Dudes, the Boks won't win this WC.
Considering our group and the most recent performances against those in it, are we really expecting a miracle?
There's also the fact that it's not good for the game for the same side to win it twice...and I don't care if people agree but rugby refs are dictated to by WR and blow according to what the bosses think will be best for the game.
My prediction is we crash out due to being both undercooked and at the wrong end of some shady refereeing.
probably, but not necessarily...
We'll be in it with a shot...until we're not.
We still have a solid team.
GO BOKKE!!!!
All talks to divert from the point of interest: the preparation. And the ongoing transformation.
SA rugby players are going to be physically different from what they are right now.
It is going to be easy to see in the shed weight. Players may lose like 10 kgs over three weeks.
Pointless to consider performances from players who are going to be physically different. That much different.
As much as I want the boks do well, I don't think this team deserves it. They haven't done anything to prove to me that they are on the right track. The All Black team of 2011 and 2015 was invincible. They just knew how to win.
Then we have this lot, yes we won the world cup and we didn't do so well in the first year under Rassie, 50% winning record. We then heat NZ in NZ which was a massive turning point and we had a really good championship in the same year. The team seemed to be dialed in and every player knew where they were.
Now, we blew Aus out of the water with a team that should probably be out first team. We sent our "best" team to new Zealand only for them to be completely blown out of the park.
We have 2 weeks to compose ourselves and yet we couldn't put the Argies away. We had so much confidence in the previous world cup cycle.
Now, we don't know who are first team is. We have talk of injured players being included in the world cup squad and the coaches are stuck with their favourite players that they'll never drop or afford other players an opportunity to push them out.
Will Mpimpi be selected ahead of Moodie and Arendse, will dud, mostert, Kwagga, lomp make it on the plane. Short answer, yes.
We haven't beaten any of the teams we faced in the last 12 months. I don't see how it will get better.
I have to agree, just not same energy in the team. I'll still shout for them and hope they can prove me wrong but I'm also practical on how they are doing.
It is not that I want them to lose, I just want them to be the number 1 team without any doubts.
All the current veterans look like a yard of the pace. Duanne is still strong but he doesn't have that zip he had. Willie still has the passing and kicking skill but is suspect in his tackling and never seem able to beat his man. He spends more and more time in the flyhalf channel these days
If the Boks play badly they wont win the RWC. An astounding feat of journalism.
Plum makes a good point regarding agendas. One very bad ref and you are gone as we have seen before.
Personally, I believe the Boks will rise to the challenge. Lets see the squad selection. How many quota players etc.
Not that many in form players of colour at the moment. Am is still finding his way back, mpimpi has gotten wors. Kolisi is injured. We have Orie that looks okay at club but had no influence on the game. Ox is still recovering from a pec muscle.
So we are forced to see players who out of form being picked for the squad, leaving half the team to carry the other half.
It will be a massive workload on these players.
There are no easy matches in our world cup pool to give players a chance to regain form.
Right now it is NZ and France to lose.
What I've see so far. It won't suprise me of NZ and FR knock out Ireland and SA in the quarters. That is if we can get out of the pool
The Boks are at their best at the WC. Apart from the Destroyli disaster which is an aberrant data point, the Boks lose narrowly if they lose at all.
We lost in extra time in the semis against eventual winners Oz in 99. Lost narrowly to Oz in a match where there were some very tight calls in 2011. And again it took a late Dud Allende defensive mistake to tank us in 2015.
The reason we flourish is probably the knockout format which makes teams cautious which plays into our strength in trench warfare.
This time around we have two tough pool matches, but I can’t see us losing both…which puts us in the knockouts. Given the pools that means we meet either France or the ABs. A tough ask regardless.
There hasn’t been much discussion of Arendse’s performance against the Bargies, but they certainly exploited him in the air and three tackles made/two missed contributed to our issues.
The worrying concern is that our defence numbers have fallen off a cliff. We rank as the least successful team of the top 10 test nations for tackling. Our lineout ranks bottom of the RC, our maul is not a feared weapon, our set pieces are unspectacular. We have speed, but those track runners are contributing to a lot of our problems. I'd say the 2003 side would beat this team. Keep in mind that the Boks were without Pretorius and Butch for the competition. Koen ruined what could have been a win. I'd say that side, though very rudimentary in its approach would be far too physical and would knock the stuffing out of this side. Physicality has been a proud aspect of Bok rugby, but we are not a physically imposing team. We have to go back a decade for the last time we saw a truly fearsome Bok side that totally dictated play. Some of this is due to selection, but I think the next-gen are soft, and they are not as intelligent as the golden era of Bok talent. Where are our Fouries, Jeans, Du Preezs, Matfields, Smits, Schalks, Habanas, JPs, Montys, etc? I see a terrible lack of skills. Speed is not skillful. Throwing horrible passes for the sake of it is not skillful. Guys like Mapimpi, Pollard, Am, and Willie are going backwards under Erasputin. Willie hasn't had a truly dominant test since 2015. He is like poison in the veins. They've bought into mediocrity. What I liked about Jake was that he would not accept a false sense of security, or talking sweet words to keep everyone happy. It was healthy dose of reality. He even did it to Schalk, who is one of his good friends. That's leadership. This team has no leadership.
The worrying factor is we don’t have a better coach, we are stuck with Tassie…..he is a good forward’s coach but the other side is not, as proven, his strong suit….and it looks dark in the future as we are in Darkie country: )
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