True test looms for Lambie
16 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes that Pat Lambie may have to steer the Sharks to Currie Cup glory if he’s going to convince Heyneke Meyer of his value as a match-winning flyhalf.
Did Lambie’s performance against Griquas mean anything? Of course it did. It was massive in the context of the Sharks’ season, as it helped the Durbanites bank a potential home final.
It was important in that it allowed Lambie a rare start, and even more significantly a rare start in his best position of flyhalf. But was it meaningful in the context of Lambie’s bid for the Bok flyhalf jersey? I don’t think so.
Lambie enjoyed a great return to the starting line-up last Friday. He was accurate in front of goal, he gave the Sharks direction both as a distributor and tactical kicker. He was solid on defence and innovative on attack. It was a complete performance, and it would have given him plenty of confidence.
But the pressure will mount this week ahead of a semi-final showdown against the Bulls. For all the bluster about Griquas being giant killers, they are never a threat at the back end of the season. They struggle because of injuries and battle to compete against the big five teams who are boosted by the returning Boks.
Griquas are never going to win the Currie Cup with their current game plan. There is too much emphasis on attack, and not enough on defence. This weakness was exploited all too easily by the Sharks last Friday. And yet, John Plumtree’s men would do well to remember that the defence of the better teams in the play-offs will be tougher to breach.
There will be more pressure on Lambie this Saturday. There will be more pressure from a defensive point of view. There will be more pressure on him to win the territorial battle, and there will also be more pressure on him to maintain his excellent goal-kicking form.
It has to be viewed as a great opportunity. If Lambie can excel under such pressure and steer the Sharks to victory, it would serve as a big statement. If he can go one step further and guide the Sharks to another Currie Cup title, well then it would be difficult for Heyneke Meyer to deny that he is the best flyhalf candidate for that November tour to Europe.
We have been in this situation before. Lambie helped the Sharks win the 2010 Currie Cup final, and one of the most enduring moments of that match was of the young flyhalf handing off WP captain Schalk Burger en route to the tryline. Unfortunately, he was used only as a substitute on the subsequent Bok tour. He did well when he started for the Boks at 10 against the All Blacks in 2011, but wasn’t used there again.
Meyer is still undecided about Lambie, and it isn’t hard to understand why. While it’s clear the kid has all the skills, he hasn’t really settled into one position.
Injury has also played a part in this unfortunate situation if you remember that Lambie was crocked in the 2012 Super Rugby competition just when he was starting to fire as a flyhalf. When he returned to fitness, the Sharks had settled on Freddie Michalak as their pivot and so Lambie filled in at fullback for the remainder of the season.
If the Sharks win this weekend and progress to the final, it will mean that Lambie will have three Currie Cup games in total to show Meyer what he can offer as a flyhalf. As I mentioned earlier, the fixture against Griquas was important for other reasons. The two play-off games will be massive in terms of pressure, with each of the four teams leaning on their Boks. If Lambie thrives in that environment, then it will say much for his mental aptitude as well as his physical ability.
Meyer will, of course, be watching the progress of other potential flyhalves closely.
Morné Steyn was better against the Lions last Saturday, but will also need to show that he can perform in the matches that matter. Just as a title win for the Sharks will underline Lambie’s value, another domestic trophy for the Bulls will show that Steyn is not a spent force as a match-winner.
With Johan Goosen ruled out with injury, Elton Jantjies played much of that Test against the All Blacks at Soccer City. The Lions lost to the Bulls last week, but they will be hoping that the reinstatement of Jantjies at 10 gets them back to winning ways. Again, it’s a high pressure environment that could reveal whether Jantjies is in the right headspace to spearhead the Boks’ coming overseas campaign.
I still believe that in the absence of Goosen, Lambie is the only flyhalf in South Africa who has the necessary all-round skills needed to bring the Boks success in a more balanced game plan. But Lambie has to use this semi-final opportunity, and possibly an opportunity in the final as well, to make a believer out of Meyer.
Follow JC on Twitter
Follow SA Rugby magazine on Twitter
482 Comments
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [10] Show All
16 Oct 2012, 17:49 pm
@rangerman-449:
To close to home… Sorry mate!
16 Oct 2012, 18:06 pm
Rangerman, the youth league doesn’t have the flavour it used to buddy. I’m sitting on the fence for mangaung.
16 Oct 2012, 18:09 pm
@mpundulu-452: i dont blame you.
which corrupt bunch to back must be difficult.
16 Oct 2012, 18:16 pm
Rangerman, as you know our lot are all nefarious, so fair point chum.
16 Oct 2012, 18:17 pm
@mpundulu-411:
Hahahaha!! Akhonto xhego, was just stating facts… Am sure isizathu sakho sopavela iNZ siluqilima, kodwa lonto ayithethi ba ihistory yabo is not tainted. Kodwa ke oko akuthethi ba asinovana. I get along with Bulls and Sharks supporters as well. As for Nonu sim adoptile, sizomazisa kwi zinyanya xa iHighlanders zizodlala eBhayi.
16 Oct 2012, 18:25 pm
@mpundulu-454: ag its actually quite sad bud.
really it is.
16 Oct 2012, 18:27 pm
Don’t even know if it worth posting this story here – as there are no FS bloggers and only a handful of people and their dogs who go and watch this insignificant farm union.
Johannesburg – The future of Free State Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske and his assistants is very much on the line when they face the EP Kings in Bloemfontein in their promotion-relegation match on Friday.
According to supersport.com website, but Drotske and co may not be the only ones who come under the spotlight, as a much wider-reaching “cleanout” is on the cards if the Cheetahs do not stay in the Premier division of Absa Currie Cup rugby and lose to the Kings.
While there is a lot of pressure on Drotske and his team this week, it has been compounded by talk in Bloemfontein of “heads rolling” if the Cheetahs lose.
