Johnson best of bumbling Boks
6 Nov 2009
Keo.co.za rates the Springboks XV in their match against Leicester at Welford Road.
South Africa XV
15 Earl Rose (6) - a mix of the outstanding and ordinary. His role in the Springboks’ first try underlined why Springbok coach Peter de Villiers is an unapologetic fan. Standing at first receiver, he threaded through a perfectly weighted grubber with his weaker foot for Jongi Nokwe. The rest of his performance not as flash as his blinding silver boots, particularly his positional play, which was poor at times. Had limited opportunities to attack, but when he did, he often preferred to launch up-and-unders, which had mixed success.
14 Odwa Ndungane (5) - A peripheral figure as the Springboks rarely attacked. Like Rose, his positional play was found wanting at times.
13 Juan de Jongh (5) - His role in the match was limited to defence, where he stood up well. His attacking prowess was nullified by the diabolical performance at scrums and the breakdown.
12 Wynand Olivier (5) - Fronted in defence, particularly against his direct opponent, the robust Manu Tuilagi. A break down the left touchline was the highlight of his attacking performance. Tried hard, but like the rest of the back division, couldn’t have an influence in the absence of an attacking platform.
11 Jongi Nokwe (5) - Showed good pace to chase down Earl Roses’s grubber, but that was the extent of his involvement, as he, like much of the backline, didn’t get any attacking opportunities of note. He didn’t look for any either.
10 Ruan Pienaar (4) - Playing behind a pack who were inept at scrum time didn’t aid his cause, while the pressure the Springboks were put under at the breakdown further compounded his woes. Kicked relatively well for touch under pressure, and banked four of his six kicks at goal, but his shanked kick led to Leicester’s try. Overall another unconvincing performance at 10.
9 Heini Adams (5) - Trying to retrieve the ball from behind a back peddling pack made him look ordinary, but those useless heavies owe the little scrummy a massive apology. This affected other areas of his game, including his service to his receivers and his box kicking, both of which were not good.
8 Ashley Johnson (7) - Robbed of opportunities to attack off the base of the scrums because of their failings in that facet of play, but carried strongly in general play and was committed and largely accurate in defence.
7 Davon Raubenheimer (3) - Did he play? Sure his attacking opportunities were limited, but looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a green, red and white monster truck. Grossly out of his depth and will have to turn in a big performance against Saracens to redeem himself.
6 Dewald Potgieter (5) - Tried valiantly in a position he hasn’t played in for nearly two years, but was outplayed on the deck, and had no impact with ball in hand…when he did get his paws on the pill.
5 Andries Bekker (5) - A secure lineout target and hard working around the park without having any telling influence on the match. Never brought any muscle to scrum time to help his prop.
4 Danie Rossouw (6) - Good at lineouts and carried well when given the opportunities, but like Bekker, did little to ease the pressure on his prop.
3 Jannie du Plessis (2) - His worst performance…ever. Got folded at scrum time like he was a rag doll. The second-choice Springbok tighthead prop needs to make exponential improvements at scrum time to avoid being embarrassed in the coming weeks.
2 Chiliboy Ralepelle (4) - In the 20 minutes he was on (yes he limped off injured again) he found his jumpers with three of four feeds, but made no other notable contributions. Looked every bit the player that hasn’t played for five weeks.
1 Gurthro Steenkamp (2) - Mercifully substituted two minutes into the second half after being butchered at scrum time by Martin Castrogiovanni. Like Du Plessis, this is a game he will never want to watch again. The Springbok selectors need to shallow their pride and make an SOS call to the Free State for some competent props, pronto.
Subs:
16 Bandise Maku (4) - Hit his jumpers with five of seven feeds, but crucially one of those missed it’s mark on the Leicester 5m line. More dynamic than Ralepelle, but that wasn’t hard given his Bulls team-mate’s lethargic performance. Schooled at scrum time.
17 Heinke van der Merwe (3) (on in the 42nd minute) - Didn’t do any better than Steenkamp, and wasn’t expected to given that he has missed the bulk of the season. Anonymous around the park.
