Age of the Bok squad playing Scotland…

….exactly 30. It makes a mockery of the wailing about age that accompanied HM’s tenure. The Bok side that played NZ in the 2015 WC semi averaged 28 years. And normally one would expect the RWC to be peak age as players tend to delay retiring until after the WC.

So it’s quite possible we will go into RWC 2027 with a side pushing around 32 years. Hell even our newbies are old, like Grant Williams at 28.

Is this a bad thing? That’s not entirely clear, if any side ran out of gas yesterday it was Scotland. And playing with virtually two forward units certainly makes it easier even if it’s risky.

As a long time supporter of incumbents that are still effective this vindicates that belief. But some day there is going to be a reckoning. There were 7 players on Saturday 33 years or older…even Novak Djokovic  eventually hit a brick wall 

This believe is obviously short lived. It was clear to see that the years is catching up with a lot of those incumbents.

Was it a AB, OZ or Ireland team we would not have managed to win. It was a poor showing that looked old.

Old in our players, old in our game plan . The only thing that is still working somehow, is our defence and scrum, that is when the right Personnel is scrumming.

If the wrong guys are there, then our powerful Bok Scrum becomes mediocre.

On more than one occasion the Scotties were challenging our defence and it really looked like they found the way thru.

But in the end they were there own worst enemy and played into the Bok hands.

Also tony Brown is supposed to be working on structures for new attack, but none of that was really noticeable last night.

This style of ours, players and the Coach is steering into something that might just make us crash heavily again.

No proper building towards the future is done in player depth.

Why is Brown even there if he doesn’t have much impact at all? Or is he getting reigned in?

And Rassie keeps on building with the oldies like they were 20 years old….He is More bloody worried helping players reaching there desired number of caps?!

Not building a new team will definitely come back and bite him in the Backside….

Maybe things will change in 25, but he keeps on persisting with Dumb combinations and same old Game Plan from 5 years ago ….

We should not be struggling against a Scottish team like this…

"This believe is obviously short lived. It was clear to see that the years is catching up with a lot of those incumbents."

Who exactly? I think Willie and Makazole had decent games...and we know they are probably on their last Bok outing...Am and Pollard were a bit rusty...Eben was MOM...PSDT had a good match...we weren't at our best, but it wasn't due to the ou manne...the youngsters weren't much better either...

M I’m also not clear on what Tony Brown has achieved. Apart from Snyman our forwards are poor at interpassing. And our backs look exactly the same.

Well for me Draad it was Am , Bongi, one Of my Favourites but Mostert looks really down, I hope he gets back to his old self.

Even guys like Eben, Pollard and Willie took some time to really get going.

All I am trying to say is that they are not getting younger…..Reasonably speaking who will make WC 27 and who won’t?

And the one’s that is earmarked to not make it, how long will they still be allowed to play before being replaced by the new incumbents?

If the coach has allocated anybody in particular to replace some of the incumbents, is another story all together.

That’s the golden question…. For me more of the new incumbents should be playing already.

Yes Moz i am not sure how much Brown is allowed to change??

That is what it looks like to me, that Rassie is sitting on his head and only allowing increment changes….

But it’s really hard to spot the changes and I think it’s because they not there??

So far this year we played 10 tests and lost two wining  strig of trophies as a result.   So Mpower  and Mozart tried to becme howling Priima Donnas shouting doom and gloom.

Insofar a epayig stuyle is concerned it is celar that it is working/   In respect of backline attack is concerned  there is an old saying - nobody can turn shit into butter,   That is what exactly happened on Sunday - the backline malfunctioned and  was substadard,     Analyzing wgata ctually hapened is that Esterhuizenw as the main problem in that backline.    He killed every possibility of the ball eve reaching the wings,   

By the way elsewhere you came up with a real gem.   You wrote elsewhere that rather than Pollard rushing up and missing tackles he should stay back and Esterhuizen should rush up  instead of Pollard,    Sorry  but that kind of thing cause major gaps in defense which opponents could run through.

Here’s the rewritten version:

This year, we’ve played 10 tests and lost two, ending our winning streak of trophies as a result. Mpower and Mozart tried to become howling prima donnas, shouting doom and gloom.

As far as our playing style goes, it’s clear that it’s working. However, regarding the backline attack, there’s an old saying—“nobody can turn bad into good”—and that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. The backline was substandard and malfunctioned. Analyzing what actually happened, it was clear that Esterhuizen was the main issue in the backline. He killed every opportunity for the ball to reach the wings.

Elsewhere, you mentioned an interesting idea that rather than Pollard rushing up and missing tackles, he should stay back while Esterhuizen rushes up instead. Unfortunately