TRUTH BE TOLD

The man that has been named on the Stormers’ bench for Saturdays Semi final clash with the Crusaders at Newlands has been getting quite a bit of media attention lately. Some have even gone as far as to suggest he may be playing for a place in the Bok squad this weekend, I personally won’t go that far. We’re all familiar with the fact that you can’t really compare a player playing in the Northen Hemisphere to his competition down South.  Brits will at most play 30minutes of rugby on Saturday, and even though that alone won’t be enough to convince any selector that he is indeed a matured version of himself, and/or that he’s now considerred a decent player at set piece time, The 20-30 min he does get on the field, will show if he able to keep up with the pace of Super rugby, if he is in any way influential and if he manages to perform against the top NZ side, the Crusaders. 

Brits isn’t the traditional Hooker, (1.79m, 99kg ) Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has made it clear that he prefers the traditional hooker, naming John Smit(117kg), Bismarck du Plessis(114kg), Chiliboy Ralepelle(105kg), Adriaan Strauss(102kg) and Bandise Maku(104kg) as 5 hookers he would pick ahead of Brits, (all based in SA). Going on Wikipedia’s info , I provided the weight of the five SA based “traditional” hookers.

It is clear that the size of Brits can’t be a determining factor, as except for Bismarck and Smit, Brits’ weight is relatively similar to the others named. If Brits is indeed able to provide his jumpers with decent ball at line-out time, and hold his own at Scrum time, then what does the traditional hookers have on him? 

Just to point something out, there are currently 4 Foreign based players in the preliminary Springbok WC squad. 

In my opinion, just like the mobility of props in general have picked up over the years(Beast being a prime example), The same has happened with Hookers. 

Personally I’ve seen very little of Brits playing in Europe, and therefor I find myself in a position where I simply can’t judge or compare, I like what I’ve seen of Chiliboy this season, and I’m very happy to have him as a third choice, just like I’m very happy to have a great player like Strauss as 4th choice, and to be honest Maku wasn’t bad at the Lions this season, and is certainly a solid 5th choice who’s also been part of the Springbok group before. Then I also like a player like Deon Fourie, who hasn’t backed down to anyone this season, despite also not being the traditional hooker. I am thus in a position where I myself can’t really find a place for Brits in SA. maybe if I’ve see his games in Europe would I have been able to rank him higher or lower than the guys mentioned above. So to me, this Saturday(even with him playing out of position, and even if he’ll only be on the pitch for 20minutes) will be an opportunity to see Brits in action, and to judge the fact that he’s been overlooked (again) impartially. 

I found this video of Schalk’s man of the match performance in the Aviva premiership final on rugbydump.com. Have a look 

So With the super rugby playing season coming to an end, and most preliminary WC squads announced. Southern Hemisphere players will have a good indication of whether they’re in contention for a WC spot, or whether it’ll be a better business decision to give up their patriotism in exchange for some big money up North. Others will just feel they’ve played out their test careers, and will now head North to capitalise on the bit of playing talent they have left. Either way, a large number of players are expected to further their playing careers in Europe at the end of the WC year.

I read an article on Planetrugby.co.za that indicated which players will be arriving and departing from the Top 14(French) Clubs. I extracted the players who are currently still contracted in the Southern hemisphere, and devided them into the 3 countries, SA, NZ and Australia.

Although this list is restricted to players moving to France, (not containing moves to the rest of Europe, or Asia which has become a drastically more popular destination in recent years) it still gives us a good indication of the flood of players that will be taking place.    

Australia:

Pat O’Connor (Waratahs)

Mark Chisholm (Brumbies)

Matt Dunning (Waratahs)

Leroy Houston (Reds)

Leïataua Tomiki (Queensland Reds)

Matt Giteau (Brumbies)

Luke Rooney (Melbourne Rebels)

Luke Burgess (Waratahs)

South-Africa:

Ricky Januarie (Stormers)

Paul Bosch (Stormers)

Gerhard Mostert (Sharks) 

Anton van Zyl (Stormers)

Bakkies Botha (Bulls)

Gurthrö Steenkamp (Bulls)

New Zealand:

John Schwalger (Hurricanes)

Joe Rokocoko (Blues)

Neemia Tialata (Hurricanes)

Sitiveni Sivivatu (Chiefs)

Aled De Malmanche (Chiefs)

Luke McAlister (Blues)

Something interesting is that Gerhrd Mostert and Anton van Zyl may be packing down together in the second row of the colourful and some may say queer colours of Stade Francais. Not sure what their 2012 jerseys will look like, but if past designs are anything to go by it could look something like this:

 or thisor this or this or possibly a combination. 