Free State Rugby Union President Lyndsey Mould told Die Volksblad that he would launch an investigation as early as next week into why the Cheetahs were in this position.
“If we beat the EP Kings on Friday or not, I want to get all the decisionmakers together and if we have to act aggressively, we will do that,” Mould told the newspaper.
“A lot of things have gone wrong this season and we have played without a number of our stalwarts, but that is no excuse. There simply isn’t any excuse.”
The Cheetahs have thus far stuck by coach Drotske, even though he has never managed to finish higher than 10th in the Vodacom Super Rugby series and their last Currie Cup success was in 2007.
The team is also playing in their first promotion-relegation game since 1988, and a loss would be devastating to the union.
“If we are to be relegated, it will have major consequences for the Free State Rugby Union. We will lose sponsorships and that will mean that everybody’s jobs will be on the line. Friday night is all that the players and management must focus on, nothing else.”
Yes I know it was hell of a boring reading that tripe. Personally I would prefer that the Kings win the promotion relegation battle – not only will that give them the leg up that they need but it will also mean the end of those doos’s Verster and Drokse.
That will also see the FS bastardse face my Lions in a relegation promotion match for super rugby inclusion – death to the duplictious racist FS rubbish!
16 Oct 2012, 18:34 pm
@RL-457:
still bitter eh re d pu ssy?
funny i seem to recall you punting wp and loving them a couple of season ago and hating the sharks and yet tobie bent you and reamed you like a prison b ey atch and the sharkies tried to help your union out?
excuse me if i exclude you from the lions fans i sympathise with
16 Oct 2012, 18:37 pm
Rangerman, why doesn’t your lot teach our chaps how one ought to behave, you guys have a history of doing a stellar job, you’ve trained one or two natives in your time.
16 Oct 2012, 18:41 pm
@mpundulu-459:
that sounds like a bit of a trap my pel.
sadly i think it was the previous lot that taught the current lot most of what they know about corruption.
good leaders are hard to find.
p.s. i have trained a native or two indeed, usually we called them trackers and respected the fact that we were operating on their land. nice chaps those nativbes but not a rugby player amongst them.
16 Oct 2012, 18:41 pm
Mxhosa, Siyabulela bhuti, Hayi Wena Mpandla, isizathu yoba ndi pavela iABs Ngoba utata wam ebathanda njalo nje sasiya eNZ siyobabona be dlala. Ayisonto yemzabalazo.
16 Oct 2012, 18:42 pm
@mpundulu-461: drinking on the weekend.
win or lose we hit the booze?
16 Oct 2012, 18:46 pm
@rangerman-458: Tobie’s hands are clean – he is no longer WP … but he is SARU.
Don’t worry Ranger, I am still plotting my revenge on those duplictious brokebacks and that papbek Tobie.
Patients.
16 Oct 2012, 18:46 pm
Well this thread is marginally less offensive than yesterday’s
16 Oct 2012, 18:48 pm
Patience not patients.
16 Oct 2012, 18:49 pm
@rangerman-460: HIyas Ranger!!
Yup you were being set up for A trap
16 Oct 2012, 18:52 pm
Hay ke ndivile xhego. Lamadlagusha asenayo indawo esileyo… sesibulela nje into yoba amadoda aneziduko avumelekile kwelaqela lethu.
16 Oct 2012, 18:52 pm
Rangerman, what I’ve realised that corruption is either sophisticated or just garish, however, the central point it’s a constant in all governments. Nonetheless, those who are not in power always think they can do materially better, which is fair enough as that’s how democracy operates. I just don’t give it much weight as the old boss will always be the same as the new boss.
16 Oct 2012, 18:53 pm
Trap schmap
Mpundi aint that dof
16 Oct 2012, 18:56 pm
@Dawn-465: no man as in those you visit in hospital.
16 Oct 2012, 18:58 pm
Ok keep your red shirt on
16 Oct 2012, 19:00 pm
Where’s the Rev Jones.
16 Oct 2012, 19:03 pm
Mpandla, inxaki nezigamla azisoze zisifune, nawumane nicela isoup kubo baninike ichappies. Mna ndakuhlala ne ABs zam, ndiyabazi abadlali.
16 Oct 2012, 19:07 pm
@Dawn-465: maybe he plans on turning them into patients?
@sharks_lover-466: ja i knew it lol.
@mpundulu-468: nah bud, i agree corruption exists in all govts, its simply the level that changes.
accepting it will not change it though.
16 Oct 2012, 19:13 pm
Tyhini? Umntu nguwe mos….
Masisuke kwezamazwe ngamazwe. Apha ekhaya likhona iqela olilandelayo?
16 Oct 2012, 20:38 pm
Hayi Mpandla, ndingum mshengu andinako uba ndibe yipavi yeqhela yalapha ngwevu lam.
16 Oct 2012, 20:40 pm
Rangerman, there’s a level of corruption that you could find acceptable? What is it?
16 Oct 2012, 22:56 pm
…Trap schmap…
…Dawn prawn…
17 Oct 2012, 01:07 am
English Subtitles Please
17 Oct 2012, 03:29 am
@mpundulu-477: You have about 30 million South Africans happy with the current level of state corruption. I don’t see anyone marching the streets protesting against government corruption. So why don’t you poll some of the masses on the level of corruption they have come to accept?
17 Oct 2012, 09:13 am
@mpundulu-477: i dont accept any level bud.
because its my money being wasted.
but the anc have really become a filthy rotten corpse and must be burnt on the pyre of history.
21 Oct 2012, 22:43 pm
As a WP fan, a fear that Lambie is going to rule the day on Sat. Pure class… Its great to have a coastal final! Gonna be a cracker1
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [10] Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.