General Rugby Discussion 3

It feels like they are all out of ideas at this stage. At the end of the day if the interest isn't there in Oz anymore, it isn't there. I'm not sure what they can do to reignite it at this stage. I saw Quade cooper the other week suggesting and all Australia super rugby comp would be better as at least the Australian public would see an Australian team win it. Crazy thinking IMHO

Interesting take.

World Cup quarter final against France.

Libbok starts. Replaced after 45 minutes when we were trailing 22-19. Pollard comes on, we win the game.

World Cup semi final against England.

Libbok starts. Replaced after 31 minutes when we were trailing 9-3. Pollard comes on, we win the game.

World Cup final against NZ.

Libbok wasnt picked for the team at all. Pollard played the whole 80. We win.

Saying he is the best OH by a mile, maybe for a specific style of rugby that some people would like to see played, yes, maybe.

All for nothing if it doesnt win you games though.

I will be honest, havent watched as much URC or even Currie Cup rugby the last few years as I would have liked, thus my view of Sacha extends to what ive read or the couple SA games ive seen him play. But from what ive seen he does look the more complete player than Libbok, so id agree with him being the one to back going forward. But at the same time, needs to be managed, as they seem to be doing now.

They did hand over the kicking to Damian Willemse occasionally when he was in the starting XV, but he proved equally very flaky off the tee.

I don't think Libbok's general play is that superior to the alternatives to justify losing someone else out of their first choice backline (like maybe Willie le Roux or Damian Willemse) to accommodate him.

Not sure why South Africa didn't give Siya Masuku from the Sharks a run out in one of their summer games. He turned Sharks season around when he got in the team

I thought Masuku might feature against Portugal, but I guess they were going to experiment with one person in the 10 shirt - and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is the more logical guy to give that shot too, given his positional versatility and the fact he's only 22 (Masuku is 28).

I'm also a big fan of Sanele Nohamba - the Lions 10, who is equally adept at 9 & 10 but I guess his physical size is a real limiting factor (1.64m tall and just 69kg in weight).

Ben O'Keeffe doesn't make a dubious penalty call against England, and the story ends without Pollard having any impact.

Very fine margins.

Ifs and buts. All 3 those games were fine margins, each won by 1 point. But they were won.

Never thought I’d see the day…. But Carley is having a decent game!

Not sure you are seeing anything new in the SA attack that you didn't see in the past in patches either. Still a lot of one off carriers smashing the ball up. They did the same in 2021 last time and the closer it got to the WC the more conservative it became in terms of style with some clever one off plays but in the main giving it to the big boys to smash it up. I would be concerned about tighthead for SA as the current choices are 33 and 34 and they did not even dominate this match. The same goes for lock where the depth behind Etzebeth is still not certain. You cannot expect the likes of Mostert, Etzebeth and De Jager to be there at the next WC and I am not sure the next up is on their level.

I think NZ will feel frustrated, they were never outplayed by what is supposed to be a superior team away from home. I thought you could see them being close to breaking out a couple of times as well in attack and only last ditch and desperate tacking saved SA. If you think this was the first time that Robertson would have played against this type of game for SA teams that is actually competent instead of just some low budget Super Rugby sides from 2017-2020*, it would have been a learning experience. Will be interesting to see if they learn and adapt in the future against South Africa.

*Lions were by far the best team that Robertson would have played against and they were not typical to the SA style in that time.