Lambie’s fearless
12 May 2011
JON CARDINELLI, writing in SA Rugby magazine, says South Africa’s great prodigy continues to exceed expectations.
Pat Lambie can’t miss. He kicks six out of six against the Melbourne Rebels, and calls kicking consultant Braam van Straaten after the Sharks’ victory. ‘Coach, I’m hitting the ball so sweetly, it feels like I can’t miss,’ he says. That rare combination of skill and composure is once again evident as he nails three out of three the very next week.
In October 2010, SA Rugby magazine hailed the arrival of a special talent. Lambie exhibited all the attributes of a match-winning flyhalf, although at the time of writing, he was yet to substantiate the speculation; he was yet to take control. That article was written about a promising teenager, and few could have predicted the accelerated metamorphosis he would undergo in the next five months.
Lambie has ascended; he has begun to spread his wings. He led the Sharks to a Currie Cup title with a dazzling all-round display against Western Province. The sharp tactical probes, the visionary distribution and, of course, the daring dart and fend on Schalk Burger that epitomised his audacity. That moment alone will go down in domestic history, but on a longer timeline, it will serve as a precursor to greater deeds.
It’s an unshakeable confidence that’s come to mark him more than his natural feel for the game. Lambie believes he can’t miss, and through his increasingly impressive feats, more and more people are beginning to share this confidence.
Van Straaten picked up on that defining quality in the build-up to the 2010 Currie Cup final. Tasked with refining Lambie’s kicking technique, Van Straaten was surprised by the youngster’s penchant for responsibility. Van Straaten and Lambie spent a total of five hours during that final week discussing technique and practising an array of kicks, and it formed the basis for what was to become a prosperous working relationship.
They linked up again during the Sharks’ pre-season, and Lambie remained ambitious. While firmly entrenched as the first-choice flyhalf, there was still much to prove. There were other factors that contributed to his erratic goal-kicking on the Springbok tour of the home nations, but it was clear that his technique was holding him back.
‘There were some fundamental flaws that needed correcting,’ says Van Straaten, a former Springbok flyhalf with a reputation for goal-kicking accuracy. ‘His body position was wrong and his last step towards the ball wasn’t quite right. It took quite a while to fix, but as we saw during the early stages of Super Rugby this year, that hard work has paid off.
‘For a developing player like Pat, you want him exposed to as much ball as possible. This applies to kicking as much as it does to other areas of his game. I’d noticed that the Sharks used Stefan Terblanche as their primary kicker when they kicked for touch, and so I spoke to the Sharks’ coaches and suggested that Pat take on that responsibility. The good habits he’d picked up after working on his goal-kicking were carried across to his kicking out of hand, and because he got a feel for kicking the ball to touch early in the game, he would have some rhythm before kicking for goal.’
The Sharks won four of their first five matches and Lambie boasted a goal-kicking average of 86%. The improvement in his tactical game was also evident, and if not for a finger fracture that sidelined him for three weeks, he may have continued to top the point-scoring table.
While the Sharks toured Australasia, Lambie stayed in close contact with Van Straaten. The latter continued to analyse Lambie’s kicking performances and mail him video clips and feedback. It was after the Sharks beat the Rebels 34-32 in Melbourne and Lambie kicked six out of six that Van Straaten received a phone call from his prodigy.
‘It was a proud moment for me as a coach,’ recalls Van Straaten. ‘We had changed his kicking style and he’d put in the work, and he had progressed to the point where he felt like he just couldn’t miss. And it wasn’t a case of arrogance or over-confidence. He was kicking like an absolute king.’
Lambie’s performances with the boot and with ball in hand have not gone unnoticed. There’s a healthy appreciation for the 20-year-old in Sharks country, while members of the Springbok management are keeping a close eye on his progress.
He already has four Test caps and was on the field when South Africa completed wins against Ireland, Wales and England last year. But whether he gained anything from that northern sojourn is a point of contention.
Before that touring squad was announced, Sharks coach John Plumtree said that it wasn’t ‘necessary’ for Lambie to be involved. Having watched the four Tests and the questionable manner in which Lambie was managed, you’d have to agree that the youngster would have been better served continuing his development in a Sharks jumper. The Bok management introduced Lambie from the bench at odd times, and even the softest of critics would have viewed it as an example of a player being set up to fail. Morné Steyn was in great goal-kicking form, and yet coach Peter de Villiers decided to trade Steyn for Lambie at times when the game was still in the balance.
Lambie admitted that he would have liked a start, but tempered the talk of frustration by adding that the tour provided him with good exposure to the Bok systems. Sharks assistant coach Grant Bashford has been impressed with Lambie’s progress in Super Rugby, and suggests that the flyhalf took the whole Bok experience in his stride.
