SA Rugby

I will stick to the Discovery channel when the Boks are playing.That performance was simply pathetic.Watching the same game plan week in and week out has become utterly boring.I've had enough.

One swallow doesn't make a summer ..they will bounce back and HM will prove to be a great coach in time..GO BOKKE!!!!

Titch Wrote:

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> One swallow doesn't make a summer ..they will
> bounce back and HM will prove to be a great coach
> in time..GO BOKKE!!!!


You right Titch with this team and the blinkers the coach is wearing it will take more than 3 summers -the all blacks are going to give us the biggest hiding we have ever had I don't even want to watch that game .And it isn't only the coach the players just don't have the BALLS I am going to take a bet today here in rainey Eng and I should get 10/1 that SA will loose with more than 30 pts

NEVER thought it would come about, but luckily had a small cover-bet and recovered losses on ROOI NOOI win (Vaal 23rd) x SA to draw @ 72/1

Denoting an intimidating atmosphere & increasing frustration by the Boks as the game progressed – yet glad they did not go down with a loss which would have been 100 times worse

.........

was also hoping that the Shucks-result would have been a closer affair!

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i watched game and i believe we hv the talent to be the best rugby nation,but unfortunately i dont believe we will get anywhere with this coach.he still believes in bulls rugby of yesteryear and i dont believe he is equipped with necessary skills to lead our boks into this new era or modern rugby.why dont they get rid of hm now and bring in n mallet to coach our team and then we will be no.1 in 2 seasons with the talented players we hv available in this country.the current coach looks out of his depth and cant change our style of play wen plan a doesnt work.does he even hv a plan b or c?argentina is only supposed to beat us in tennis,football and polo,not rugby which is our strength.time for powers that be to make the tough choice,do they stick with h m or get rid of him b4 its too late.

moose Wrote:
I am going
> to take a bet today here in rainey Eng and I
> should get 10/1 that SA will loose with more than
> 30 pts

The good news is that you will get a lot bigger odds than 10/1 but the bad news is that you gonna do your tom

Can't always blame the coach. The captain should make some decisions himself if he sees that the game plan is not working, but I don't rate Jean. He was in space 3 times yesterday and cannot link up with his speedsters. If Sonny-Bill get into space like that, the off-load is made to perfection and it brings the points. We need some-one to straighten the line, but then you need the play from 8,9 & 10 to be quick and creative. Dan Carter is a master at 10. Pat Lambie attack's the advantage line and is quick of both feet. Unfortunately our 8,9 & 10 is average and by the time the ball get to the centres, they are against the touch line. The current game-plan is; Kick & chase, Alberts trying to get over the advantage line and swing the ball and go no-where slowly. We have all the talent, but the combinations ain't working.

I'll get to the Boks in due course but I do think that a balanced view is required :

NZ - Most posters laud the All Blacks unconditionally. Why? For the team that supposedly has the BEST backline in the competition bar none they managed ONE try against a journeyman Australian team on their favoured Eden Park in good conditions. Hardly legendary stuff.

Aus - Mediocre but admittedly hamstrung by injuries. Unhappily for SA in two weeks time they are likely to get better.

Arg - Very hard to beat in S America as France & England will attest. NZ also scraped in the last time they played there. Furthermore their style is very well suited to blunt SA and they improved markedly from their opening effort. The failure of the Boks to grab the 4 try bonus last week should have been a warning that their performance improved the longer the game went on at Newlands.

SA - The Springboks are not an 80 minute team. They usually play like world beaters for the first 20 whilst the remainder varies between moderate to awful. I don't know why but many of their matches take that form.

We are obsessed with testosterone laden oafs. An indictment of ALL South African rugby is that the biggest cheers are often reserved for 60 metre touch finders or injury inducing 'hits'. I recently watched an SA U20 'star' admit on national TV that 'sometimes he jus likes to hurt the ou'. And we are always up for responding to niggle. What suckers.

