Pat must play, Morné must rest
22 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes the Currie Cup semi-finals showed why Pat Lambie is ready for the Springbok flyhalf responsibility, and why the other contenders are not.
Lambie went into the 2012 Test season with plenty to prove. New Bok coach Heyneke Meyer wasn’t convinced that he had what it took to hold down a starting position. The biggest concern was Lambie’s tactical kicking accuracy and game management. Meyer felt that Bulls fullback Zane Kirchner held the edge in this department.
It was also around this time that Meyer made it clear that Morné Steyn was his preferred flyhalf. According to the Bok coach, the team would need Steyn’s composure, as well his goal- and tactical-kicking precision if they hoped to win Tests consistently.
Over the course of the season, however, Steyn has failed to display the strengths that helped the Boks win the series against the British & Irish Lions as well as the Tri-Nations in 2009. Ironically, it’s been his lack of accuracy that has cost the team matches in 2012.
Following the disappointing draw to England in Port Elizabeth, Meyer admitted that Steyn would need to find form in the subsequent Super Rugby games if the Boks were to improve. They turned out to be prophetic words, as Steyn continued to struggle over the next few months, and this had a negative impact on both the Bulls and the Boks.
When Steyn was eventually axed, Meyer explained that the flyhalf had played virtually non-stop for three years, and so he required a mental break. But only a few weeks later, Steyn was asked to lift the Bulls out of the Currie Cup relegation zone and into the play-offs.
It was a task that Steyn responded to at first. He proved instrumental in the Bulls’ crucial win over the Lions, a result that propelled the Pretorians into a semi-final against the Sharks. However, it was in this latter game where his shortcomings, both physical and mental, were again exposed.
There are many who feel that Steyn will add value on the Boks’ end-of-year tour to Europe. I have to disagree.
It’s a difficult tour where conditions prescribe a tighter and more tactical approach. Steyn’s supporters will say that he fits the bill, but my argument is that Steyn is suited to this role only in theory.
If you look at where Steyn is mentally, and how he has consistently struggled to regain his once prolific kicking accuracy, how can you even consider taking him to Europe and asking him to win three Tests in a row?
Steyn was not solely to blame for Saturday’s loss to the Sharks, but it was because of his poor kicking and game management that the Bulls battled to get out of their own half.
He’s never been known as a dirty or ill-disciplined player, and yet, he finished this game with a swinging arm that connected the face of Sharks fullback Louis Ludik.
The Bulls were about to lose, to exit the Currie Cup, and Steyn reacted badly. It’s not too much of a stretch to judge this action as a response to his seemingly endless struggles of 2012. It’s very clear that he needs a mental break from rugby.
Lambie made a massive statement with his excellent goal-kicking performance at Kings Park, as well as a fine display of game management that played a big role in the Sharks’ overwhelming territorial advantage.
Looking at the performances of both flyhalves in Durban, you’d have to say that things couldn’t have gone better for Lambie in a Bok context. Lambie rose above the pressure, while Steyn succumbed to it. On the basis of that game, it’s clear which player you’d back to win the Boks’ Tests in Europe.
The flyhalf position has been a talking point ever since Johan Goosen went down with a season-ending injury at Soccer City. Goosen is the future at No 10, but it is Lambie who can provide the Boks with another strong option. And in the modern game where the schedule is relentless and serious injuries are a reality, you need two strong options.
The other semi-final in Johannesburg also highlighted why Lambie is the best available choice. Elton Jantjies may have already played for the Boks this season, but I’m not convinced that he has the temperament, nor the skill set at this stage of his career, to handle the ultimate responsibility.
Jantjies missed three early kicks at goal, and these misses were massive in the context of a rain-affected game. Indeed, if you compare Jantjies’ misses in Johannesburg with Lambie’s early penalties in Durban, you could say that Jantjies blew a similar chance to establish early momentum, to build a commanding lead and set up a convincing win.
The sight of Jantjies being flattened by the diminutive Gio Aplon will not inspire confidence. His lack of physicality has long been considered a shortcoming, as has his defence which was exposed in that Test against the All Blacks at Soccer City.