I read this quote from The Bok skipper then and now, way back in 2009 leading up to a what I believe was a Tri Nations test against the All blacks in Hamilton. 

Just to set he scene: Smit faced quite a bit of criticism regarding his scrummaging, playing prop at the time, (Tighthead I believe) he brushed off any doubts of whether he’s still the man for the job come 2010 and come the Rugby World cup in 2011. 

He said the following, “When I was playing hooker and Lukas van Biljon came along, I was told I wasn’t strong enough, then Gary Botha arrived and I wasn’t explosive enough, then Schalk Brits came and I didn’t step enough. I just roll with the punches and now I’m at tighthead. They call it the dark side and no one else wanted to move there, but I started there as a fatty when I was a youngster. I’ve had to re-learn the tricks of the trade at the top level, but I’ve had a good apprenticeship coming up against Woodcock, Robinson, Sheridan and Jenkins.” 

The heading of the Article published on Supersport.com read , “Smit warns: ‘I’m here to stay’ ”, and how right he was, John Smit may no longer be able to justify his inclusion ahead of a younger Bismarck du Plessis or a Chiliboy Ralepelle based on performance alone, but even on this day , at line-out and scrum time, he’s still regarded as a better option than the two above mentioned players. With the WC matches(specially at finals time) expected to be tight close games, where set pieces, tactical kicking and defense will determine results, Smit as a player is still in my opinion, a more than decent option. His leadership and experience just adds to his cause , and somehow if you’re being realistic about selection, and we select players like Bryan Habana and Pierre Spies purely on experience ahead of players like Lwazi Mvovo, Bjorn Basson, Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts or Ashley Johnson, then surely John’s selection ahead of Bismarck shouldn’t be such an eyebrow raiser…

I know the Smit VS Bismarck debate has reached it’s expiry date, and I wasn’t really planning on getting into it again. I do however feel I’ve already crossed that line with this post, so there would be little point in stopping now. Bismarck brings a lot to the table, some are actually willing to call him the best hooker in SA, and the world, that’s a little extreme for me, I am a firm believer that either Chiliboy or Adriaan Strauss could easily fill his shoes, and in my “unbiased” opinion, so could Deon Fourie or Schalk Brits… just to name a few, we are blessed with tons of talent at Hooker, and just like people feel Bismarck should feel hard done by, for being second in line, a guy like Schalk Brits has performed at top level for countless seasons consistently , and has consistently been ignored…the same can be said of Adriaan Strauss…had these players been “luckier” at some stage, they may have been first  or second in line ahead of Bismarck…The selectors simply have little faith in these players, due to their playing style, the fact that they are yet to be tested at test level, are still seen as inexperienced or a combination of the three. Bismarck, as good as he is on the ground and with ball in hand, still has some discipline issues, which could possibly see us playing with 14 men on the field for 10min, or simply give away points unnecessarily. With an alternative captain option yet to stand up and convince me, John Smit is the safe option…and in these tight games, I’d much rather we play it safe…

 a 49-man preliminary Springboks WC squad will be announced today. 

who’ll be part of this squad to me is irrelevent, as we’ve already seen a 37-man planning squad, and with only a hand full of matches played since the 37-man squad was named, I feel our top 37 won’t change much based on performance. 

last week, after the tight Bulls win over the Stormers , I did a post on the Senior Boks’ form displayed in that match, and how I felt the Bok regulars stood up well in the test match like situation. and that the majority of them may be finding form at the right time…very few agreed re my comparisons, Provincialism may have had an influence on their opinions.

