ADFSL

Juffrou kry al die kinders vir ‘n klas bespreeking. Al die kinders moet vertel wat se werk hul pa doen.

Koosie sê sy pa is ‘n dokter en help mense om gesond te word.
Mooi sê juffrou goeie begin.
Pietie sê sy pa is ‘n rekenmeester en doen ander mense se boeke.
Interessant sê juffrou.
Jannie staan op en sê sy pa is ‘n ontklee danser by ‘n gay club waar ander mans hom betaal om sy klere uit te trek. Verder sê Jannie dat as die mans sy pa ekstra geld betaal dan doen hy ekstra gunsies vir hulle agter die club.
Juffrou wil nie ‘n scene maak nie en sê toe niks.
Later die dag roep juffrou vir Janie eenkant en vra hom. Jannie dis mos nie wat jou pa regtig doen nie?
Nee sê Jannie my pa is ‘n springbok rugby speler maar ek was vers te skaam om dit voor die klas te vertel!

But on a serious note. Why are the boks so bad this year? Easy.

If you have Brussow, FdP, Juan Smith, JP Pietersen , F Steyn. And a in form Smit, Matfield , JdV, Botha and Habana.

YOU DON’T NEED A REAL COACH!

Its a bit like Federer when he is on song. But as with Federer now when times get hard you need a real coach with fenesse and real technical know how. And PdV is not that. Clown or not he is just way out of his depth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well their has been a lot said about PdV new team selections. Most people aploud Pienaar at 9 and think Aplon at 14 can’t do worse than JdV. BJ for CJ who is injurred is a straight swop. But the most debatable point is Kanko at 7.

A blindside flank should do a lot of ball carries and deal out all the big hits. Now Kanko’s biggest assets is his speed and ball skills. I can understand PdV thinking as games at Suncorp std is always fast and not that physical.

Still this loose trio does look seriously unbalanced. Kanko gives jou speed and handeling; Spies gives you speed and power going forward; Burger gives you defence (sometimes brainless) and the crashball through the middel.

The problem witht this combination is the to the ball ability. As we will encounter another NH ref. Burger the closest to a fetcher  hasn’t really fetched since his neck injurie in 2006. Spies and Kanko does not even enter rucks so them fetching is a bit far fetched.

The good thing in 2009 was the combination of Brussow , Smith and Spies. You see Brussow fast and to the ball and amazingly difficult to bring down. Smith strong with good defence not afraid of the ruff stuff. And that allowed Spies the fredom to play in the backline and work the turn over ball into tries.

Now I am a Stormer and I love Sckalk Burger but he does not fit into this loose trio. He can play blide side if you want him in a team but then you still need an open side flank. Esp. if a NH ref is officiating.

cheers..

So to fetch or not to fetch.

I have read a lot about this and both corners does make compelling cases. But in the end it is probably better to go the saver route and select a decent fetcher. With this I mean a real fetcher like Brussow or Steggman ect. Flo can fetch but is more of an stand in fetcher than a specialist. Brussow has the added advantage that he is a fine alround player as well.

The reason why I won’t categorically demand a fetcher this year. Is off coarse the new laws. Which if applied to the letter of the law really negates a fetcher. You see this new laws was the biggest factor why the Stormers was so good in the S14 and why they could play and win with out a real fetcher.

If you have to tackle , release , roll, stand-up , give daylight and only then are allowed to play. The tackled player must be totally isolated before a turn-over can be made. I know the fetchers have smarten a bit and now tries to be the second guy arriving to play the ball immediately. But even then you have to wait (if you play according to the laws) that the tackle is completely finish and the tackler has released the player. This still takes a lot of time and gives the attacking team time to secure their ball.

You see the new laws were introduced for Nz and Aus so they can attack more. But Nz forgot that if you want to play all out attack rugby the best time to do this is from turn over ball. A perfect example of this is Mills try on Sa where Conrad Smith and another All Black turned the ball over and ran away with a try. (coincidentally this was an illegal turn over)

You see in this year S14 the Nz teams were way off the boil and Mr McCaw was nowhere to be found and gave away o lot of penalties. Case and point Cruisaders vs Stormers where McCaw and co was blown out of the game.

So I do have sympathy for Div and co. Not to much though because his team selections did let him down.

But NH referees is now blowing a hybrid form of the laws and SH referees are blowing to the letter of the law (or most at least).

So my question is this should teams now be picked on which referee is officiating or from which country he is. Or should the IRB step in and get all refs to officiate the same or at least in the same vicinity as each other.

Every one says we as South Africans should be more ref smart I say refs should not be the focal point of a rugby game and the best refs are the ones who you can’t remember when the game is finished.

The IRB, situated in the British Isle’s, off coarse are to British to ever concede that their system is flawed and will never listen to a “barbaric” country like RSA. So as long as the laws suit a country like the gods off rugby Nz they won’t change.
 
By the way why do we have NH refs officiating in the 3N after all the players has come accustomed to SH refs?

PS. if a technical gifted ref like Stuart Dickenson (in the words of Linden Bray) was officiating the result may well have been different.

I’ll have my rant and then I’ll start drinking and hopefully by tomorrow I would have forgotten about this game.

The boks did not have their finest game but was right up their and the scoreline is actually pritty impresive considering the refs antics.

Richie McCaw got away with murder fall over every ball and playing on the ground. If this is the standerd of officiating in the Tri-Nations then why bother watching????????

Any how at least the Bulls supporters now know how it felt watching the S14 final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reason the boks lost easy Alain Rolland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So a lot has been said about the Boks performance last weekend. I almost think the less is said about it the better.

So should we through all our toys out of the cot? No not all but there has to be some toys that will be better suited on the floor! It is not that they lost but the way they lost.  Can one really turn that much in one week?