He’s a confidence player, and only takes the ball to the gain line when he receives it on the front foot. When his forwards aren’t enjoying that sort of momentum, he slides back into the pocket.
The obvious response to this statement is: which flyhalf doesn’t?
Of all the players who have played flyhalf in recent seasons, Lambie has stood out as a player who continues to take the initiative despite the failure of his forwards. The game I’m referring to is the 2011 Test against the All Blacks in New Zealand where he played one of his better games in a Bok jersey. He responds well to that sort of pressure.
Goosen is injured. Jantjies’s is a talent that has yet to be fully developed and refined. Steyn has lost confidence and form and can’t be expected to win games for South Africa in his current guise.
And then we have Lambie, who has led the Sharks to back-to-back wins with superb all-round displays. Lambie, who in all likelihood will lead the Sharks to another Currie Cup title in Durban this Saturday. Lambie, a match-winner.
Really, it’s not a difficult call to make.
Follow JC on Twitter
Follow SA Rugby magazine on Twitter
463 Comments
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 8 9 10 » Show All
22 Oct 2012, 10:46 am
So Lambie started the first 9 SR games at fh? And they lost 5 of those….
22 Oct 2012, 10:46 am
@thesaint-141:
Best response of the day…
22 Oct 2012, 10:46 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-134: Wrong… you just don’t get it darling… Now run along and find a blog more suited to your sensibilities like…
WPBrandedTampons.co.za or some such, okay?
Sure your input might actually make sense there…
22 Oct 2012, 10:47 am
@Heavens Game-147: So, your methodology entails ignoring all the facts that is before you, bringing up things that happened in the past, and then just going with it… I understand your logic, why develop youngsters? You’ll just buy some new ones later…
22 Oct 2012, 10:48 am
@Gumboots-152: Shutup Bill, you weakminded / sheepminded little follow the leader twat… Grow some ballas man… Even if they are light blue…
22 Oct 2012, 10:49 am
@CharlesM-144: vermuelen needs to improve his mobility though…he doesn’t make any metres with ball in hand…
i watched kerain read over the weekend, whoaaaa!
Best 8 in the world atm!
22 Oct 2012, 10:49 am
@Heavens Game-136: careful now, your non traditional inferiority complex is showing…..
22 Oct 2012, 10:50 am
@thesaint-154: Developed youngsters?
Lambie not young…
How about Reinach…
Chadwick
Cooper
Bresler
Jordaan
They not young… or developing pretty damn nicely at the Sharks…
Yet another dumfuck blind traditional power of yesteryear obsessed sheep… Begone…
22 Oct 2012, 10:50 am
@Gumboots-152:
What I find interesting is that Plum preferred an out of favour ex French 10 to the obviouscurrent Bok one. I wonder what his reasons were?
22 Oct 2012, 10:50 am
@Heavens Game-155:
I’m cringing in my boots…. whoooooo
22 Oct 2012, 10:52 am
@David-159:
I guess the Frenchman was better! No logic in that. He is the coach and knows better – right?
22 Oct 2012, 10:52 am
@stormersboy-157: Keep up… as much as you might think it is the most fashionable game in SA Rugby, this aint blindmans bluff, or pin the tail on the nearest sheep…
This is Sharkbefok REALITY games…
Where reality doesn’t just bite…. It goes
BOOM!
22 Oct 2012, 10:53 am
@David-150: Yeah, strange that all of the “next best thing” players of yesteryear I am talking Brent Russel, Ruan Pienaar, Francois Steyn and now Lambie, all started becoming utility backs while playing for the sharks, something which cost them their places in the National set-up, and in the end, caused them to f-Off overseas where they’d be playing in a specialist position. Might Lambie follow suit? You saw it here first…
22 Oct 2012, 10:53 am
@Rockn Rolla-145: Zigactly!
22 Oct 2012, 10:53 am
‘The Traditional Capies and Ballas probably would have stereotyped him as too small, can’t kick, too unpredictable or some such… ‘ pull the other one ‘Big Boy’
Is it not the Cape Cabal who have been complaining that their players have been overlooked due to size? Isn’t it YOU who have been saying that Grant should not be a Bok because he can’t kick?