18 Alistair Hargreaves (4) (on in 59th min) - No notable impact off the bench, but like Ralepelle and Van der Merwe, how could he be expected to when he’s had so little game time coming into this match? Tried hard, but offered nothing more than effort.
19 Jean Deysel (6) (on in 48th minute) - His powerful ball carries troubled the Tigers at times, but he was fighting largely a one man battle. Should start ahead of Raubenheimer against Saracens as he offers the team infinitely more than the Griquas man does.
20 Francois Hougaard (6) (on in 53rd minute) - He came on at a time when the Springboks started to show a greater appreciation for protecting the ball in contact and as a result looked better than Adams. Sniped around the fringes and distributed well considering the pressure his side were under at scrums and rucks, something Adams was never allowed to do.
21 Meyer Bosman (5) (on in the 63rd minute) - His involvement was limited to a couple of tackles.
22 Riaan Viljoen - Not on long enough to be judged.
52 Comments
6 Nov 2009, 23:56 pm
oh please! 5′s for the whole backline? thats fine but dont give pienaar a 5 too… if de jong and olivier were 5s then pienaar was a 2 :/
6 Nov 2009, 23:56 pm
Some okes were missing mom’s melktert.
6 Nov 2009, 23:58 pm
and i thought bekker was better than danie… pakslae looked tired
6 Nov 2009, 23:59 pm
think a 2 was generous for gurthro – he made vickery’s perfomance for lions look satisfactory
7 Nov 2009, 00:01 am
A sad day for Springbok rugby.
7 Nov 2009, 00:03 am
Earl 6 WHAT RUBBISH ! HE WAS AT LEAST 8 !
7 Nov 2009, 00:06 am
Guys just chill, it hurts losing to a club team but what we saw tonight was something that the intenational game has missed for the past 15 year thats tour games.
It had everything, the passion, the crowd, the edge of your seat excitment, it gave guys the opportunity who would never play the world champs and they gave it everything.
This is what we have missed for years, remember munster beating the blacks in 1978, swansea beating the world champ aussies in 92, otago beating the lions and south africa in 93/94, the bulls beating the lions in 1997. This is the sort of stuff the IRB need to consider the boost this gives rugby in the area is huge.
Hey it may be your b/C team but its still South Africa and those boys that played there heart out for the tigers can tonight have a beer, and maybe for the only time in there lives can tell themselves they bet the world champs
7 Nov 2009, 00:07 am
#6 rugbygenius:
Steady now…he played above himself but really didn’t get enough possesion to excel and warrant an 8.
Beware of exaggeration boetie. Stay grounded and breathe in…and out. (Feel better)
7 Nov 2009, 00:09 am
I’d give them all 2′s.
When a baby does a number two, it means his or her nappy smells.
But, weren’t every one of those quota nonwhite players just uniformly and embarrassingly just utterly incredibly purely completely AWFUL?
Well — it’s certain to be pretty unpleasant to hear it, but it IS ineluctibly true, isn’t it?
7 Nov 2009, 00:10 am
The scary thing is that ruan was/is going to be covering fullback for us next week… we’re in France, give Fransi a call! Prop backup as predicted is also looking thin, at least bekker played ok.
Subs for next week:
16 would have been chiliboy
17 Any freestater will do
18 and the other one
19 Bekker
20 Johnson
21 Olivier
22 (Pienaar) just because he covers most positions
suggestions?
7 Nov 2009, 00:12 am
dont think we can sorely blame ruan woods ,he did have an excellent break but messed up by popping directly into the hands of a tiger running at pace .pont is we got killed in the scrums and the backline suffered because of it
7 Nov 2009, 00:14 am
at least we can now compare the merits of deysel vs. raubenheimer on a level playing field. not that the outcome is a surprise of course
7 Nov 2009, 00:19 am
This game shows one and all where you’ll end up with “transformation”.
7 Nov 2009, 00:22 am
ratings seems fair, though wudov given ashley j an 8 and all the props 1
7 Nov 2009, 00:25 am
i think i now understand why pienaar wants to play scrumhalf: he knows he can’t handle the heat at 10.
When that kick hit the upright i couldn’t stop thinking how good it was that steyn is now the incumbent.