Another weekend of SA derbies, saw the Bulls eliminated from the first season of super15 at the hands of the Sharks , while the Stormers beat a lively Cheetahs team to finish second on the overall log… I won’t go into the Sharks win too much, but it was a bit of sweet irony , after the Bulls supporters just couldn’t shut up about their 3 point win at Newlands the previous week…The Bulls, as great a team as they may be, along with their arrogant supporters, and al their “knowledge” will struggle to rid their mouths of that dreadful taste of humble pie…

I watched the SA teams playing with an eye on the Springboks’ form once again. and was again impressed. I have sorted theplayers into the following categories based on form and expectation. 

Areas of concern: Jannie du Plessis , John Smit , 

Surprises: Chiliboy Ralepele, Pierre Spies, Duane Vermeulen, Bryan Habana   

Glimpses of Light: Werner Kruger , Gio Aplon , Bismarck du Plessis , Willem Alberts, Andries Bekker, Juan de Jongh, Danie Rossouw, Francois Hougaard , Pat Lambie , 

Not convinced yet: Ashley Johnson , Coenie Oosthuizen , Flip van der Merwe , Wynand Olivier , Lwazi Mvovo, Adriaan Strauss 

The only men for the Job: Schalk Burger , JP Pietersen , Jaque Fourie, Bakkies Botha , Morne Steyn , Jean de Villiers, Fourie du Preez, Victor Matfield, Beast  

Injured or Didn’t play: Juan Smith, Heinrich Brussow, Butch James, Frans Steyn, Ruan Pienaar, Odwa Ndungane, Gurthro Steenkamp 

Areas of concern refers to players who I am worried about, We seem to have a large group of John Smit supporters on the blogs, and I can understand the idea of getting behind our national captain, but unless there is some truth in the fact that John wasn’t 100% and therefor Bismarck was selected ahead of him. this selection, for a must win game indicates a lack of faith in John, or just a preference for Bismarck? The fact that we may start WC games without a genuine fetcher will make the selection of John ahead of Bismarck potentially more dangerous. 

I also feel Jannie struggled on Saturday at scrum time, he was penalised for scrumming at an angle on a few occasions, and his general game doesn’t offer enough to justify us selecting a average scrummager. a guy like Werner Kruger can’t be considerred a serious option for the starting position with no test experience, he’ll have to start every tri nations match, but even then, it’ll be risky starting him at the WC. I have no idea whther he’s available or ailling to play for us, but surely the time has come to send an SOS to Brian Mujati. 

Surprises refert o the players who surprised me, either by stepping up and perforing better than what we’ve come to expect from them, or either just confirming what some have seen long ago. I feel Chiliboy has really grabbed his chances with both hands since he’s been given a few starts this season, he has been consistent, and he’s been good. I feel Bismarck probably has a slight advantage , having his reputation, and having already proved he is capable to perform at his best at test level, where Chiliboy hasn’t had enough starts at national level to convince he’ll take his form to test rugby, he has however convinced me ,he deserves the chance. 

up until the weekend both Spies and Habana have been looking off form, although Habana showed some glimpses of his old self against the Bulls, he wasn’t there yet, Spies stood up in the Bulls game, and was brilliant with ball in hand, he also looked determined, and pushed himself. he played with a confidence which was missing before. Habana had a few good breaks, and he scored a great opportunistic try on Saturday, he also made fewer errors, and he seems to be finding some form, There is no doubt, that if we can pick JP , Habana on the wings with either Aplon, Lambie or Frans at fullback, our back three, will be scoring some tries…Duane Vermeulen also outplayed the Cheetahs’ Bok squad member Ashley Johnson, having a very good game until he picked up an injury, if he was to securer a spot in the final squad with the remainder of the Super15, he certainly has bad luck. as he is reported to be out for 8weeks. 

We have quite a few players who are on form and very good replacement options to have, they may be spending the majority of their WC time on the bench , but they are considerred Glimpses of Light, the future looks bright with these players around. 