‘I’m not sure that he added anything to his game after touring with the Boks, but he certainly didn’t do himself a discredit,’ says Bashford. ‘A great deal of work has been done since his return, and he continues to impress everybody, not only with his skill, but also with his attitude.
‘We always felt he would end up at flyhalf, but fate certainly had a hand in his move to the position as early as last year. He came into the Super 14 side as a fullback because Adi Jacobs was out injured and we had to move Stefan Terblanche to outside centre. Then we moved Pat to No 12 in the Currie Cup and eventually to flyhalf when Steve Meyer suffered that big knee injury. Sometimes these things happen for the best.’
Butch James must start at No 10 for the Boks at this year’s World Cup, as he has the all-round game as well as the experience of having won the tournament in 2007. Lambie is the future of South African rugby, but history will show that experienced teams win World Cups.
There is still value in taking the 20-year-old to New Zealand and exposing him to a tournament of this magnitude. He’s handled everything the rugby world has thrown at him, and while it’s a travesty of justice that a starting opportunity didn’t come his way last November, Lambie’s shown a temperament that, like the rest of his skills set, is in another class.
‘Pat has so much time on the ball, he never gets rattled,’ says Bashford. ‘Sure, he’s got a great forward platform to play off, but he’s made the most of that possession.
‘He’s responded fantastically to the responsibility that’s been offered to him. He’s an old head on young shoulders, he makes the big calls and he’s asked for the responsibility to kick. He also has the respect of the younger and senior players. Everybody backs him to make the big decisions.’
And despite his perceived lack of size, he’s stood up to the physical intensity of top-flight rugby. Even in the matches where his forwards have been under pressure, as was the case in that loss to the Chiefs, he doesn’t shirk his defensive duties.
‘Pat’s not exactly small at 92kg,’ says Bashford. ‘His tackle efficiency [before he was sidelined for three weeks] is 93%, so he looks after that all-important flyhalf channel. It’s a channel every team targets nowadays, and Pat’s proved he can handle that pressure.’
The cynics have drawn parallels between Lambie and Frans Steyn, Ruan Pienaar and Brent Russell, but the fact that Lambie played fullback before flyhalf doesn’t mean that he’s doomed to a career as a utility. There was much debate about his best position in 2010, but the argument is now settled. Lambie is a flyhalf. End of story.
At a tender age, Lambie already offers more than Frans Steyn and Russell. Steyn never had the sharp decision-making skills required of a top-class 10, while Russell’s kicking game was a perpetual shortcoming. Pienaar had all the attributes but was never backed in the position, and at times struggled for confidence. It’s clear that Lambie has no such problem. Ask Van Straaten. Ask Bashford. Ask the kid himself. He can’t miss.
‘Pat’s already light years ahead of other players his age,’ says Van Straaten. ‘That kind of calmness under pressure usually comes with experience, but he’s already
there. He’s got all the time in the world, whether he’s running with the ball or kicking it. It’s a mark of the really good players.
‘He has time on his side, and I’d like to see him used in the Tri-Nations before the World Cup. Test rugby has more pressure and variables than Super Rugby. I’d like to see him entrusted with that responsibility, and I’d be surprised if he didn’t pass that test.’
– This article first appeared in the May issue of SA Rugby magazine. The June issue will be on sale from Wednesday, 18 May.
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471 Comments
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12 May 2011, 19:26 pm
Black Panther…
aka Panty, Blackie, Pants, Black Pants, Sheepshagger…etc
and then “I” for short…
12 May 2011, 19:27 pm
that was a quote, Boy George.
do YOU know who said it ?
I
think
I
know who said it.
what don’t YOU tell us before you
come and go’ooooooooooo
you
come and go’ooooooooooo
12 May 2011, 19:30 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-347:
Did you see the stills of the guy who hit him? No emotion whatsover, I think he was as high as a kite.
I suppose you need to take something before watching Hearts
12 May 2011, 19:30 pm
Gunther
‘scheming’ ?
exactly
just like I said
gossip
12 May 2011, 19:31 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-348: Just to answer your one query to me the other night… Whether Ricky is a Vegan…
To answer: NO…
I would say Ricky is the first Carnivorous Warthog on the Planet… Living proof of evolution…
Vegan to Carnivore… I would call that progress… (Ricky might have overdone it though, to be fair)
12 May 2011, 19:31 pm
Hey Boy George
I suppose you could always refer to yourself in the 3rd Person
again
and
again
and
again…..
