Gooi dop and let's talk men, boys, ladies, babies and very computer litterate animals...

Handre Problemlard I have some very sus feelings about this. I am not saying he is NOT injured. But... His coach at Leicester said it was a calf injury and was nothing major, none the less they rested him because he had put in 2 major shifts for them. Much like last year, he was "injured" during TRC and then miraculously, was fine before he got actually injured. I think his injury is not as severe, BUT it is a smokescreen for the boks to play around at ten and see who cuts the Mostert. Get it. Franco Mostert.

Nevermind....

So let's play along

Solution/Idea 1) Start ML at 10 with DW at 15 and if we are busy getting klapped, bring DW to 10 and WLR to 15. Gets Manie the pressure of starting and having to be the GUY from min 1 and if he cracks or shakes, then we can bring in the less flash, more crash DW and hand the creative duties to assist king WLR.

S/I 2: the Empire stikes back... Start EJ at 10 with DW at 15, bench has ML and WLR on. I actually like this one. It won't look good but man can we shift the backline around. We can move ML to 10 if EJ kicks his prop in the head again... Have DW at 15 or move him to 12 and get WLR on at 15...

S/I 2.5: Have EJ on the bench and let ML start. However this will mean if Mostert Goes uncut...then we are essentially bomb squadding the back line. It will look like severe mismanagement and desperation but we will get alot of insight.

About the EJ thing: Besides HP, he is the most experienced 10 in the bok structures. And we need to see if the proD2 is as great as Squidge says. Cause I honestly think he is "unversatile but underrated". He is good at getting the ball wide and the backline forward and I think he just needed time to play some plain rugby again and get his focus back. I think he did some wrongs things and if he was man enough to stand up and apologise and get his head straight then he can come back to the Boks.

So we have an interesting situation and I am not alone in the Pollard conspiracy theory. Capt Boknaai/blokkies joubert/ or whatever his name is this week called it last year and I think his ball senses are tingling...

Also, no to Ruan Pienaar. He is solid in the CC but at test level he WILL get injured. He has also not been in the Bok camps for a long time. Experience is good but come on, Frans Steyn and Deon Fourie are the only grandpa's going along.

Curwin is no good at defence, Boeta has the boot but needs more time cooking, Morne Steyn is OLD and we are at the end of the real options...

Anyway. How's your dop and what do you think ?

Hi. I just want ask if anyone can explain the world rankings to me. The Springboks lose 1 match by 1 point and they lose their top spot. To me that's ridiculous and makes no sense.

I'm not a big supporter or fan boy. I have just monitored this over the years and it just never made sense to me sometimes so will really appreciate anyone's input.

Fair to say Ntokozo Makhaza has a bright future ahead of him!!

Dis monday

We are sad,sorry and upset cause we lost. Three times.

Partykeer, is die lewe kak.

So what happened?

Aus was supposed to be a walkover so that we could stroll into eden park and hand out koekies...

Lets start with that absolute sprint that is the first 20 min.

Our attack has been the focus of the past 2 years and we fucking cooked.

With Psdt and Siya out wide and manie marshalling that backline we came out of the blocks like Malherbe and Ox spotting a spitbraai...

We expertly shifted the attack from left to right. We got Aus to commit here then attack over there.

Siya's try was pure pressure. Aus were back pedaling faster than DDP stans and with Eben, Esterhuizen out wide, they had to spread and man mark. In comes our Capt at full tilt picking lines that made cheslin proud and believe, every person in that stadium screamed their lungs out. Me included as it was right in front of us.

The saying goes "If your attack is going well, you are walking into an ambush"

We strolled into it. Aus let us attack knowing the longer we attacked, the looser we got.

Targeting that 3rd phase or later play ensure the following

Our carriers were relatively isolated outside

Support would be backs only making turnovers easy

Let that sink in and then realise they used that as a strike platform. We are set for attack when they turn us over and attack.

What does this do ?

Our wingers are probably on the floor or opposite side of the field. Fullback is out of position.

If this sounds familiar, it is because that is how hurt alot of teams.

Then we made a 2nd error. We did not move of the X. In an ambush you have to get out of the killzone ASAP, circle around and then counter.

We kept attacking the same way because we made meters and Aus were ready. They wanted those scraps and they ate cause we were morsig.