There are quite a few players that I’m not completely convinced about yet, most who have yet to impress at test level, Johnson , Strauss, Oosthuizen, Olivier, for all their form and brilliance this season, have never really done much at test level. and maybe in the coming Tri Nations they’ll get the opportunity to prove me wrong, but until then, I’ll be a little sceptic about how they’ll perform in the green and gold. Lwazi may be as quick as lightning, strong and agile, but he just doesn’t seem to fit into our Springbok setup, admittingly, Bjorn Basson would’ve been a logical choice. being such a good player under the high ball, both players though seem to disppear in tight games where the ball doesn’t get to the wings often…I would still have them both aheadof Odwa, who just doesn’t have enough speed to be an international wing. 

We have enough experienced senior players who are on form , for us to built the core of our successful WC title defense. 

The 49 man squad has been announced, we had 37 players estblised a week ago, so picking 49 again makes little sense to me, Peter Grant, Brian Mujati(if available) and Sarel Pretorius being the only obvious exclusions I can think of now.

Willem Alberts

Gio Aplon

Bjorn Basson

Andries Bekker

Bakkies Botha

BJ Botha

Heinrich Brüssow

Schalk Burger

Juan de Jongh

Jean de Villiers

Bismarck du Plessis

Jannie du Plessis

Fourie du Preez

Jaque Fourie

Dean Greyling

Bryan Habana

Alistair Hargreaves

Francois Hougaard

Adrian Jacobs

Butch James

Elton Jantjies

Enrico Januarie

Ashley Johnson

Ryan Kankowski

Zane Kirchner

Werner Kruger

Patrick Lambie

Francois Louw

Victor Matfield

Tendai Mtawarira

Johann Muller

Lwazi Mvovo

Odwa Ndungane

Wynand Olivier

Coenie Oosthuizen

Ruan Pienaar

JP Pietersen

Chiliboy Ralepelle

Danie Rossouw

John Smit

Juan Smith

Pierre Spies

Gurthrö Steenkamp

Deon Stegmann

Frans Steyn

Morne Steyn

Adriaan Strauss

Flip van der Merwe

Duane Vermeulen

Source: Superxv.com

Former Crusaders and All Blacks winger Caleb Ralph has been named in the Reds 23-man squad to play the Chiefs in the final round of Super Rugby on Saturday.

Earlier the week, after the news of their injuries, and uncertainty on the fitness of Digby Ioane , Reds coach Ewen McKenzie acknowledged that they’ll need to find 1 back. , “We’ll wait and see what the story is with Digby. That will be a complete medical process there. He might or might not be available.”

“Otherwise, we’ll just go to the well again and we’ll find a solution locally.”

 Ralph is the sole change to the squad announced for last weekend ‘s match against the Force, the 24-21 victory for the Reds securing either first or second place on the Super Rugby ladder and subsequently a home Semi-Final.

Flyer Luke Morahan drops out of the squad because of a hamstring tear while winger Rod Davies has been passed fit from the shoulder injury sustained early in the match.

Ralph, who has 14 caps for the All Blacks and is the third most experienced Super Rugby representative with 135 games, has featured prominently over the past two seasons for the Sunshine Coast Stingrays in the Strategic Airlines Queensland Premier Rugby competition.

If he makes his debut for the Reds on Saturday, Ralph will equal George Gregan as the second most capped Super Rugby player with 136 games, behind only Nathan Sharpe (147 caps).

Ralph ‘s 58 tries scored in Super Rugby is also just one short of the record held by Doug Howlett (59).

The Reds lost backline players Anthony Faingaa, Digby Ioane, Rod Davies, Luek Morahan, Peter Hynes and Ben Lucas, and many are doubting their ability to maintain their top spot on the overall Super rugby log, (a Chiefs win in Hamilton all but impossible), with both the Stormers and Crusaders able to surpass them should they secure wins in their games against the Cheetahs and Hurricanes repsectively 

“At this stage of our campaign we are looking for an experienced outside back and Caleb fits the bill. He is a veteran who has no doubt played many times against the Chiefs in Hamilton and therefore we think he ‘s a good fit.”