12 May 2011, 19:32 pm
One of my mates who was at the game came up with ‘the fan hits the shiit’
12 May 2011, 19:32 pm
@gunther(gunther)-349:
12 May 2011, 19:33 pm
Somebody posted an interesting little scenario about to transpire through November of this year, its a Utube video where Nasa been tracking a comet and Asteroid 2005 YU55 which Meets Comet Elenin’s (Second Sun) Debris Tail at Earth on Nov 9,
All this mud slinging and handbag swapping across the oceans might just come down to an abrupt halt round about then.
12 May 2011, 19:35 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-350: Players to a certain extent…
More Jim Telfer… No “Everest” or “Honest Rugby Player” speeches…
12 May 2011, 19:35 pm
you just love to joke about serious realities
wait till the humongous humorous joke happens to fall around about your deluded idiotic self righteous nincompoop ears
12 May 2011, 19:36 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-352: “I”, you addressing me?
12 May 2011, 19:37 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-356: “I”, you know HG is always at your service…
12 May 2011, 19:39 pm
actually the reality of the saga is one imbecile Herr Goon is the perfect living example of human devolution in nature… without any doubts here is perfect conspicuous proof that devolution has absolutely taken place in the homosapien species.. right before our very own eyes on a rugby blog the evidence is outright overwhelming.
12 May 2011, 19:41 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-359: Sweet… a bedtime Annunaki story…
12 May 2011, 19:42 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-353: LOLLL!
12 May 2011, 19:42 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-359:
Jeez.
Sounds like its coming from Uranus.
12 May 2011, 19:44 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-364: Red meat = Vitamin B = brain development = intelligence = intellect = logic = rational…
= devolution…???
Someones been eating too many legumes…
12 May 2011, 19:46 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-360:
I’m not sure how you could tell. Did you ever see the documentary of the 97 Lions tour?
Telfer’s speeches were like a hospital patient flatlining…
bbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppp
12 May 2011, 19:48 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-368: Take the lead from Pumba January… Its never too late for a vegan to eat McDonalds…
Yes, its not perfect, you have to walk through doors sideways, but bad breath is never as much of a problem again
12 May 2011, 19:48 pm
Nope its coming straight from NASA’s very own sky lab which they wanna keep hush hush just in case schmucks like you go and buy up all the uranium protection you can find and stop investing in old bottles of wine that gonna mean pretty much zilch when comet Elinen comes dancing around.. SBW ain’t got quite half the dance moves that Comet Elinen hands out she been dancing around Haiti, Japan and Christchurch already and her little dance ain’t quite over yet.
12 May 2011, 19:49 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-369: The best rugger blood warming speeches ever… An authentic version of Pacino’s “Inches”…
Legend… and a Scot to boot.
12 May 2011, 19:50 pm
Got to go….
12 May 2011, 19:53 pm
Red Meat = rotting carrion butchered and slaughtered a few months before and frozen in Pick and Pay and Woolworths butcheries before schmucks like you go and burn it on some coals or else stick it in the microwave to try get it alive again.
Fokol value in red meat and more so the actual ingredients are deader than dead and rotting further in your legume digestive tract designed gluttony confused gut.
You think you smart… lemme tell you something moron you thicker than a moegoe thats about to see his highfalutin arse come collapsing around his dumbass dodo ears.
12 May 2011, 19:55 pm
run cowboy run, Banshees screeching, she just aching to hang you up by your short and confused curlies
12 May 2011, 19:55 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-371:
Roger that.
Will hit the wine cellar hard.
Also stock up on fair trade rhubarb and rooibos.
12 May 2011, 20:05 pm
joost very ill…see news 24
12 May 2011, 20:06 pm
@gunther(gunther)-376: you better do something like that and get the hell out of low lying coastal regions
I’m pretty much stuffed if one of those things come through here… nowhere out this valley in any hurry and I ain’t got the financial clout to do anything about it now except get into the Nissan and head North before October.
12 May 2011, 20:09 pm
@grant10(grant10)-377:
????????
Stripperitis?
12 May 2011, 20:09 pm
Sad news just in, Joost van der Westhuizen has been diagnosed with a similar disease that struck down Andre Venter, but apparently much worse.
Thoughts and prayers with Joost and his family.
12 May 2011, 20:12 pm
people pooh pooh realities like polarity shifts of the planet as if they haven’t happened before.. If they happened before whats to stop them happening again?
We somehow think we immune from nature… more beer and braaivleis and rooi wyn en rooi vleis the better,… till reality comes smack you in the face.. then you gonna wake up in an almighty hurry..
HG read some stuff on Annunaki and pooh pooh pooh… till he goes boo boo boo hoo but the poor schmuck got no fathom of a clue as to who the hell his actual ancestors are or were. Blue eyed blond haired Aryans coming out of India and the Caucuses so where the hell they originate from… Africa?