I’ll pick BMT over talent at 10 anyday.
7 Nov 2009, 00:25 am
@ 13, stop talking kak puhleez! Our biggest problems today were 3 and 10, dont blame transformation
7 Nov 2009, 00:26 am
Transformation has to happen. The problem is fast tracking players who is not ready for the next level.
7 Nov 2009, 00:33 am
Ryan, are you in England? You really can’t tell terribly much about positional play if you’re watching this stuff on tv..
Jannie du Plessis was a penalty machine today.
7 Nov 2009, 00:41 am
1. Wian du Preez
2. Adrian Strauss
3. CJ v.d. Linde
4. Sykes
5. Bekker
6. Watson
7. Deysel/Vermeulen
8. Rossouw/Johnson
9. Ruan Pienaar
10. Jacques-Louis Potgieter
11. Lionel Mapoe
12. Grant
13. Waylon Murry
14. Gio Aplon
15. Joe Pieterson
7 Nov 2009, 00:55 am
Well i said most of this in a post earlier today and the whole week since the selections:
1 Gurthro – really dissapointed here – he can do better, Heinke was more solid at scrumtime but nowhere to be seen
2 Chilli – hardly noticed him and then he gets injured again … Bok no2 – well like I have been saying… no
Maku was better but hardly a Bok no2
3 Jannie Du Plessis – again I have been saying he has no place in a Bok squad anymore. Where was WP Nel today? TH a huge problem
4 Danie was average today and looked a bit out of his depth, dissapointing.. Alistair who?? would have preferred to give Sykes a go.
5 Becker was better but not great. They lost a couple of lineouts as well – Bok lineout wasnt firing at all and to think thats our 2nd team lock combo – another major problem area
6 Dewaldt also had a very quite very average game. Tried hard but too much pressure
7 Davon who? He shouldnt even be there but hey I will give him another chance just so everyone doesnt jump down my throat. DEysel infintely better and deserves at least a 7 – and too think he wasnt even picked in the original squad… I mean really blokes
8 Johnson did good but was under too much pressure due to the failure of the rest of our scrum. I would still have liked to see Willem Alberts on tour in comparison to Johsnon
9 Heini Adams – very poor perfromance – way too slow with so much pressure on our scrum and gave away loads of penalties for being offside. Add this to his stupid box kicking that gave away much of our possession during the first quarter when we had a chance to make some inroads. He is an average player an not Bok material. Would have loved to see Sarel Pretorius tonight.
10 Ruaan Pienaar isnt a flyhalf. In fact he shouldnt even be a Bok. He made a huge amount of absolute f&%$& ups tonight and that includes his kicking. He has no confidence in himself and its evident. Shouldnt be playing anything but scrumhalf. SA have a real problem with depth at flyhalf. We are in k@k
11 Nokwe average game, fast when the tryline is in sight but rest of game as usual very lame.
12 Olivier was very quiet due to scrum pressure. Meyer who? Useless
13 ditto De Jongh
14 Odwa made a few good plays but also a fair amount of stinkers. Another one who shouldnt be in a Bok jersey anymore
15 Earl Rose … I´m going to say it… the boy had a good outing. Made some great moves, positional play was very poor as was some of his kicking but overall way more impressive than most others. Lets see how he goes. Nice surprise. Viljoen was solid.
7 Nov 2009, 00:55 am
#19 Limerick-Bok:
Awesome team. Don’t really agree with Gio and Waylon Murray is talented but off form. Still a great team though. I feel like the average rugby supporter would pick a better team than our coaches and selectors. Sigh
7 Nov 2009, 00:59 am
Forgot to mention Houghaard did much better than Adams but I still think his best position is centre. He´s a more average scrumhalf. But did well.
7 Nov 2009, 01:08 am
#22 Slumtown:
Hougard was great. Physical, Agressive. I’d be very happy if he was the second choice 9 for the Boks. Better than Enrico Januarie.