HEHEHEHEHEHHE…you need to remember what you post before you contradict yourself..it’s very unbecoming of you..dropping the ball there in the run-in to the 30+ hammering you will give our poor Under 21 team this weekend I see.
22 Oct 2012, 10:54 am
@Transformation-156: You are right – but his no fat f#$k!!
22 Oct 2012, 10:54 am
HG………. already… BOOM is what you smoking.
22 Oct 2012, 10:54 am
Us WP supporters are pissing into the wind this week.
The Sharks are invincible. Their is no way we will beat that team on Saturday.
Kinda reminds me of this past Super Rugby season when a depleted Stormers team ravaged by injury had to travel to Loftus to face the mighty Bulls and when this invincible Sharks team had to face the Lions in JHB.
22 Oct 2012, 10:54 am
@Heavens Game-158: Oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about players who will one day actually have a shot as Springboks, now you’re just naming everyone…
22 Oct 2012, 10:54 am
BOOM …. PUFF.
22 Oct 2012, 10:56 am
Eish, all this provincialism; no wonder the Bokkies battle. I agree with Grant10 for once. We have two potentially very good flyhalves but they won’t get there without careful training and management. Both should be getting high level coaching (who from??; Naas, Roussouw; Campeses, Jones) I don’t care but not Maniake. Someone who knows what a flyhalf needs to do. One thing we do need is a solid, accurate placekicker a la Percy. I don’t care if he’s a prop (Ollie?). Morne with his mojo gone has shown us that.
C’mon @Tac, condoning Morne’s swinging arm on Ludik is why SA players, many of them Bulls have a reputation for dirty play. Some of it is deserved and condoned by people like you. Bulls need to wake up that they aren’t the Bully Boys based on weight and size anymore. Most teams are equal or bigger. So they need to drop the fok voort approach and get a bit more subtle. They have planty of talent
22 Oct 2012, 10:58 am
What’s all this “traditional power” horsetripe??
22 Oct 2012, 10:58 am
@mxhosa-151: ja but we were told he had BLINDERS in all 9 games!
22 Oct 2012, 11:01 am
@thesaint-169: Okay… well then that means nobody at the Sharks… Despite the regular manshaming of the traditonal power teams this year and the next…
Whats going to happen should a WP dominated Boks stay on a below 50% win ration for the EOYT this year and next year’s international season while the Sharks win CC this year, win S15 next year, and CC next year, with probably only one or 2 in the starting lineup….
Nothing thats what… Because it will happen and the traditional power fanboy journos, coaches, supporters and kenners will still be blinded by yesteryears achievements and living in the same supremacist past of glories gone by long ago…
The rest of the honest rugby playing world including the Sharks will be laughing though… The joke will be on you blind dumbfuck sheep and your stereotypical visions and myths of game and player superiority…
22 Oct 2012, 11:01 am
@Bagel-13: I didnt catch the whole game but Im sure the bit I saw the Lions pack were giving Province pack a good going over (scrum time) andJantjies was playing behind them.
To be honest Jantjies is a better play than he has been in his last 3 games, in which he has been pretty poor. Lions should not have shifted Butch from 10 in the Bulls game and he should have continued there in the semi.
22 Oct 2012, 11:02 am
@stormersboy-157: HG = typical noveau riche tendencies…
22 Oct 2012, 11:02 am
@Jeraldjay-168: For once a WP supporter who speaks truth…
You obviously a rare mountain cabbage kenner….
22 Oct 2012, 11:05 am
@Transformation-176: ” noveau riche tendencies” are those farken third world clowns in red and black who embarrassed themselves and all honest rugby players, kenners and supporters on Friday night against the Cheetahs…
They have ” noveau riche tendencies”…
Hey Sharksworld “expert”, Megatron…
You fakefukken Merino
22 Oct 2012, 11:05 am
@SuperStirrer-175: didn’t butch start the week before?