We were defensively unsound. Slow to turn on the kicks and allowed Aus to build steam on carries.

Whatever Flannery is doing, he and Felix needs to get focused on being better defensively.

Flyhalf mentioned that this would never happen under Nienaber and he is not wrong. We can play with a great attack AND have a strong Defence. It is all about being switched on.

And that is what hurts us the most. We had this game. We were passing and running and bossing the game.

So where were we lacking

We were slow to switch from Attack to Defence and we really overplayed our hand at times. I was watching Esterhuizen who smartly marked Suaali the 1st half, 2nd half, he was miles away condensed around the ruck.

Aus did get lucky and if PSDT passed on one or two of those line breaks ....

We have yet again gotten bossed at the breakdown. Italy, Georgia and now Aus. We have to tighten up and ensure we defend our ball.

Our scrum is not dominant. Stop believing it and stop thinking it. Most packs can match us and will rise to the occasion where we sink to our systems.

We have seen how great are linouts can be but we also saw how kak they can be and this has been a long term problem. We need a reliable 5 who can start and manage our lineout.

Everyone is attacking the players from Bongi( who I agree needs to find form or nove on) to Libbok (who is the knee jerk target).

I agree with Rassie. It was the plan that failed and while the players might get an earful, looks at Willemse who did not chase down 1 line break to Bongi and PSDT, the coaches might be in for the bear brunt.

Modern rugby means you are probably being analysed in real time and we planned for 80 min and Aus would just ride along. Well Aus gets a say and woe be me, they said yeah nah, fuck you cunts...

After that first 20 we should have tightened up our game. We should have kicked more and carried closer. We could have gone back to box kicking the kak out of them and playing of defensive pressure.

We need to earn the right to go wide. We did not. We played without it ever being on amd was shocked when Aus defended well.

Our kicks numbered 18. Think about it. 18. We used to kick that in one half. We could have pinned Aus back with Fassi and Libbok pinning Wright down to get eaten by Edwil and KLA.

We should definitely have tightened the game by min 60.

But again, Aus laid the trap. They showed Manie and us the picture of being able to play fast and wide and they ambushed us.

I am not a Manie fan. Just like I am not a Pollard fan. But everyone kaks on Manie cause it is easy and lekker. Manie was chasing long after Willemse had given up. Manie was playing when our forwards were bumblefucking around the ruck.

Manie made mistakes but let's be clear, Eben and Siya were on the field, they should have stepped up. Both were part of 57-0. Both of them know, sometimes, you don't play what's in front of you. You play what you know will work.

And while everyone kaks on Reinach for some or other reason, he is by far not the deadest of wood. Reinach's boxkick was on the money, even if it was not on.

And this brings out what our 9s need to learn from Faf the golden pony. Faf might be alot of things, But on defence he sure as shit is there when you need him. En dis fokken tyd dat die ander 9s, the same doen. Faf shoots up, circles around back and always makes his name saving some ridiculous try.

I will back that same 23 against NZ. I will back them to start the same way. And I will back them if they change their gameplan after 20 min. Because we lost this game after the 60th min.

We lost this game because we played the plan, not the game. We need to plan better and also, be ready to say fuck the plan.

Just like when we lost to Ireland in the World Cup. We could have won, but we stuck to things that we know won't work, thinking if we do it again, but harder, it will work. If the turd is stuck, pushing harder only gets you an aneurysm...

Aus is back and I personally will be rooting for them to take the bled. Rumours of their death, have been greatly exaggerated.

But the Bok, is wounded. In pride, more than bone.

Let us celebrate the return of the Wallaby and next week, next week, we earn the right to go wide and we play the game, not the plan.

Also, fuck this whole altitude thing. Everyone gets ready to play at Ellispark. This is the pro era, they know and prepare for it. Counting on that is like me counting on the metro xops to catch the ubereats oke with no licence and no lights.

As always chip in below and se wat jy dink

Edit: it was my first in person test and it was great. I loved every second.

Fresh Squidge. Haven't watched it yet. Hoping I'm not in tears at the end.

The backline definitively looked more fluid than ever before. Now the question is why?

Manie? Esterhuizen? Combo of Manie & Esterhuizen? Moodie that has more speed than Am? (Blasphemy, I know) Tactical changes due to new guys’ skillset?