I often wonder if our players are just simply thick. By way of an example :

By the 70th minute of yesterday's Currie Cup clash between WP & the Lions the visitors were 7 points adrift and had the home side under siege. After successive infringements C J van der Linde was yellow carded and WP were awarded a penalty. Logic would suggest that it might have been a good time to take the scrum as the defenders were short a man and a vital prop to boot. Scrumming would furthermore draw 7 defenders out of the defensive line. Instead WP took a tap. ( Fortunately for them they did actually manage to score but only after a couple of abortive surges to the line ). Nevertheless they did still manage to lose the match minutes later against 14 players.

My mantra for years has been - We are over coached and under trained. We have snuffed out any suggestion of the X factor or creativity and become painfully easy to counteract. Brig Buurman Van Zyl would have been delighted. The short period where the Bulls dominated has seriously impaired our rugby because every SA franchise has followed suit with a 'kick and charge' approach. Historically SA rugby prospered because we married northern grunt to southern sleight of hand. No more. In fact - almost anyone who embraces the concept of actually playing rugby is excluded from consideration. I wonder what Danie Gerber and the Du Plessis brothers (particuarly Michael & Carel) think.

As for the obsession with size - p-l-e-a-s-e. Our backrow was so ponderous yesterday they had difficulty in getting to the breakdown let alone dominating it. And does anyone even think of LOOKING for the offload? I can think of dozens of legends who were SMALL. So is this the basis for ignoring players such as Brussow and Aplon to name just two?

Yet contrary to the prevailing mood I respect Meyer and believe he is capable of turning things around. But there are going to have to be changes and winning in Perth remains our first priority.

Johan Goosen & Duane Vermeulen in and JJ Engelbrecht & Keegan Daniel out. Francois Louw also included.

Backs:

Jean de Villiers (captain), Bryan Habana, Johan Goosen, Francois Hougaard, Juan de Jongh, Zane Kirchner, Patrick Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo, Ruan Pienaar, Frans Steyn, Morne Steyn, Jano Vermaak

Forwards:

Willem Alberts, Andries Bekker, Craig Burden, Pat Cilliers, Marcell Coetzee, Jannie du Plessis, Eben Etzebeth, Dean Greyling, Juandre Kruger, Tiaan Liebenberg, Francois Louw, Tendai Mtawarira, Jacques Potgieter, Adriaan Strauss, Flip van der Merwe, Duane Vermeulen

Cool. I/We were calling for Duane to come into the side. Hope he does well and cements his place in the Bok squad. I think the boks are due a change in that 8th man position and i reckon he is the right man for the job. I just hope they don't lose sight of "the stongman" who more often than not gets over the gainline. I will play him in the number 7 jersey......now that's if i was the bok coach

As for Goosen....what a great talent. I just hope they nurse him into the squad, cos he is potentially going to be a bok flyhalf for a decade.

The way the Boks are playing though, i cannot see them winning many games in this caste series........i genuinely hope i am wrong. The coach needs to look at his game plan or they are going to get unstuck against the Wallablies and the All blacks.

I have been calling for de Jongh's inclusion all along, but have to wonder if there is any strategy involved in the team selection:

1. Most agree that we are slow to the breakdown, not sure that adding Louw and Vermeulen can solve that problem.
2. JJ Engelbrecht dropped without being giving the opportunity to prove himself - why was he then picked in the first place?
3. Goosen most probably the solution in the longer term, but imo he did not play well in the 50 minutes he was on the field last week - certainly did not merit inclusion on that performance.

Can't see the Boks picking up any points in Aus and NZ

watching new zealand vs pumas game and i must say the pumas are a very decent team to be doing so well at half time and altho conditions are bad they are showing that they are a better team than everyone thinks.the spread for this game is new zealand -27.5 and having backed pumas on +27.5 i feel pretty confident of winning my bet unless pumas hv a total meltdown in 2nd half.lol