This from the clown who is clearly not a true Bok supporter as no Bok supporter spends his entire existence discrediting the sides achievements, has a childish hatred for the coach, who reckons much of what he has achieved is through luck or the opposition being weaker
This at a time when the likes of France, Ireland, Argentina, Scotland and Italy are stronger than they have ever been. NZ and England are always strong and Oz have shown us they are back
The same clown who says we don’t need a coach to take on the likes of Argentina, Scotland and Oz
The same clown who did not know that one prop could pre engage before his partner
Best of all given the above this dumb clown is professing to school us
Delusional or plain stupid - take your pick
But clearly as rugby ignorant as ever - getting worse with age
But at least he has Buttplug on side - way up his arse
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There has been some serious schooling on the Board over the last few days. It’s time to summarize:
1 Dr Lucky’s Boks have benefitted from declining opposition. All of the teams they play 2 times a year have been weaker. Bargie peaked in the rankings at 3 in 2007 and have never been the same since. Oz hasn’t been a force since 2015. And NZ. is at the weakest since readmission. By contrast Ireland and France are better, but we only play them about a third as much. So there has been a structural shift to our advantage
2 Our scrum dominance has been a cornerstone of our success. Here’s Cole talking about the Bok scrum:
. There were those five-metre goal-line scrums where they were literally going through Argentina; there’s not a lot you can do if you’re defending. If you stay up, you’re just going backwards."
Cole also touched on the ripple effect of the Springboks' scrum dominance. According to him, it's not just about the immediate gain of yards or a penalty. The psychological toll it takes on the opponents is just as devastating. "Every knock-on or fumble, you know you’re giving them a penalty and defending another 15 phases. That pressure builds – it’s psychological as much as physical," he explained.
Throughout the Rugby Championship, the stats were almost as impressive as the scrum itself. The Boks racked up a staggering 19 scrum penalties, leaving their closest competitor, New Zealand, in the dust with just eight. It's clear that when it comes to scrum time, the Springboks are in a league of their own, turning what might seem like a mere set piece into a battleground where they are the undisputed champions.
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I have made that point with the usual denials. When you know a handling error is going to lead to 3 points it changes your game.
3 We have an incredibly mature team with experienced leaders. So when I said to illustrate, that we could beat Bargie without our coaches to dramatize this, it was inevitable that Porker and clueless Mike would claim I said we don’t need coaching. Obviously not true….but we could play Bargie leaving our coaches at home and win. Why? Because of dominance
There are only 5 teams that should ever beat the Boks…..France, Ireland, England, Oz and NZ. Because of dominance….tail end of the probability events can happen. But we are so much more physical than all the other teams it should never be a contest.
4 The silly stuff….Clarkson engaging early to dominate Wessels. There is zero evidence if you watch the scrum in slow motion. And as Chat affirms there isn’t one reference to this anywhere on the Web except for Chat sites….guess which one. A single prop can’t engage early with any force being transferred…completely bogus. Chat agrees.
5 Erasmus is a genius. Nope but is he the best coach out there.. Certainly he is the most successful. But would a Schmidt do better with our talent pool which is clearly the best with 9 out of 15 Boks in the RC team of the championship?
Maybe not, South Africa is a very complicated country culturally and our rugby is deeply embedded in the culture. Erasmus also instinctively did the right thing in 2018, he started rebuilding our forward strength, which helped us to the best game we have played in the last 20 years, the 2019 RWC final. It had everything, brilliant goal line defense, great scrumming by the Beast, Kolbe and Am’s magic….Pollard the calm dead eye.
What followed has been disappointing up until the two blow outs this year when we finally stopped box kicking. It wasn’t very sophisticated, but it was intense.
So who gets the credit Sacha and Willemse for initiating the change….you can’t change playing styles without changing players. Or the coaches…..Brown, Erasmus for hiring Brown.
But then the dash of reality. We have to win against Bargie and we produce another WC knockout game…..maul based tries, the order of the boot….ramped up defense. It becomes another arm wrestle just like the WC knockouts and we win with a crucial Bargie kick hitting the uprights and Moody getting only a penalty for what 9 out of 10 refs would have called a second yellow. And we win by 2 points. And of course Bargie aren’t playing in the Big Apple they are playing at a neutral site
Once again it’s hard to claim we are committed to anything but arm wrestles. Still we win what looked to be a tough RC at the outset and there is little doubt we are the best team
And so we move on to the northern challenge. Ireland and France, these are going to be passionate rugby matches….80 minutes of drama, with so many questions still unanswered after the RC and the WC. I suspect one if not both of these games will be close. Will we have the courage to keep playing expansive rugby….can we bring ourselves to win a big match by 5 points with a backline try. Maybe this NH tour will tell us