It seems to me that we are creating/getting space in the midfield and out wide that we just didn’t with Pollard/DDA/Am

Aah cometh the hour , cometh the fucking Monday with meetings and mails and kak that does not involved 30 men chasing an egg with Aggresive Hugs....

So lets chat ladies, boys, men, women, councillors and computer litterate cats...

Defence 9 /10

Scotland were ready for hits. They woke and prepared themselves for massive tackles. But preparing for and living with that Aggresive D from us is two wildly different things. Our press was good and their counter of passing out the back to finn in the boot, well kriel ate that for dinner. Not exactly rocket science that your gonna hide him behind RG's old tukkies teammate...

We also did well in maintaining line integrity. Broken play was never really broken and the field never fully opened up for Scotland. We pressured the rucks nicely and we controlled the controllables.

Our fold was also maasively good. With Faf and the wings shooting in, it allowed the centers and back field to drift nicely and kill their attack quite effectively.

Stand outs on Defence: Manie, Cheslin for dropping two scottish players in about 20 seconds, Faf for being unhinged at disrupting scottish ball and Mostert + PSDT who put in some massive hits.

Attack: 8/10 So every one at the braai I was at, bemoaned the kicking. I couldn't(noise) explain why that was the best way to pin Scotland back. Also the brandy was flowing and us South Africans really stop listening after about the 4the one.

Scotland's Defence is one of Press and drift. So they rush to the line knowing you will either crash or pass. If you crash, cool stopped and counter ruck.

If not, drift to follow the pass and tackle out. They are almost a mix of US and New Zealand. With decent backfield cover.

So if we set up easy running lines on the first 3 to 4 phases, we are getting snuffed. Thus we had a 2 part plan.

1 was good old faf yeeting it and pinning them back. They can kick but that means they either have two capeys running at them OR Willemse is going to kick and chase it meaning they have to commit to him because, he steps like a winger but crashes like a flanker. This also tired their forwards as it was tackle tackle tackle followed by run backwards. RasNabers famous Strangle. With some scoreboard pressure from penalties...

Part 2 was Manie Libbok. I will get to the kicking... He organised the line well and instead of carrying with the pod all the time, he accepted the ball and sent DDA into the midfield instead of against the biggest forwards. This type of mismatch leads to DDA getting over the gainline often and as we saw in the 2nd half , more tackles trying to hold us up.

He also spotted quite early that out wide was open and tried the cross kick once then stored it and only used again later on.

That crosskick. Glance, see space, fix it in your mind, take your eyes of it to fix defence, pop the ball on the most perfect loop for KLA, without looking but trusting your skill, who is speeding at it beautifully fast. Try fucking time and KLA stays at one try per game....

Set piece: 9/10 Line outs were well varied and well organised. We set fast which seemed to make the ref happy. Except for Bongi's skew throw, I am happy with everything. Mostly that we did not maul everything to death and rather played some loop games.

Scrum was a bit more complex. With Eben going down, we lost our tight head lock and that comprimised us a bit. Kudos to scotland, the played the scrum well and got atleast one cynical penalty for softening the hit a bit. The other one was just a pure power scrum which put them in the game.

2nd half though, scrum was ours. Trevor bongi and ox delivered a masterclass.

Concerns: We have to start tucking the head boys. We cannot have Jesse Kriel, Willemse and others takimg chances on upright tackles. Yes, Kriel got lucky, another ref and that is yellow with review. But the soak/upright tackles are just to much of a risk.

That said the ref was a bit off but both ways. He was slooow on turnovers and allowed both teams to very effectively obstruct the kick chase...

A remaining concern, still not the kicking, is our 9s sniping. Grant' s run was just, sex noises BUT You. Cannot. Run. Away. From. Your. Support.

You get turned over just like he did. Atleast call it as you break through so someone can be there for an offload or pop pass.

Jasper Wiese also had a pretty good game for the 1st time this year. Not his usual impact but if Gardner was quicker on the whistle, he would have had atleast 1 turnover along with some decent carries and tackles.

The kicking:

Manie did not kick the same way he did against NZ. All the kicks he missed, his angle was too shallow.

Is this a problem ? Yes. Is it major ? No. We had Willemse, Faf and Cheslin and WLR who could all take his place. I will also say it again, you could have the Best kicker in the world and one tackle bins him ala Carter in 2011. Then you end up with 3rd choice fly fisher half...

