vendetta

Hello Blogland!

I am in an absolutely awesome mood this morning as I completed a project for KPMG a day ahead of schedule. This means a free lunch and an early start to the weekend. I am going to get as much sport in this weekend as humanly possible!

Firstly, today I would love to watch a bit of the TdF to see what Armstrong was on about when he tweeted that today is going to be one of the toughest stages ever. He made mention that it was a very up and down stage with narrow roads and it was the only time (in 1995) that he really saw Indurain on the ropes. It should make for some good viewing I reckon!

Then as the blog’s title suggested,  some sort of recipe to exact some revenge onto the Kiwis for the embarrasing of the Boks that was handed down last week!

Ricky:

Please, for the sake of my good health, have your one good game in a year tomorrow morning! You are the link between the forwards and the backs. Be the link, not the broken Telkom line!

Loosies:

There will be no better opportunity for Flo to prove that he is world class, than this weekend. I fear if he has another invisible man performance like last week, that he might get relegated to the bench. Along with Schalk and Spies, the three of them will have to beat ol Richie to each and every loose ball and knock the stuffing out of him at every opportunity.

The Tight Five:

The scrums for me were not such a great disaster last week, but I hope that they can improve that aspect a bit. John, please, show that you are a hooker, not a third prop! Hit some rucks, find your jumpers and LEAD THE PACK! Your leadership which is the only reason Gary Botha or Tiaan Liebenberg are not in the squad, has been missing. Light that fire in the engine room by leading by example! All Victor and Danie has to do is play the way they did in the Super 14 final and they will be fine.

The Backs:

It all depends on Ricky whether the backs will be able to get away some attacks. Morne has proven in the Super 14 that he can get his backline away, and even score some tries himself. If numbers 1 – 9 can get the ball going forward, Morne and his outside players should prove that we can also score some tries.

Commitment:

Attack like demons, defend like your lives depend on it!

Jean and Zane:

Jean, you can’t go for the intercept every time!

Zane, don’t use the high ball every time, the small chip and chase will be a nice change of scenery for you!

Well, there you go, it’s very simple really.

Then my favorite CC fixture of the year, the Bulls vs Sharks as I am a Bull and my girlfriend is a Shark. Imagine the fun I had in 2007 when she phoned me from Kings Park to brag about the Sharks Super 14 victory, and when I phoned back 3 minutes later when Habana scored!

Have a great weekend dudes and dudettes!

Peace!

Hello fellow bloggers!

What I witnessed on Saturday was a complete disaster! Not for one moment do I believe that can get beaten by such a margin by the All Blacks. Not with the wealth of talent that we have and for goodness sake, we DOMINATED the Super 14! So this begs the question. With the momentum created by the Super 14 and our warm up tests, how did we manage to implode so emphatically?

Here are some of the answers, I believe:

Travel and the media:

I think we left the travel a bit late. We could have travelled a bit earlier which would have left us with more time to get climatised. Only having one or two proper sessions before a big test is not ideal. And with a lot of time spent feeding the All Black media machine also did not help with our preparations, instead, we only fed the All Blacks more inspiration ahead of the all important opening match!

Selections:

Picking out of form players and players out of position is a recipe for disaster! The following players are grossly out of form and serious decisions will have to be made with regards to their places in the team:

John Smit: Captain courageous looked nothing more than an overweight school boy on Saturday. He was nowhere to be seen in the loose (he was stationed at inside centre mostly!) and his line out throws were abysmal! He also did not look like he provided much inspiration for a team that really needed it!

Bakkies: The less said about Bakkies, the better. I really hope the 9 week suspension gives him some time to re-evaluate his approach to the game!

Flo: His nickname in Afrikaans translated to English, means poor! He was exactly that. He did not contest a single ball on the ground and did not protect the little ball we had. We are missing Heinrich Brussow in this department. Maybe Francois had an off day or was he overwhelmed by the occasion of facing the All Black Captain?

