Humour me for a moment please, as we look at Saturday’s team of 23:
A fly half playing full back, a left wing playing right wing, a scrumhalf playing left wing, a full back playing outside centre and an outside centre playing inside centre…
On the bench we have two specialist loosehead props, two locks….
Looking at this from another angle we have:
3 loose head props, 2 hookers, one tight head, 4 locks, 3 flanks, one eight man, 2 scrumhalf’s, 3 fly halves, 2 outside centres, 1 wing and a fullback. Note though, the full back is playing outside centre, one fly half playing full back and both scrumhalves are in the starting 15 – the one playing wing…
Confused? I am.
The game should be one of specialists, in my opinion. This however, is a typical reflection of Alistair Coetzee from his Stormer day’s as a coach. His approach, to play players out of position, seems to be his trademark. I am all for thinking out of the box, but there is also reason for staying in the box! We might be able to compete on certain levels, but effectively the side becomes one of jack of all trades and masters of none. Those kind of sides never win trophees, championships or World Cup’s. They cause the upset here or there, might reach a semi or a final, but never do they bring the bacon home. Unfortunately, that is what is going to play out on Saturday.
The one thing going for the Boks, are that the Aussies are under huge pressure and we might be able to force a result our way, but with the Kiwi’s coming up with all specialists in their own positions, our short comings will be shown!
Is it a case of desperation? Perhaps we don’t have the depth we think we have, or are we making concessions to accommodate politically intervention?
Coetzee does not seem to know which way to go and has completely lost the plot. If he did what he said he would do, which was “Select according to performance” the two centres would have been Mapoe and Van Rensberg (both Lions). Mapoe played off VanRensberg and vice versa and were stonrg in both defense and great in attack. However, there seems to be a mind set in the selection process that you can’t have too many players coming from one province. I think Jantjies is not happy playing without his centre pairing because he can’t play of Van Rensberg. The Golden LIons as a unit would give both Australia and New Zealand a far better game than what will run onto the field on Saturday.. All we have now is a watered down back line of hopefuls. Both Habana and Hougard are going to kicked on by Australia and New Zealand as they do not have the height to contest the high ball. Louw has still not come into form and Jaco Kriel is way ahead of him, yet he continues to warm the bench. “The Beast” is a shadow of his former self. Kitsoff, Marx and Koch would be a more stable and aggressive front row. The only balanced part of the pack is the lock pairing and and their substitutes and then Whitely at No 8. I give Australia to win by 15 points and New Zealand by 30 points if not more.