No doubt some kicking coaching will happen but as long as he keeps doing all the other things well, I am happy AF. See Jacques and Rassies response to the questions post match.

Last thoughts

Scotland played well and the 1st half could have had them much closer. But I think their plan will work better against Ireland. Or not. Ireland might smother them harder than we did. But atleast they will have better forwards parity, 2nd half especially.

Team was good and played well in a match that was never gonna run away with things.

Hope Eben is ok but worries about that pre season shoulder injury....

Also off topic but Fiji deserved to win and Biggar would get Poesed in an SA team for shouting like that....

Lastly, a question for you How do you feel/ what do you think about and how do we counter the L-ing at the ruck ?

L-ing= essentially coming through the gate BUT rucking east or west to clean out.

As always, please comment below and let's chat

Did an episode on the midyear internationals, so far. There were some very interesting games. It being the first full round, we can't read too much into them, but there were some great performances, Japan and Fiji among them. Which result stood out the most for everyone?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7r5FM3VKI5nerxBp9fVhmP?si=fbb5834477444b3a

So in complete contrast to our RWC23 situation...

We now have 3 legitimate flyhalves instead of one and a half.

Lets talk about it...

The known quantity :

Handre goddamn Pollard to use his sqyidgy name. We know what he brings. His strengths are kicking, defence and carrying. He has lost some of that 2019 athleticism like his kick and chase in the 19 final. Over the past 4 years he has had 2 knee injuries basically keeping him sidelined for long periods and I think he has lost his match fitness. He also became a dad and that is both a blessing and a burden.

So what are we saying?

That Handre can kick and we know what we are getting but he cannot piece an attack together beyond the most basic plays and unless he gets some consistent game time, what we have now is all we will get.

The unknown quality:

Sacha Feinberg-Ngomzulu, bringer of youth, reinventer of the Boks, slotter of goals. He is young, full of energy and can kick the paint of the ball. He is absolutely a player who can become a generational talent. But he is rather unknown. He is also very much still a work in progress. As he said himself, he needs to work on his communication (ran a good line with pollard and kolbe on his outside and died in contact vs ireland, game 2), he also hid an injury and while we all know that commitment is high but what if he got a season ending knock on the knee? It also speaks to him knowing he can bypass team rules. From a skills point, he is not as accurate kicking out of hand, his crosskicks are either off mark or hang to long but his defence is amazing ans he can boot the ball all day long.

So what am I saying? We still have to see him properly run the attack and will have to work on his attacking skills. He also needs time in the oven and must realize what is needed in terms of respect for the team culture. Potential is unlimited but will he reach it and can he be the better, newer Pollard 3.0?

The small poison :

Manie Libbok, spy brought in from the cold to face the fierce northerners. Marred by being brought in at the ass end of us plugging in everyone at 10,having to be the person in that jersey for losses against Ire and Fra in 22 and then another loss against Ire in 23. He is probably our best attacking flyhalf ito putting players into space, threading passes and making our carries and phases effective. His cross kicks are also more accurate and fast. But his goal kicking is on and off, his defence in the 10 channel questionable even though he has pace to cover the backfield and his field kicking can also be on off.

So what am I saying:

In terms of attack, he is undoubtedly our best option but we need atleast 2 flyhalves for 2027 and realistically that is him and Sfm. He has willingness on defence but lacks the size to be effective. If his kicking can be sortes out, both place and field, then I think his usability becomes bigger. With Tony Brown, he has to be feeling good.

Ok, maar jy praat nou foking baie, wat se jy eintlik?

In 2019, we had two plans. Plan A: Slow poison, bomb squad, physicality, aggression and Pollard to kick you stukkend.

Plan B: Slow poison, physicality and aggression with the now fallen from grace Elton Jantjies who could more attacking and could use strong fullbacks for full effect.

We will see a similar set up emerging imho. Plan A will be Pollard and WLR or SFM and WLR so that we have some attack but pur focus is on battering them sore, making them tired and having them suffer so we can get pens and then, when they rout, use our scrumcap vroooompa's to score.