7 Nov 2009, 01:11 am
#23 BASH!: I still reckon he´s an even better centre, we have Vermaak or Pretorius for Scrumhalf. But ja, he´s one to watch for the future. Certainly better than Ricky
7 Nov 2009, 01:16 am
Definitley. I like Duvenhage too, but alot of that has to do with WP bias. But i think he could also be one for the future if improves vertain parts of his game and gets more experiecen under his belt.
7 Nov 2009, 02:13 am
To think what Liebenberg did for the WP light-five and Strauss for the best front-row in the CC… yet they both play behind Ralpelle… the kakkest Bok since Owen Nkumane… too appease the politicians…
I hope they are revelling in mediocrity… my bank balance $870 better off thanks to the numnuts… quota’s = money for jam!
7 Nov 2009, 04:22 am
#17 dWeePer: *** out of line comment ***
7 Nov 2009, 04:28 am
YES, by all means, go and play Ashly johnson against France and Ireland,
please, pick Johnson to face Imanol Harinordoquy and Picamoles, please do
And Chiliboy and Raubenheimer too, why not?
7 Nov 2009, 04:36 am
Hey Tockles found your balls again you looser. Where did you learn you spineless ways, ah let me guess from the toilet. I remember hearing you gurgling down there the last time I flushed
Anyway to real rugby poeple, We are definetly carrying a few quotas here. 2 hookers, 7, 9(pity as he should have got the nod 5yrs ago) and some extras like Danie(tired), Guthro, Jannie, Hargreaves, Potgieter(Mibyso is better).
7 Nov 2009, 04:36 am
#27 TheTackler:
He is riling you Tackler, you must have lost your old SA instigating type of humor?
7 Nov 2009, 04:40 am
We will have to work on managing the ref, Dicko who now boasts 95% loss record for us. He has definetly been a thorn in our side since day one. The hair pulling in front of him was a laugh. Gotta say he is a good reason for bailing out of SANZAR.
Saying that we lost against more determined side who read the game better, showed more spirit and looked sharper.
I think France will give us a hiding.
7 Nov 2009, 04:42 am
Just so you know the Tockles are whats left lying on the paddock after castrating sheep with a rubber band.
7 Nov 2009, 04:44 am
#31 KevinRack:
I don’t like Dicki but then are you saying that Chiliboy, Steenkamp or the Beast can scrum legaly?
Can they sustain 2 second of a straight thrust?
I doubt it and many others would doubt it too
7 Nov 2009, 06:35 am
#7 west: Spot on West. Everyone makes too much of the lost. PvD is experimenting with selections and there is nothing wrong about that in non-test matches. He’s the coach, has the right to select who he wants, and has to live by his own sword.
It’s great that tours are back. Its only a current fashion in rugby, the cost of doing it may makes it short-lived.
7 Nov 2009, 06:40 am
#13 TheTackler: Not necessarily! Other top nations have also lost tour matches and it had nothing to do with transformation.
7 Nov 2009, 06:44 am
#35 Amerifikaner:
Except with this game it was clear to see that it had a hellofa lot to do with transformation……..take your best 35 of tour, not your best 22 and a bunch of quota’s to make up the colour scale FFS. Pdv and his merry men deserve this. Not sure if it was for being stupid or being a puppet??
7 Nov 2009, 07:10 am
#36 whatever:
I bet you, I’ll pick 3 teams of those left behind in SA that would have beaten the 2nd stringers Leicester team hand down!
Meaning, these 3 teams left in SA would beat the clowns who represented SA yesterday as well!
Blame the senior Boks and the captain to lend a hand to farce
7 Nov 2009, 07:19 am
Transformation in my eyes is the only way black players will be chosen. I’ve been around and I’ve seen what happens on a school, provincial and national level. White kid plays average rugby they see potential and takes him through the ranks but black/clrd/indian kid plays average they move on to the next one. This doesn’t just happen at school level but gets propagated through till national level. Most players of colour got in a team through transformation and they have proven themselves even thou get treated different to their white fellow player.
7 Nov 2009, 07:29 am
Wouldn’t it be a great spectacle to see a full strength Bulls team against Leicester (also at full strength)? Or any other Super 14 franchise against a top tier NH franchise?
7 Nov 2009, 08:03 am
#39 Hier kom groot k..:
No, it would be a massacre.