Reds squad to play Chiefs

Forwards: Ben Coridas, Ben Daley, Saia Faingaa, Liam Gill, James Hanson, Scott Higginbotham, Greg Holmes, James Horwill (c), Radike Samo, Jake Schatz, Rob Simmons, James Slipper, Adam Wallace-Harrison

Backs: Will Chambers, Quade Cooper, Rod Davies, Will Genia (vc), Jono Lance, Dallan Murphy, Ian Prior, Dom Shipperley, Caleb Ralph, Ben Tapuai

Since The Western Force Joined Super rugby in 2006, expanding the competition to 14 teams, They have held signatures of some serious big names, securing the services Brendan Cannon in their first season, while also fielding big names such as fellow Wallabies, Drew Mitcell(contracted to the Waratahs) , Matt Giteau (Brumbies 2010) , Nathan Sharpe and Matt Dunning. 

Since their inclusion into the competition, they haven’t managed to be serious title contenders, ending mid to bottom of the log at best. Since then though, they have produced quite a few Wallabies of their own, players like Digby Ioane (now playing for the Reds), David Pocock, James O’Connor, Cameron Shepherd, Matt Henjak( playing at Toulon) Ben McCalman, Matt Hodgson, Brett Sheehan, Richard Brown, Pek Cowan and Ryan Cross(now at Waratahs). 

That’s a total of 10 players with test experience in their 2011 squad. 8 of them still currently considerred Australian internationals. They also signed NZ born Willie Ripia and David Smith for the 2011 season, Smith proving to be invaluable…but just like the other impressive players who played in the Force’s colours, he’s also on his way, moving to Toulon for the 2012 season. a bit of good news is that James O’Connor resigned with the club after much speculation about a possible move to the Rebels. 

With that in mind, one has to remember that the force lost instrumental Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and the strong running Digby Ioane. Drew and Digby arguably not yet established as world class players when they left. but on current form, are regarded as some of the best backs in the world. 

The same can probably be said about quite a few of the Super rugby teams, but most were able to built success despite losing key players, the Western force would’ve had one of the most devastating backlines in world rugby, were they able to retain the majority of the above mentioned players. 

Drew Mitchell and Matt Giteau 

Can you just imagine that Western Force Backline…

9. Matt Henjak  

10. Matt Giteau  

11.Drew Mitchell  

12.James O’Connor  

13.Digby Ioane  

14. David Smith

15. Cameron Sheperd…

Scary…and certainly enough fire power to make them a serious Force in super rugby. 

It seems 2012 will be yet another year where O’Connorcarries this Force team, with little chance of improvement…

Some witnessed a poor display of rugby by South-Africa’s top two (or three if you like) super rugby teams, as the Stormers and Bulls battled in another 1 of their legendary North vs South derbies, that ended 19-16 in the favour of the Bulls. The Stormers made countless handling errors, but despite playing badly almost snatched the win in the dying moments via Bryan Habana. while The Sharks, in a must win match against the Lions could only secure a draw, even though showing great character in their fightback. 

Some saw a comfortable win by the Bulls, apparantly I missed that…anyway…I watched the game, with the key matchups in mind. Wynand Olivier vs Jean de Villiers, Matfield vs Bekker, Bryan Habana vs Bjorn and van den Heever, Spies vs Vermeulen, Schalk vs Potgieter or Stegmann,whichever you prefer(some feel no need for a genuine fetcher) 

Bjorn Basson vs Bryan Habana 

I know quite a few supporters were surprised at the exclusion of Bjorn Basson when the 37-man Springbok Training squad was announced. Some felt the need to compare stats, to justify Habana’s inclusion ahead of Basson, technically you’d only have to look at 1 stat : tests played , Habana: 60+ , Bjorn: 4

Not to sound biased, but Bjorn disappeared in the pressure game  (the same can be said for Gerhard van den Heever, who made very little impact) , and in contrast , Bryan was everywhere,(Bryan gained 225m with ball in hand compared to the 17m by van den Heever and the 22m by Bjorn) he may have made quite a few handling errors of his own, but he was a constant threat, up until the very last minute, when he almost stole a win. If I have to rate the two wingers’ performances , Habana would receive an 8/10 and Bjorn a 6/10 . I know the Habana haters won’t agree, but think about it, in a test match where little space is offered, would you want a quiet and concervative Basson that we saw on Saturday, or an active Habana who certainly made things happen? 