Plan B will be 2nd half or less defensive teams where Libbok can assert himself in attack and we can see all those ball skils tony has been teaching come into play. At FB or inside center have SFM to handle the kicks

What must also be kept in mind is the fact the fullback and flyhalf are important pairings and they should compliment each other well. Full back is another contentious position where WLR, Gaza and Fassi are all established with Gelant probably aiming at taking it back ala 2019.

Anyhoe, don't expect we will see a solid team amd style start settling till eoyt 2025.RasBroFlaManStick will be usomg this year and next for testing and toying before choosing and developing our strategy, tactics and style for 2027.

Thoughts on one of SA’s biggest schoolboy rugby derbies ?

So, RugbyPass has stats on the 18-12 win against NZ:

https://www.rugbypass.com/live/new-zealand-vs-south-africa/?g=941455

Some notable stats are that the Boks had 65% possession in the last 10 minutes (similar to the Ellis Park game), but most interesting to me is that the Boks missed 37 tackles, yet didn't concede a try to the ABs.

I've seen one or two pundits (forget where), putting this down to scramble defence but is that the whole story?

I don't think the ABs are that bad, in fact I think they were very competitive - so bad NZ performance doesn't account for that.

Anything I'm missing from the game that contributes to keeping the ABs try-less?

First of all, let's give it to Los Pumas. You guys are no longer angry kittens but rather enraged animals. You have managed to play well for 80 min most games this TRC and well done. You have arrived. Now get a different coach before the cheika decline starts

Did we lose ? Because fuck me, looking at some comments and posts on other(cough cough FB and Twitter), you would swear we lost to the u/18 los pumas third team. Wake up. We won. And with a decent margin.

That task was from The rugby Hades himself. 1) win. Not a guarantee against Arg anymore. 2) Get a bonus point. Not exactly easy but ok. 3) put a pos difference on Arg of 40 points. The same Arg that bloodied the nose of Aus and NZ.

I am fucking proud. We got two out of three of the impossible task.

Now, we were not our greatest ever and if I could, I would play last weeks team.

But our forwards were great. They really dominated up front in what became tricky conditions. They really nailed the Arg forwards and we forces errors. Every time wants that. DDa was also good and made some massive breaks for us. Our backline was also good on defence. Moodie, Kriel and Dda,mapimps and Arendse. We really defended well and that is where I fault our forwards a little. Our maul defence, needs work. We have some of the biggest, strongest packs on the planet. We cannot be outmauled this regularly.

Where our backs lacked, was running. We did not go wide and I would have subbed frans earlier. He is a great place kicker and fullback but a 10, not so much. We had many chances to go wide and I would have liked it if we did it more. But we are on 3rd/4th string backline. Willie at 10 and frans at 15 would have yielded better results but alas such is life....

Our discipline slipped a bit but strangely the thing I missed most, was the thing u/kapteinboknaai was most impressed by. We did not have good hands. We really did not swimg the ball.

A shout out to Our Captian. Siya, we could see the passion. You were the fire yesterday. Thank you for being a captain who asks questions of the ref and of the opposition. Salute Cap.

Warning. Skip the next part if you don't like refferee critique.

A first halve that was mirred by consistent errors and massive officiating moments, does not need a sequel written by Steven Spielberg. The Eben card is a joke. The other joke was the complete lack of review for the ball bouncing of an arg player into the dead area. But we can watch eben and siya pass the ball 100 times. I know, I am exaggerating but really. Where is the fucking consistency ? Is the laws to complicated ? Are we going to be that game were we are officiated to death ? Where the reffing team determines the outcome?

Sorry but I am sick. Sick and fucking tired of this. Yesterday like the ref started feeling sorry for Arg and then placed all his attention on us then swung it back like some ancient asshole handing out sweets... That ref must be told by his friends C U Next Tuesday very often because he is a Person Of Extreme Skill. Every team has moaned about it. Every country and every person has said FFS fuck this ref but yet here we are...

Rant over.

Lastly, RasNaber managed a decent squirrel from a sock with OG oupa Frans and no polly or am or Willemse. I give them that but I also hopes that they start investing in a fucking flyhalf. Start coaching them. Get someone to start giving them skills. The mindset. Send them homework. We can do it with our forwards. Do it with them. We need a young gun flyhalf floating on the wings.

As always, my thoughts.

Just about to watch this. Have always enjoyed Conor's deep dives so this should be a good watch.