7 Nov 2009, 08:18 am
#20 Slumtown: I smell a bit of Bosman bias here….. I don’t think J d V would have made an impact in theame circumstances, and in he time Bosman played!!
7 Nov 2009, 08:33 am
#38 Bentoshi: You smoke your socks?? I have seen many “previously disadvantaged children” in school sides on merit, I have also seen good white players left out of teams because of quotas!
Itcuts oth ways!! t’s an evil system!!! No coach is going to select a white player over a better black player. Those days are gone!
Coaches are paid to win, and that is their focus!! Show me 10 black/coloured/indian (is there an indian rugby player)players that were the best in their positio, that were left out, and I will show you 100 white players that left te country, or stoppedplaying because they saw no future due to quotas!!
Only the supporters and the ANCYL, keep playing the race card!!
7 Nov 2009, 08:55 am
Bottom line: players that didn’t feature in the curriecup will definitely not feature at international level. I just hope that SA does not lose (any more) good players, due to the players losing patience with the selectors. Wian du Preez (for example) are already on his way to Munster, while props he outplayed all season where given a chance in the green and gold.
7 Nov 2009, 09:28 am
Won’t rate them out of 10 but IMO… Bekker, Rose and Johnson were the best of the bunch…
7 Nov 2009, 09:46 am
It would seem the author has almost come to accept this kind of performance as acceptable with all those 5′s and 6′s. This was the worst performance from a Bok side since the 53-3 snotting to England. The players were miles out of their depth and I think my score are a truer reflection of what we saw. Let’s not sugarcoat things.
15 Earl Rose (4) – grubber and caught a couple of high balls, that’s all.
14 Odwa Ndungane (3) – of which 1 was simply for lasting the match.
13 Juan de Jongh (4) – couple of good hits gets him 4 and no more.
12 Wynand Olivier (4) – see de jongh’s comment.
11 Jongi Nokwe (4) – would have been 2 without the try and kick-off chase.
10 Ruan Pienaar (1) – shocking
9 Heini Adams (3) – got caught more often than a bergie burglar
8 Ashley Johnson (5) – only okay when compared to the **** around him
7 Davon Raubenheimer (1) – who?
6 Dewald Potgieter (3) – future Bok captain my arse
5 Andries Bekker (3) – scrum failure is not only the front row’s fault
4 Danie Rossouw (4) – tried, but he really is a thick dutchie with a temper
3 Jannie du Plessis (1) – and that’s being kind
2 Chiliboy Ralepelle (2) – if he’d lasted longer it might have been less
1 Gurthro Steenkamp (0.5) – surely not again in the Saracens game
Subs:
16 Bandise Maku (3) – only marginally better than chilli
17 Heinke van der Merwe (2) – way, way off form
18 Alistair Hargreaves (3) – a child playing a man’s game
19 Jean Deysel (5) – only he and Johnson really tried
20 Francois Hougaard (4) – better than Adams, but that’s not hard
21 Meyer Bosman – Not on long enough
22 Riaan Viljoen – Not on long enough
7 Nov 2009, 10:34 am
KATMAN,
Normally I would say that your comments are harsh, but you are right! The Boks were appalling.
For me, without a doubtm the tight 5 were poor. Especially Bekker & Russouw.
These two were supposed to be the go to men. I would not expect them to loose any line out ball against the inferior opposition (no disrespect to Leicester, but you could hardly think your locks are really beter)
Furthermore, Bekker & Russouw are the poorest ball carrying locks in world rugby. Both run far too upright, and very often (as like last night) loose the ball in the tackle.
Essentially, although they were better than the rest of the Bok pack, they were expected to be, and as a result, should also probably get 2′s or 3’3.
Front row – Totally outplayed (as expected) I said before the game that our front row would be schooled against the Leicester pack. Castro is one of the strongest 3′s in world rugby, Stankovich is also a strong man. I was, however appalled at how badly we folded.
I will not throw bad comments at Raubenheimer, De Jongh, Adams, Hargreaves & Rose as they should never have been in that side in the first place. All that has happened now, is that possibly the confidence of these players will be dented further and they might not ever reach their Springbok potential. They were thrown in too early and humbled.