Victor Matfield vs Andries Bekker 

Being a huge Bekker fan, I’ll admit, the confidence Matfield has at line-out time is an attribute Bekker’s still lacking. perhaps the Hookers who threw in had a big say in the outcome of the line-outs, but few would argue that the Bulls had the upper hand. I think it’s simply a psychological thing, having played at lock myself, I feel Bekker with his added height shouldn’t have any disadvantage.Athough Bekker still edges Matfield on his loose game, where matfield appears ineffective with ball in hand, Matfield’s captaincy, superior line-out BMT and cool head puts him clearly ahead of Bekker on the Weekends performance.

rating: Matfield 9/10 Bekker 8/10

Schalk Burger vs Potgieter and/or Stegmann 

No one had a good fetching game, I’m not suggesting we compare Schalk’s fetching abilities, But he might, if Juan Smith is fit come WC time, or Willem alberts gets a starting position, get chosen as our non-fetching fetcher. In my humble opinion, Burger had a very good game, he bumped off Bulls tacklers with ease , and was his ussual hard working self. He stood up in the pressure situation, and played a big part in getting the Stormers to the tryline, enabling Bekker to score. Potgieter had a few runs, but was quiet through parts, and the same can be said of Deon Stegmann, who had his moments, but as a genuine fetcher, did very little except for Tackling and unsuccessfully attempting a few steals. 

Rating: Burger 9/10 , Potgieter 7/10 , Stegmann 7/10

Wynand Olivier vs Jean de Villiers

Jean didn’t break the line with the ease he would’ve liked, he did however get over the line 70% of the time,made 9 tackles and didn’t miss 1 and made a few offloads. Wynand made 13 tackles and missed 2, but in contrast with Jean got over the gain line only 16% of the time. pretty weak by any standard. he gained about half the metres that Jean did, 90m and 47m respectively. and made 0 offloads in comparison to Jean’s 3. here Jean clearly came out tops, and in a pressure game, Jean is the obvious choice.

rating: Jean 8/10  Wynand Olivier 6/10

Duane vs Spies 

on face value both had average games, where neither really stood out. stats wise there also isn’t much in it. both deserve about 7/10 ratings 

The positive to come out of this game is that the senior players(first choice Springboks) generally outperformed their younger counterparts, and it does give one a bit of confidence, because although experience is said to win world cups, without form to accompany it , experience is deemed to be pretty useless.

a few weeks ago, I did a post on SA super 15 sides’ reluctance to sign players from non South-African descent, specially from our fellow SANZAR countries, New Zealand and Australia. The post was aimed at the Lions, who still lack some experience, and failed to lure experienced players to JHB(Butch James being the exception) when they were in the process of building a squad.  

Even though I was focussing on the Lions, the same basically applies to the other 4 SA teams. When debating whether it would be better to buy experience for short term gain, rather than built it(which takes more time and isn’t guaranteed to succeed) in the comments section, I saw an article which basically said Hurricanes and All Black hooker Andrew Hore’s contract with the club is yet to be renewed after this year, and probably won’t be. 

Apparantly the Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett is planning a clear out before next year’s super rugby season, wanting a fresh new start. according to superxv.com unconfirmed reports have All Black centre Ma’a Nonu as another player who will face the axe. Fellow All Blacks Hosea Gear, Piri Weepu and Cory Jane are all also out of contract at the end of the year, and it will definately be interesting to see where these players go, and if their contracts will be renewed. 

This past weekend, Hosea Gear scored two impressive tries, while Nonu dotted down once, and was involved in creating Gear’s tries. I can’t imagine the coaching staff getting rid of Gear, because he is seen by most in NZ as one of the unluckiest players re. national selection, because he has been regarded as the best in his position in NZ for quite some time. 