Ricky Januarie: Three badly misplaced tactical kicks, 3 huge counter attacks which eventually ended in three tries for the All Blacks. His passing is slow and often caused our players to attack from a standing start. Hopefully the coach will come to his senses! He was not the understudy at Province for nothing you know. The only reason he was on the bench at the Stormers was because Bolla Conradie is even worse of a scrumhalf than Ricky! The one-try wonder has to go!

Jean de Villiers: Either you play him at inside centre or not at all. His constant search for the intercept left us vulnarable on the wing and the All Blacks capitilised on that.

Zane Kirchner: Who in his right mind will select anybody else if you have Frans Steyn?

The use of the bench:

Pdivvy should have brought on Ruan Pienaar after Januaries first bad tactical kick. Danie Rossouw should have started the game as he is the in form Number 4 lock. Butch James? Really? What impact will he make in a game? Except for a shoulder charge or a high/late tackle. Chilliboy also does not instill a great sense of comfort. He did however win one of his own line-outs, something John Smith could not manage.

Set Pieces:

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing the fault at the door of the management team alone. The players on the field also needs to take responsibility for this loss. The scrums were not terrible, in some of the scrums we actually looked dominant, but then again, there were a lot of occasions that we were not on the front foot in this department.

The line outs were shocking! From John Smith’s throwing to competing for opposition ball. Pathetic to say the least! The drives were also not working from the line outs and that was an area that we wanted to dominate. Not good enough Boks, not even close!

The Loose:

We were static from our phase ball. We did not compete on the ground. We did not protect our possession. Enough said.

Tactics and Motivation:

What? The less said the better!

……………………………………………….

Hopefully the Boks climatise properly this week, stay out of the media, make the right selections and show the world why we are the world champs! Maybe this was a much needed wake-up call to get us out of that comfort zone!

Come on Boks, we know you will make us proud this weekend!

Hello fellow bloggers!

It’s been a while since my last post, but I finally found a few spare moment at work to put something up.

Firstly, I am extremely proud to be South African. The Organising Committee has done a splendid job with hosting the event and except for the Paraguay captain, no one has said anything that could detract from a magnificent event. My world cup started with my friends (19) and I making a trip to Atteridgeville to support Bafana against Denmark in a warm up game. It was an absolutely amazing experience even though our bus only got us there in time for the second half! It was an experience I will never forget, the locals were extremely welcoming and some of them even thought that I was Booth. LOL

Fast forward to the world cup. I had tickets for my girlfriend and I to see NED vs DEN, GER vs Ghana and ITA vs Slovakia. Unfortunately I could not make the last two games due to work commitments in the Free State but lucklily I got 5 Cat 1 tickets from a friend to watch the Germans destroy England. It was awesome to see the English self destruct up close and personal!

I am looking forward to the final and hope that the Dutch (The team I earmarked to take it) come through and claim the cup in their third final. HUP HOLLAND HUP!!!

The Tri Nations!

This is always a highlight of my year as there is usually a Bok/All Black game on my birthday weekend or just abouts.. I believe though that the winner of the test on saturday will go on to lift the 3N trophy! I know not a single try has been scored but the team that gets on the front foot after the first test will be difficult to stop.

I feel sorry for the Aussies. Their team looks a good one, but they just can’t get it together. I mean losing against England at home is not a very good sign and their scrum was manhandled in the first test against the Poms.

I am hoping to see that PDivvy brings on both Danie Rossouw as well as Bekker at the same time, substituting Bakkies and Victor early in the second half. Only if we are in the lead though. Can you imagine the All Blacks’ dismay seeing Bakkies and Victor leave only to bring Bekker and Danie on. It’s a risky move but I think Andries has shown that he can compete very well in the line outs, and his running with the ball in hand can be very destructive. I also think that having Danie and Bekker on the bench opens up a plethora of options for PDivvy, I just hope that he uses them wisely!

In the back line there are not many causes for concern. I just hope that Wynand Olivier can put in a performance that would silence his critics. When he and Fourie start combining nicely, there won’t be many sides in the world that will be able to beat the Boks. Not that I think there are currently anybody that will be able to beat us at home!!!

Viva AmaBokoBoko!

Hup Oranje Hup!

Have a cracker weekend guys!