22 Oct 2012, 11:07 am
@David-159: You know very well the French 10 struck a vein of form while Lambie was injured, prior to that he was playing scrummie and Plum, rightly so, kept the form player in the position he was doing weell in.
22 Oct 2012, 11:09 am
@Transformation-179: Butch started against the Bulls and played really well, Elton came on and Butch was moved one up. Butch had been playing well until then and there was no real need to have moved him from the flyhalf spot.
22 Oct 2012, 11:09 am
Who thinks that Anto Bresler should be in Bok Contention, although he is Namibian born, he has no caps so my qualify in the same way as the beast!!!!!!
Bresler has that 200% workrate like an extra backrower
22 Oct 2012, 11:10 am
Imagine a Bresler / Etzebeth combo………
22 Oct 2012, 11:11 am
@Heavens Game-178: you will never be a “traditional power”, you got a LEG UP into Currie Cup, now you’re s.hitting on the doorsteps of the people that felt pity for you…
Banana Boys = Affirmitive Action recipients
BOOM
22 Oct 2012, 11:11 am
Jdj showed against Taute and Mapoe why he should play at 13…only rate Mapoe as other potential candidate though
22 Oct 2012, 11:11 am
@Heavens Game-174:
What are whinging about? Together with your injured players, the Sharks already have 6 starting Boks plus Marcell and Lambie on the bench, and possibly Chadwick. Ruan is also an ex Sharkie, as was Frans until a few months ago.
22 Oct 2012, 11:13 am
@SuperStirrer-180: why did Plum replace Ludik who was ALSO in a rich vein of form with Lambie who was returning from an ankle injury? Lambie played KAK in the final
22 Oct 2012, 11:15 am
@transformation-173:
Hay ke ndivile. Then by all means, let him be the bok starting starting fh, he can do no wrong…
22 Oct 2012, 11:18 am
I dont understand why all the WP supporters have a problem when the Sharks demand one of their own to bok honours. You did the same with Kolisi even abov e Coetzee who had better stats.
Everyone does it.
22 Oct 2012, 11:19 am
@Transformation-184: I don’t think the Last Outpost Sharks could ever be a traditional power yearning for the grand stereotypical past nor would they want to be… That is reserved for the Traditional Powers and their new excuse for “transformation” – a lillywhite Kings…
Nope, Sharks are the Black and White future and you are quite Zoomeresque blind or corrupt not to see it…
In short you lie to yourself about the Kings credibility and futile dreaming of being on an equal footing to the traditional power mythologists when you are in fact nothing but their Uncle Tom Rugby quota on a leash…
But then again Zoomeresque nouveau riche was coined for a reason… A Kingly reason…
22 Oct 2012, 11:20 am
@Transformation-187:
What’s he talking about this “traditional power” business
He been banging on about it all day yesterday too
22 Oct 2012, 11:20 am
@SuperStirrer-180:
That’s my point. An ex over the hill french 10 made an enormous difference to the Sharks backline.
22 Oct 2012, 11:20 am
@Dawn-191:
Months, actually.
22 Oct 2012, 11:21 am
Time flies when so much truth to be told and so many myths to be exposed…
Over and out for now…
22 Oct 2012, 11:21 am
@Transformation-187:
Anyone would play Kak in the last line of defence against a team of Awks like the chiefs
22 Oct 2012, 11:22 am
Magtag I threw my back out yesterday and IT IS KILLING ME
Seer!
22 Oct 2012, 11:22 am
@Mr Black-189: Oh hell boet now you gone and done it,
22 Oct 2012, 11:24 am
@Transformation-184:
Like the Kings
Remind us how they fared this past weekend………..
22 Oct 2012, 11:25 am
Front Row Grunt?@FrontRowGrunt
So no citing of Morne Steyn for the swinging arm then?
22 Oct 2012, 11:26 am
@SuperStirrer-175:
You think the fact that he was with Meyer for three weeks had something to do with his poor play? Before he joined the Bokke, he put up two MoM performances against WP and the Blue Bulls.
—————————————————————————————————
Vok the Sharks.
WEEPEE by 10.
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.