The players who seem most likely to be clubless soon is Ma’a Nonu and Andrew Hore, and syrely the experience they have at super rugby level can only be bought, both players having about a century of Super rugby caps behind their names. The possibility is big that these two player may be lured to Europe after the Rugby World cup. and if there is any truth in the reports, and anyone wants to keep these players plying their trade in the Southern hemisphere, surely the time has arrived to get out the cheque books.

Weren’t the Sharks looking for a centre ? 

So Ryan Giggs, the Man United midfielder once model professional and commited family man, was was last month outed in British parliament as the high-profile sportsman who had used gagging orders to stop allegations of an affair with former Miss Wales Imogen Thomas becoming public.

The news obviously shocked his wife, but she insisted she won’t let Imogen Thomas get between them, and gave husband Ryan another chance, believing their marriage isn’t beyond saving. 

Giggs and his wife Stacey 

Imogan Thomas: hottie that Ryan had his initial affair with 

Giggs, who has been known for his role model reputation, had a few other skeletons in the closet…how does a man in the public eye(with the obvious need to cheat) get away with an affair. easy, he simply has his sister-in-law as a booty call for whenever he has the need to do the deed. 

after the news of Giggs’ affair with miss above, his sister-in -law(currently still married to his brother) felt betrayed, now knowing that their relationship was nothing more than sex for Ryan…

“but he wasn’t just cheating on Stacey, he was cheating on me too”…Apparently, she now has a story that she met Ryan prior to getting involved with his brother, and that they’ve been sleeping together since then…

So she basically claims she was cheating on her husband, from the first day they met? that doesn’t exactly justify it, it probably makes it worse. 

Natasha Giggs: Ryan’s sister-in-law , who he’s been f*cking for 8years. 

There’s no doubt he won’t be retaining his wholesome family man status. 

Max Clifford, who is representing both Natasha and Imogen Thomas, said the whole sordid saga would have remained under wraps had Giggs not obtained the gagging order, because Miss Thomas had not wanted it made public. sucks to be you Mr Giggs…

after rumour emerged that he was indeed the high-profole sports star talked about in the media re the Gagging order, his sister-in-law Natasha confronted him, and asked if it was indeed true…he apparantly insisted, it wasn’t him. 

lesson to all men reading this, if you were to fuck up, and cheat. Just be honest about it, getting caught a few YEARS later makes you guilty of 1. Cheating and 2. hiding it, which will just make it literally impossible for your wife to ever trust you again, (that’s if she’s crazy enough to give you another chance.) 

So I’ll do a little comparison to show people how easy it is to judge purely on assumption, and how wrong you can be. 

just how many times have we heard Sheriff and co say, imagine if Lambie had Jean de Villiers on his inside? Met uysh did a post a while ago, to show that Wynand Olivier is on current form, ahead of Jean, but most people just assumed those two are competing for the first and second spot, due to the Cheetahs’ first choice IC being injured, the Lions struggling again this year, and obviously Meyer Bosman from the Sharks, “the worst centre to ever play the game” just quoting from memory a few bloggers’ opinion on the man. week in and out comments suggest he should have been dropped long ago. Bosman is someone who I rate, read an article earlier, where there was said he’s probably the player with the best pass in SA, and I agree, he’s distribution can only be discribes as world class. 

Meyer Bosman

   12 Starts

  11           3           113       18       58        5           21        62.3     655      110         31          172        0          117     58

     1             15            20       5       145 

Jean de Villiers 

    9 Starts 

   9         1             78         12         50         5          4         63.1     596      62          14           116       0           75       25

   8              12            10         7      155

Wynand Olivier 

  13 Starts 

   28        6            165       14       109        17          8        74.6    1110    72           26           302       0          155       60

    14            22          27        5      117

So with the different amount of games started by each player, I’ll give an average contribution per game for each player. 

Bosman in Grey, JdV in Red, and Olivier in Blue 

Average stats per game started. 

so my general conclusion is, having Jean de Villiers inside Lambie will only result in your outside backs seeing much less ball, as few can match Meyer Bosman’s distribution. Bosman is probably the ideal “passing IC” , While Wynand Olivier is a perfect “bashing IC” and Jean probably has the best allround game, although admittingly not on current form, where he doesn’t exactly look like SA’s best.