ADFSL

My first impression is that it is a good team but not a great team.

Brok is doing well for his size but will never dominate his opponent and at best he can hold his own. Lucky for him there is no Beast but still he always has me worried.

The loose trio is seriously unballanced with no real to the ball player and I don’t rate Koster as world class.

I would have liked to see Kolisi at 7 ; Vermeulen at 8 and Carr or Kitshoff at 6.

OR

If you want to avoid the breakdown and go for the mall (ie Ireland in WC) then Kolisi at 6 and Elstedt at 7 with Vermeulen at 8 would have made more sense.

At the back this are looking a lot better with De Jongh back.

The only real area of concern is young van Aswegen who had a bit of a shocker against the Hurricanes and will be under a lot of presure especially his kicking out of hand. Luckaly Bash is back and I think he might be needed as well. Pitty cause van Aswegen made a promissing start in 2011.

Everyone knows to win the Sharks you should just hit them hard upfront and in tackles.

It will be a close one that is for sure!!

So Baylion will have us all believe that the Cubs (aka lions) are now the new talk of town and are real conteders for this years title or at least SA conference.

But how good are they. Yes they won the CC in a world cup year where most of the big provinces lost the Boks to WC duty. Cub fans will have you believe that: The snoek smokkelaars and the Banana farmers were after all at full streght bar injuries. And that is true.

The fact is though that the Cubs had the luxury of playing the same team since the start of the S15 till the end of the CC. (except for Butch and 1 or 2 injuries at times) This is a masive difference to only having your senior pro’s back a week before the play offs.

So yes the Cubs benefitted greatly because of the world cup and if it was a normal year they probably would not have one.

One thing is true though they would have gained a lot of confidence by winning something at last.

BUT just one or two bad beats in the S15 and all that confidence will be long forgotten and they will be back to the old days in no time.

So the question is how good is the young cub team?  Well a good start to the S15 is crucial for them especially at home.

Cow’s out.

Ps. I wouls love to see the Lions roar a bit but somehow I just don’t see it happening.

After years of drought in the No. 10 spot having to field avarege but not brilliant players like Andre Pretorius, Butch James, Morne Steyn ect. We now suddenly have a bunch of young 10′s that truely have the potential to become world greats!!

Pat Lambie: The most expierenced of the bunch. He is a good flat ball player and good with ball in hand and getting the players

outside him away. His shortcomings at the moment is his tacktical kicking and goal kicking. But both of those are teachable trades. The other problem is like F Steyn he can play both 12 and 15. He has been moved arround a bit to mutch to develope in one possition up to this stage.

Elton Jantjies: As pointed out by Babylon. Is indeed a very interesting player who had a very up and down career to date. He has good offloading skills and pretty good tacktical kicking skills. He has become accurate with the boot although distance wise he is not in the range of some of the other candidates. He has had 2 strong CC campains but has yet to turn that into Super rugby form. He will prob be the Lions no 1 flyhalf this season and if he can get his mentle game right he might become a legend.

Sias Eberson: Also an exciting prospect that preformed really well in 2011 Super rugby. Has improved his goal kick quite a lot and also a great distributor of the ball. His weak point is his defence and tacktical kicking.

Johann Goosen: A very exciting prospect indeed. He has a very long boot and up to now relatively good distribution skills in the CC. He is yet to play Super rugby and everybody is waiting to see what he can do on the bigger stage. He is taunted be some to be the next big thing in SA rugby but only time will tell whether he will rise to the occation or fall back in the pack. For me personally he can become a real superstar if he is managed correctly.

Gary van Aswegen: Although not quite in the same class talent wise as a Lambie or a Goosen he has impressed every time he has played. All be it only in short burst because of untimely injuries.  He has a chance this year if he can stay injury free to stake his claim especially cause Grant won’t be back untill middle March. He has an accurate boot(not that long though) and great ball distributing skills.

Timo Swiel: A very young player of which there is not mutch known yet. But has created a buzz in Cape town because of his running and offloading skills. Still has a very long way to go before we can really tell whether he will become a great player or not. Schoolboy rugby greats does not always turn into CC or Super rugby greats. Gaffie du Toit is a prime example. But for what its worth if you watch his clips on youtube the boy really has some skills.

With all that said being a young player with potential won’t guarantee you sucsess at higher levels. And even being the best 10 in the world won’t always guarantee you will preform on the big stage!! Just ask DAN CARTER!

Cheers