PdV has named a basically unchanged bok team. Which is very interesting and surprising. I thought that even he will have to give in and change some of the personal. BUT maybe they can proof me wrong and win on Sa.

My team would have been:

15. Zane Kirchner (he is in my not good enough but F Steyn is not available. )

14. Gio Aplon ( he can’t be worse then JdV on the wing)

13. Jacque Fourie

12. Jean de Villiers ( he had prob his worst bok game ever. But he is a decent centre.)

11. Bryan Habana

10. Morne Steyn

9. Ruan Pienaar ( would have like to give Hougaard a chance but not when the team is under this much pressure. )

8. Pierre Spies ( he was lacking on defense and a guy like Vermeulen might be a better choice against NZ)

7. Potgieter (Flo was anonymous on Sa and Dewald deserve a chance)

6. Schalk Burger ( he always looks good in a losing team. But he will have to raise his game)

5. Matfield ( also had an off day could not steal one ball and that’s the main reason he is in the team. Bekker edges him in general play.)

4. Rossouw ( he did not have a proper go at Sa. But will have to step-up)

3. CJ van der Linde ( well Jannie had an OK game but is injured. I also like CJ work rate in the lose. But he will have to stand-up come scrum time – Big time.)

2. J Smit ( he is in the worst personal form of his life. But Chilli should not be forced in a game where his confidence can take to big a blow. Pity a seasoned veteran like Botha isn’t there)

1. Gathro Steenkamp ( he also did not play to bad)

16. Chilli

17. BJ ( CJ can cover both sides)

18. Andries Bekker

19. Flo ( let him play of the bench he have not rested yet)

20. F. Hougaard ( he can cover a lot of positions.)

21. B James ( well he is the only cover at 10)

22. Olivier ( Personally I don’t think he is good enough to start but he can be on my bench)

PdV will never chose this team but would it not be a blessing if he did?

Will this team demolish the All Blacks – prob NO; will they win I don’t know – maybe No.

It just goes to show how good FdP is. With him in the team we would deff have won both games.

Cheers

So who do we have to keep a keen eye on?

I will chose 3 players from each team I think might just be the game breakers !!

Starting with Aus:

Rocky Elsom – The big ball carrier is very difficult to stop.  If he is not watch closely then he will reak havock. Schalk and McCaw will have their work cut out trying to stop the man.

Will Genia – The nippy scrumhalf is fast becoming one of the best in the world. He has an keen eye for a gap and his service to his flyhalf is fast and crisp. He was one of the main reasons for the resurgens of Reds rugby this season. And at a young age are already one of the leaders in the team. He has been injurred of late but if he plays watch out!

Quade Cooper - This flyhalf is the new sensation of Aus rugby, although his biggest headlines this year has been for the wrong reasons. On the field the guy got some serious skill. His weakness is his goal kicking but with either Giteau or Barnes at 12 this won’t be a problem. Permitted he stays on the right side of the law and thus out of jail he will be a handful and if he is given to much space he will release those dangerous Aus outside backs.

Then there is Nz:

Richie McCaw – Captain corrageos. He has not had the best of seasons in ’09 and ’10. (even if he won player of the year) But he is slowly adepting to the new Law interpetations. And if a ref allows him to play a bit on the otherside of the law he can be devastating. He has good alround skills and have no apparent weaknesses. His biggest controbution is that he is never more than 3 yards away from the ball.

Dan Carter – Like a lot of Nz players has not been in the best form of his life. But in the last few tests he was showing glipses that he is regaining that form that made him so sensational in the past. When he is on song he is undoubtly the best flyhalf in the world. He has a dead eye boot and can create a gap out of nothing. His distrubution skills are good and if he is given the slightest amounts of space he will make you pay.

Ma’a Nanu – Strange choice I know but this bulky inside centre is a hard man to bring to ground. Just coming back from a lengthy injurie. He will be well rested and eager to get stuck in. He single handedly won a few games for the Canes with his bulstering runs. If you don’t tackle him the first time and he gets a bit of momentum you will be standing behind your own post before you even had a chance to think!

And now for the Bokke:

Victor Matfield – He is the best line out decoder in the bussness and if you don’t change your calls 3 – 4 times a game he will steal more ball in a game than Quade Cooper can clean out houses over a weekend. He is the main reason SA dominate the line out and why Nz teams are so afraid to kick the ball out. One of SA strenghts is the driving maul and that all starts at line out time.

Morne Steyn - He is more regular than a all female boarding house. He has got BMT and a kick under pressure is a walk on the beach for this guy. He has started to score some tries as well and is packing on the points. He is an excellent tacktical kicker and always gives his chasers a chance to aply some presure. And one can’t forget his ablity to snuff out a win with a drop goal in a tight game!

Jean De Villiers/ Jacque Fourie – Now I know this is two people and they are far from a garenteed combination. But if they do get the chance to play togerther they can produce magic. Jean has got good skills and has a great rugby brain. He has a keen eye for a intercept try. Fourie is the director of the backline defence and was the main reason the Stormers conceded less than two tries a game on average this season. He also has the abilaty to score tries in the tightest of situations. He what can I say its the worlds self proclaimed best centre and maybe the worlds best inside centre together.

So because of popular demand I am going to add Louw – He has been sensational and adepted to the new laws the best of any lose forward in the world. He has strong ball carring abilities and steals a lot of ball at the brakedown. He has perfectly fill the void left by the injury to Brussow. And we all know that turnover ball leads to tries. The only question here is if he will hold his own under the pressure of the Tri-Nations? Prob yes.

So there is a lot more players that will stand out and Tank will say that it all starts with the front row and he would be right. But this is only my view and for me non of the front rankers really outshine their counter parts in the other teams.

CHeers