe - very solid when he came on.   Matter of fact Malherbe should have started and if he did Jannie would have been shown up even more.

I think we agree on the situation as outlined above. 

Mozart

After the commentator did not mention Alberts ONCE in the first half as contributing anything and mentioned him about five times in the second - what can be said about him?   With that low an activity level - was really not up to standard.  

Just one question - was Alberts a sub today?   I thought he was in the starting line up? 

Shezza

I do not deny that Steyn made more tackles - but I do not think he is ready for Springbok selection - he is far too slow.   And he gave away two penalties - one by being off-side and one when he attempted a turnover.   He can come right - and I hope he does - but he has a long way to go.   

I was trying to be fair to Steyn and mentioned two of his off-loads with significant bearing - as well as the massive tackle he put in on De Allende - but I also mentioned the negatives - the missed tackle on De Allende and the two penalties he gave away - as well as his slow speed.

You cannot assess a player by looking at positives and forget about negatives of players.      

Mozart

You are harping on goal kicking again.   Morne missed 50% of his kicks at goal in the Brumbies semi - and 33% in the Ellis Park test - but not a word on that one - but a huge song and dance about Lambie on that score.   

I know you have a habit of seeing things that you want to see and missing those you do not want to see.  I actually saw at least three occasions where his play resulted in significant backline moves.  

Lambie had a better game at flyhalf today than Morne ever had in his whole career.  

Mozart

Same garbage as it was with Alberts - what did he do to b be the best?   The good things I mentioned above - the bad things too.   He did make one really strong tackle and was a number of times amongst the forwards and made two good passes -  but otherwise he was poor in giving away two penalties and also missed a tackle   Speedwise  very slow and did not deserve to be described as the best center on the park.   De Allende did about twice as much positive work as Steyn did and he at least scored a try.

I am not diminishing the issue of missed kicks at goal - of course it is an issue.   You apparently do not get the message.  Why keep on talking about missed kicks at goal by Lambie and not a word about missed kicks at goal by your hero Morne Steyn?   Lambie today missed 30% of his kicks at goal - in the Ellis Park test Morne missed 33,33% of his kicks at goal and in the Bulls- Brumbies semi-final 50%.   What I would like to know - why carry on about the missed kicks by Lambie and not about the missed kicks by Morne - in   respect of which you have yet to say anything?

Sure - Lambie must get his kicking at goal better - that is obvious - but that was not as important today as it might be in other games.