Comments on: Pienaar shines in Tigers torture

By: au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir...

au revoir mon tout noirs, au revoir... — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:21:31 +0000

ruan pienaar did sa rugby no favours.

By: Sasuke

Sasuke — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:12:45 +0000

He can still play a role for the Boks.

By: Taahirah

Taahirah — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:44:43 +0000

@cane-22: Aah. Some sanity. Many would give their leftnut to get the opportunities Ruan has had in the Bok jersey. Nothing against the guy, hell I named one of my dogs after him but he got a fair shot with the Boks and couldnt cut the mustard. Happy to see him settled in Ireland and by all accounts enjoying his rugby, that does not mean he is "the one that got away" though.

By: MCJ

MCJ — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:05:18 +0000

@Cane
@Justrugby

Well said. Agree with all u said there.

By: ashampoopaloo

ashampoopaloo — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:23:32 +0000

tie me kangaroo down sport showing his true yellow bellied boomerang colors – at least rather go sing waltzing Matilda loud and clear and stop pretending you a half baked displaced yarpie not knowing which side of the Indian ocean you actually belong

So Aussie got an over the hill Vickerman (ex SA) and a less than 2.00 m vintage Horwill to boast about, or else an aging Sharpe and the other youngster Simmons to call on and this Matilda here wanna pretend the 2.00 mt plus stocks are truly well endowed. Less its 37 year old hybrid Samo that gets him all wet behind the earlobes.

Only one sounding desperate and in a little denial gotta be Bruce chasing Sheila round the back of the porch before Crocodile Dundee gets to her first.

Thorn is about same size as Alberts / Strauss and smaller than Flip

Along with Wilhelm Steenkamp SA have at least 5 or 6 x 2 mt specialists in Steenkamp 1 & 2, Van Der Merwe 1 & 2, Bekker, Mostert, Bresler, Kruger, Etsebeth, Hargreaves, then we have the Thorn type hybrids in Juan Smith, Alberts, Deysel, Elstadt, Strauss and I would venture a whole host of others yet to descend on the rugby stage … so dream on cowgirl in the sand .. SA locking stocks are still way better endowed than your convict counterparts.. by some distance.

By: bryce_in_oz

bryce_in_oz — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:39:45 +0000

At least NZ are in the same situation… Australia however have never had such good blind-sider and REAL lock (200cm’s/115kg’s plus) stocks…

By: bryce_in_oz

bryce_in_oz — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:36:15 +0000

@garth-3: Take out Bekker and there is not one 'world class' lock in RSA... Hope Etzabeth and a few other youngsters come through... @ashampoopaloo-5: Desperation that list... half of them are retreaded flankers that aren't even world class in that postion, a quarter are unproven, the other quarter failures... Yep you're desperate!

By: justrugby

justrugby — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:05:39 +0000

Judge the ability /class of your scrum half when his pack is struggling. Ruan will always look ok when his pack is dominating. It is when they (pack) are under pressure that Ruan cracks like cheap pollyfilla !!!

Even last night he was nothing more than a very good link but I never saw him take a decisive break throughout the whole game, no snipes or asking to many questions. His kicking was superb though both to posts and out of hand.

By: cane

cane — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:38:10 +0000

Ruan is without doubt a talented Rugby player.

But on the International Stage, he was very average.
He was given every opportunity to shine.

Far more opportunities than he deserved. Far more opportunities than most will ever get.

He was never SA’s best 9. And he was never SA’s best 10. But the Selectors always seemed to find a place for him.

By: kwas

kwas — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:23:09 +0000

@ashampoopaloo-5: What about Wilhelm Steenkamp? They guy is a monster on defense. Hard as nails in your face type.

By: ashampoopaloo

ashampoopaloo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:47:21 +0000

@RL-19: yeah Brucie banger baby should rather go tie his kangaroo's legs around the back porch of his shearing shack before his Sheila goes hopping off trying to waltz like Matilda with Crocodile Dundee in hot pursuit.. what some of these tie dyed versions of 2nd generation convicts think they know about Oom Sarel se sportsoort is downright negligible and distinctly dangerous... to say the pitiful perplexed least.

By: RL

RL — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:01:31 +0000

@ashampoopaloo-5: that Bruce is talking kak as usual, pretend convict thinks that because the most dominant locking pair in the history of game has moved on SA has no locks, that's what many idiots said before out of the blue along came Bakkies and Matfield and started moering everyone. The next generation of locks are coming through nicley, you can add these giants from the Lions to that list, Roodt, Venter and Botha. Of all of the hundreds of locks available from a pool of 500,000 players , I would say that Estebeth and Ruan Botha can step up in June and moer any locks the convicts and kiwis present. Bruce must remember that SA always have and always will produce the biggest forwards in world rugby, fact.

By: David

David — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:37:35 +0000

@grant10-17: I've a feeling that Ruans major confidence weakness at test level is due to growing up in his fathers shadow and the standard he set as a rugby player. Ironically, although his various coaches have been criticised for messing him around positionally, they've all tried to ensure that he was on the field.

By: grant10

grant10 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:15:48 +0000

@David-16: true but he looked bloody classy last night against the Eng 9.....really impressive display. imo

By: David

David — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:28:18 +0000

There’s a vast difference in kicking 21 points and being a test quality 9.

By: Hondo

Hondo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:07:30 +0000

Must be a sorry times now in SA rugby when some aging caricature of scrumhalf Conradie is hailed by AC while Ruan Pienar plays in the mud lane of Belfast a brilliant rugby against Leicester

By: Morné

Morné — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:29:20 +0000

We certainly have a way to **** up talent in SA.

By: PissAnt

PissAnt — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:18:51 +0000

I am happy for Ruan, I think extending his contract for two more years will do his game the world of good. Always rated this guy and I believe he will still serve SA rugby in the future with distinction.

By: grant10

grant10 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:53:01 +0000

@XV-11: agree on all counts

By: XV

XV — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:28:14 +0000

@grant10-10: I agree. The Sharks and the Boks did him no favours. Ulster are bringing out the best in him. Pity SA rugby could not. Ditto with Brad Barrit. Yes I know he did not play for the Boks but he should have.