His explanations to the media never make sense.
I'm so angry. His statements are growing increasingly contradictory and hypocritical.
Its fine for Pollard to miss just short of 2 seasons and still be selected because he was "part of the bok camp over that time" and understands "bok structures" or whatever but Combrinck has had too "little" game time to even be in the camp?
Sbu has had about as much time on the field as Ruan this season?
Hougaard deserves to be dropped due to not doing the basics right and did such a bad job that the coach personally spoke about him not being clinical/technically inclined enough to be our 9 but Rhule has improved enough to disregard his failures to execute the basics? His performance in Albany is perfectly forgivable? AC sure thinks so.
Raymond had a terrible game against NZ and even admitted to AC personally that he botched it, but it's okay because he had an "awesome" game against Aus and AC doesn't want to hurt his feelings "just" because the country wants him dropped.
"The seven Tests Raymond has played, he has gained a lot of experience, so now do I just throw him out and start all over again with a new player?"
Hell yes fool! Rhule wasn't supposed to even be in the squad from the start and has not improved enough to earn a start either! Also, how is it fine for AC to justify dropping Curwin for Handre because he can "take his experienced gained from being a part of the bok setup." and "use it to grow as a player in SR and CC", but Rhule can't do the same with his " a lot" of gained experience?
The only reason that we're at 7 tests now is that AC keeps backing Rhule despite his mistakes, he should've played no further than the Arg tests imo.
Send him back to his franchise and task him with working on his weak areas rather than hurt the boks for one man, then you can justify a selection and claim improvement.
I wish he would stop talking kak and making up nonsensical excuses. His explanations are rubbish and I would've even preferred him saying that he just prefers the players he chose and has his reasons and will back them to get the job done etc, instead of forcing us to bow down to his warped logic.
Our only hope is that
1. AC manages to miracle competency into Rhule's game and this chance will pay off AND carry over to the Newlands fixture.
2. Rhule starts but gets subbed early enough for us to blood a new wing for the NZ test.
3. AC has a change of heart and doesn't start him.
Imo, Its not about experience or continuity, these are thin veils AC has erected to cover his ass and deflect from his shoddy selection from the beginning, he knows that backing Rhule was an error and it's too late to salvage the wing for the RC.
Ranting about obvious personnel issues aside, I think we could edge the Aussies in this one and am still optimistic about our chances. We still have a strong forward pack and a solid bench, I'm sure everyone is interested to see what the backline's response to the NZ test will be, I predict a more refined performance but with the problems we're facing it's a tough ask imo. Hopefully playing in Bloem will be a boon for the boks and will give us the advantage.
We can probably be sure Cheika spent a lot of time meditating on the draw and Albany game and will change up Aus' approach to the boks for this game. I foresee more tactical kicking and a recall to the resolute defence of the last test. Expecting Aus to target the set-piece and can see them hoping to abuse our lineouts like the ABs, hopefully we have put in the practice and don't become deer in the headlights again should we start to flop the throw in or get turned over.
The NZ test pretty much insures this will be a brutal match imo, hopefully we see some intense defense and the forwards making much more inroads then the last test against Aus, with more emphasis on playing around the fringes if the opportunity emerges like last time. We'll battle if the ref doesn't police the scrums correctly as imo Aus have utilised dodgy scrum tactics in the recent past and with Coenie being out we're weaker now. The breakdown will be equally important, glad Flo is in the team now and even if we get Cas at 8 and JL on the bench I'll be happier knowing we have a proper fetcher again. If we can't slow down the game like the NZ test we're going to struggle immensely.
Hoping we're less on our heels and stand-offish in defense, it wasn't the best strategy last time imo and have Aus loads of time to reload, a rush would be good provided we can counter Beale/Folau/Foley if selected. Hopefully Rhule's channel will be well covered if the Aussies decide to start bombarding him, his inside numbers were letting him handle the driftand stood off and it cost us badly against NZ, we can't afford to let the Aussies run at him unchecked.
Still feel we would have won the last Aus test if we played a much more direct ball-in-hand game from the start and I think we are still lacking the pedigree to play pure kicking/tactical rugby so hoping we don't try what we did last time and rather retain ball and build phases at least in the first quarter.