Go study your Mesopotamian history and see who you might or might not be… then come pooh pooh pooh like Winney and Ey Aw up the pooh tree.
12 May 2011, 20:13 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-380: very sad news
12 May 2011, 20:13 pm
@grant10(grant10)-377:
Shiit, just awful.
12 May 2011, 20:14 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-380:
@gunther(gunther)-379:
Not good at all.
That’s a rare disease.
Very sad.
Best of luck to him and his family.
12 May 2011, 20:15 pm
Details here via Brenden Nel
http://www.supersport.com/rugby/sa-rugby/news/110512/Joost_fighting_for_his_health
12 May 2011, 20:16 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-381:
Have you got some links about this Skop? I see you mention youtube but I can’t get video here.
12 May 2011, 20:16 pm
That’s nature… whats good for the goose is just as good for the gander… keep on braaing those tjops boys before those tjops start braaing you.
Reality is this place is illusion.. better get to grips with the reality of it
just like Joost just found out… so every single one else gonna be finding it out sooner or later.. and it ain’t very far round the corner… better believe it … and good.
12 May 2011, 20:17 pm
agreed gunther , joost was a brilliant rugga player
12 May 2011, 20:19 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-387:
Huh?
12 May 2011, 20:20 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-389:
12 May 2011, 20:21 pm
@PissAnt(PissAnt)-380:
thats terrible
1 of the true Greats, best of luck to Joost.
12 May 2011, 20:30 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-387: Don’t mean to pooh pooh your story here, but what exactly is the point you seem to be labouring? You have a go at braaivleis, rooiwyn & bier culture, saying that we’re all going to be smited (or is that smut?) by some angry comet. But so what? If we’re all fooked, then all the more reason to indulge now. It’s times like these that you must regret wasting your life on tofu, chick peas and beetroot juice.
12 May 2011, 20:49 pm
gotta apologize was booted out here with a power failure
For Jocky @@JockBok(JockBok)-386:
Its a Utube video of a direct Nasa link as to how they tracking this thing which is coming pretty darn near from end October and closest at 8-9 Nov. this year.
I posted one link on that nuclear motherless fallout thread the other day a little while before the warthog skewing hackneyed gobbledygook screwball decided to try his oneupmanship red meat pandering idiotic ploys
here it is again
224.upyoraski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8KxbY248I&feature=related
Its just one link of a few where this one guy has studied how every time it aligns between earth and moon and sun there’s an earth quake and a pretty massive one and it aligned same time as Haiti earth quake and Christchurch and Japan and next time it aligns its only something like 300Au away and right within our solar orbit.. and some these guys are getting pretty darn concerned.
12 May 2011, 20:55 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-393:
Bugger, ‘This video has been removed by the user’
I’ll try a few searches.
12 May 2011, 20:57 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-392:
You gotta decide for yourself what your priorities are.. if they are braaivleis beer and rooi wyn go right ahead.. but like Joost just found out… none of this braai vleis bier and rooi wyn culture gonna bring you anywhere near to what you actual concerns or your actual real priorities are here on this illusionary little pantomime ferris wheel we going round and round on this merry mayhem carousel for.
History is very short… better check out how long humanity been at this short span pinnacle of his so called evolution and check just how quick it all gets dissipated back to the beginning once again… then consider your own personal responsibility here for what its worth and what the hell you actually doing inhabiting a homosapien body for.
12 May 2011, 21:01 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-394:
There a few others maybe the fear factor was too close for comfort and Nasa or somebody told him to remove it.
I’ll check around if there any others worth looking at..
Its not about doomsday glooms day we concerned with this stuff… its actually about reality.. because this little planet is like a wafting fig leaf in the cosmic breeze and anytime some sun or planet or meteorite or comet force of nature decide to sneeze out there we may just find we heading for a little hiccup or two around the next orbit, as we done plenty times before… only we just don’t remember the last time around.
12 May 2011, 21:03 pm
One thing I’ve come to realise about the types that reckon themselves deep and spiritual (and above us mortals who prefer to indulge in the here and now) is that they love to speak in vague riddles, because specifics will expose the emperor as pretty darn naked. So when they speak of “priorities” and “important things”, they very seldom put their ***** on the block with crystal clarity. They prefer to feed the mystique, because that’s all they normally have. Just saying.
12 May 2011, 21:04 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-304: Yup, I stand corrected. I though you were referring the last time ABs lost to them in the WC as since then it did not look like happening again.
12 May 2011, 21:04 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-395:
I was reading last night, that if the life span of Earth is taken as 24 hours, humans arrived 1 minute and 13 seconds ago.
12 May 2011, 21:07 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-396:
Just had a nose about. On November 8th, it will pass inside the moons orbit. Fark me that’s close.
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