anyway. away too. bye >

Nite all

1. Henry “The Lem” Honiball
2. Butch “The Butcher” James
3. Meyer Bosman – you mean the two games he played for SA?
4. Andre Pretorius – i wouldn’t rate him this high.. do you.. mmm. reserve judgement
5. Pat Lambie – not a regular i consider.
6. Jannie de Beer – he was ok – better than pretorius
7. Jaco Pretorius – his tackling at 15 and wing was better than at 10.
8. Joel Stransky – more than 15 years ago

braam v straatten.
louis koen.

morne is at least on par with everybody from 4 upwards. and bosman doesn’t count imo.
we could maybe maybe to a wider search for all SA 10′s.. so i’ll say i’ve made a rather general statement. my point is though… morne got exposed at 15.. that is where this fallacy is coming from and knee jerk reaction.
NObody was complaining about his defence before wc. now because he was the glaring runned over guy… everybody is saying he is a bad defender. i don’t buy it. can he improve.. yes, he should work on his defence because it is the easiest place where he can to add to his game.

btw bosman has been really useles at centre these days. i also rated him big time first year or two. now i don’t.

If we play Smit and Spies vs Fiji we are asking for some more bitter medicine we can well do without right now… same goes for FdP in my book… Hougaard would be FAR better vs the islanders than FdP. Spies can come off bench he may even be an asset when they are tiring and he is fresh… but when they are fresh he is totally ineffective and a passenger.. as is the aura Smit who’s the worst liability of the lot

thing about FdP.. he has always! been “slow” in getting the ball out. some guys like their 9′s to be quick all the time. run run run. and service service service.

FdP has never been that kind of scrummie. funnily enough. he varies the pace of the ball to the backs. i have also gotten very frustrated by it in the past. and still do. but he does that. if you think about it? was that one of the things that has made him so good in the past… i don’t know.

i understand that you propose to change the status quo from time to time. and i don’t mind certain players being picked and others not. i think we should keep in mind their strengths. after every game the easy-to-spot errors are being highlighted to such an extent that many observers forget to observe the plenty value that the same guys also added.

i would play FdP for another game or two to get his confidence back to where it should be. i think he is moving over the mental problem he’s had since coming back into S15 earlier the year. ok…it’s taken him a while.. but he’s nearly there.

for fiji
Fdp, butch, hougaard, JdJ, Fourie, steyn/lambie.

with lambie, habana and morne bench.

1. Henry “The Lem” Honiball
2. Butch “The Butcher” James
3. Meyer Bosman
4. Andre Pretorius
5. Pat Lambie
6. Jannie de Beer
7. Jaco Pretorius
8. Joel Stransky
9. Morne Steyn

So where would he feature in the top 5?

I’m not concerned with Morne half as much as I am with FdP.. FdP sets the pace and momentum of the back line and Hougaard would have it humming a whole lot faster and more direct. My main concern with Morne is not so much his tackling but his lack of direction in getting the back line motoring where Butch , JdJ, Fourie would do. … Morne is not the problem in the back line or the team only he is not the solution either.. his primary function is to kick us out of trouble which he does very effectively.. Hence I even considered Morne at 12 at one point but now I reckon it won’t work though I rather have Butch 10 and Morne 12 than the other way around..

For Fiji I play
Frans, JPP, Fourie, JdJ, Aplon, Butch, Hougaard

I leave Habana, Morne, Lambie, Pienaar, Ndungane and FdP out… to decide who takes bench spots and whether we play a full front row on bench or a 4/3 split.

the welsh were up for this game like we were up for england 36-0. so we got a physical game. we even had 5/2 split, to make it safe. which almost also didn’t work out. expect a more focused and hardened approach from all involved in the next few outings.

problem started with the entire forward pack not knowing where to go. they were systematically being ground to a point where the were divided and conquered and because of that there was no pattern of defence in the backline with forwards supporting in defence in crucial times.

sure. the guy ran over morne that took the break. moerse. that’s happened to many backline players getting a forward -eight i think it was- running into a pass and hitting a defender ball and all and bursting through.

hell. is hook and williams now the underwoods of the world now that F Steyn bumped them on their axis – the both of them in one go.

there has never been a problem with morne’s defence to the point everybodys carrying on now. so why is it now such a big problem. he may not be honniball. or whoever convenient we can think of.

but hardly man. morne is easily in the top 5 tackling flyhalves we’ve had in the last 10/ 15 years. this is becoming a total classic case of adressing the symptom instead of the cause.

Would call up Mostert before relying on a fading Bakkies, and an injured Matfield.. and if Bekker is ready without playing any rugby for how long .. I dunno about that.

Brussow, Louw, Burger, loose trio with Alberts at 4 and Spies off bench would work fine for now. Especially against rest of the pools games where we not up against any stringent line out proponents..