I would have expected more of Ngundane (although he had 0 opportunities), Meisiekind & Ruaan. We did have attacking ball during some second phase play, but sadly, we looked inept during attack. This is because these players were thrown together with reckless abandon. There was not 1 recognised combination on that park. Every player was an individual, and it showed.
Poor Poor Poor coaching staff decisions. All you have done is break the belief and confidence of some of the players.
Never in a million years should a Bok side have lost to Leicester like that, especially when the bulk of the Emerging Boks who played against the Lions be sitting in SA out of favour for whatever reason!
7 Nov 2009, 11:04 am
#27 TheTackler: Are you the 5th member of the Reitz 4?
7 Nov 2009, 11:40 am
#27 TheTackler: Although your racist rubbish usually just warps your views, this is a blatant racist attack. I will motivate your banning. Wanker.
7 Nov 2009, 12:17 pm
#41 Cheetah 4 Eva: I smell a bit of Bosman bias from you hehe.
No I´ve watched him play in the SUper 14 and Currie Cup and for every one thing he does well he makes several stuff ups. Loses ball in contact, misses tackles. He´s average at best in my opinion a liability in the Cheetahs side too.
I´ve never seen him do anything exceptional and last night was no exception.
7 Nov 2009, 12:23 pm
#49 Slumtown: I agree, Bosman is useless. Peter Grant would have been a better pick!!
7 Nov 2009, 13:47 pm
See what happens when you leave RICKY “The greatest dragon of all time” JANUARIE out of the tour…
7 Nov 2009, 16:03 pm
I would rate as follows:
15. Earl Rose – 6 – played well considering the critism he is getting. 2 great touches to set up the try. Impressed by his showing in the face of pressure.
14. Odwa Ndungane – 5 – average. Some good touches and then some poor ones. Up and down.
13. Juan De Jongh – 5 – didn’t do much but not many opportunities and made his tackles. He has been talked up by the press in some kind of wunderkid. Needs to look for work in games like this ala Bryan Habana.
12. Wynand Oliver – 5 – put in some good tackles, limited opportunites.
11. Jonghi Nokwe – 6 – played well enough to hold his position for Saracens. His express pace was a factor at kick offs. Great pace to get the try.
10. Ruan Rienaar – 5 – looked good with ball in hand at times but seems to be lacking the big match factor. Prefer him at scrummie. Doesn’t dominate a game and looks fragile.
9. Heini Adams – 7 – quick service considering his pack were getting mailed.
8. Ashley Johnson – 8 – good game, ferocious on defence and with ball in hand. Good prospect. My M of M. Great guy, big heart.
7. Devon Raubenheimer 4 – made some tackles but isn’t that what a blindside is meant to do. Not up to this level of rugger yet.
6. Dewald Potgeiter – 5 – looked tired for his very high standards but tried all night.
5. Andries Bekker – 5 – some good hits but a long way to go before he is our next Victor.
4. Danie rossouw – 6 – his usual agressive self.
3. Jannie Du Plessis – 3 – too many penaties and weak at scrum time bu hard for him considering Guthro’s mauling.
2. Chilli – 4 -tried hard but so injury prone he should toss it in and play his last few seasons in Europe to earn some bucks. His body is not going to last.
1. Guthro Steenkamp – 2 – Absolutely dominated at scrum time by an Italian. Enough said. His reputation is in tatters. Needs to do some soul searching. Where is the guy who made opposition tight heads nervous a few seasons back?
16. Bandise Maku – 7 – impressive showing. Strong with ball in hand and good at ruck time. In fact very impressed with him. Lets get him to a union where he will be used.
17. Heinke Van der Merve – 3 – ends up playing in his favoured position of loosehead and also gets a hiding.
18. Alaister Hargreaves – no rating
19. Jean Deysel – 7 – strong runner, good game and deserves a spot against Sarries in the starting line up. Remarkably better than Devon.
20. Franscious Hougaard – 6 – looked good. Needs a regular starting spot at a franshise. He’s a scrummie!
21. Meyer Bosman – who?
22. Riaan Viljoen – Not on long enough.
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