Brother it did not seem to matter when we won the year before on bonus points.
Zane Kirchner, Bjorn Basson , Alistair Hargreaves , Andries Bekker ,Flip van der Merwe , Dewald Potgieter , Francois Hougaard , Juan de Jongh , Gio Aplon and Zane Kirchner are some of the names that spring to mind that made their debut's recently. Add Heinrich Brousouw and Morne Steyn to that list and your statement holds little water. Incidentaly , Jake white has publicly claimed after the lions test last year that he still would not have choosen Broussow.
Maybe , but were we really tested ? Fiji , argentina and a out of sorts pommie team hardly counts as WC challengers.
First off , Jake had more than one bad year , 2005 we never won the Trinations as well as 2006 and 2007 , we were murdered by the likes of France and the Aussies as well. The same could be argued for PDV , he had one bad year and thats this year , in his first year he beat NZ in NZ , something that ony Mallet achieved recently after many attempts so I wont say 2008 was a complete bad year. It paved the way for future bok team (like last year) and S14 teams like this year.
Erm yes not a proud record , I was at that game at newlands actually and I remember a gifted try by a mistake from Jean De Villiers at the end , made the result look much worse , Whites worse game - 49-0 , a team that included Matfield , Spies etc etc , need I say more.
Why when we win its the players that was good or the opposing team was crap but nothing to do with the coach? FFS we beat NZ twice away , thats something no other modern coach has ever managed. Did u also forget that we beat the Aussies ? or were they k@k as well ?
PDV saw the value of Smit as a cappie but also could not ignore teh form of Bissie . he tried to accommodate both and it failed mostly , he saw the mistake and have since abadonned the experiment. This w\end against the Aussies , they scored all their second half points when smit left the field , coincidence ?
He said at the time that he knows who he has in the boks as his first and second choice players and took along some new players (see the irony here but anyway) , why can Jake experiment with new blood and when he looses its ok but PDV cannot , in PDV defense he did it in a midweek game which counts for much less than a test match,
Rose went along to see if he can play at that level , Last time I checked he never played for the Boks and have since fallen out of flavor so I dont see the fuss , re new players the last time I checked just out of memory PDV introduced the following players - Zane Kirchner, Bjorn Basson , Alistair Hargreaves , Andries Bekker ,Flip van der Merwe , Dewald Potgieter , Francois Hougaard , Juan de Jongh , Gio Aplon and Zane Kirchner plus Brousouw and Steyn and most of them prior to this year , he also saw value in recalling guys like Van Niekerk , thats throwing the net wide. Jake inherited players like Matfield, Smit, Danie, Percy, Ashwin, Jaque, Jean, Schalk, Juan, Habana, Bakkies,the list goes on but probably not much
Not saying that , am ever grateful for Jake , we won a WC under him , we restored much needed pride in 2004 under him but he is not the Rugby Messiah he claims to be , he is limited as a coach and quiet frankly the way he is going on about it re the Bok job is not cool.
Look at last year , look at what could have been this year , we could have won all our home matches and lost 2 at the death , look I concede PDV made huge mistakes especially this year , he should never have played Matfield , smit , Habana etc etc for the French and Italy games , the guys are running on empty and he asked to much , then to add I do wish he keeps his bek but I must tell you I am totally confused about him cos I met him once and we chatted for a hour or so , back then my local club (sk walmers) was intesrested in his services and he came across as extremely knowledgeble and polite , also many guys that worked with him like says he knows his stuff , he did coach SA U21 to a WC victory , he was part of Mallets coaching team and he coached local sides like the Maties where the current coach Chean Roux holds him in high regard as well , so I dont know if he is simply misunderstood or just being purposefull on some occasions to take the focus off certain things , one thing os for sure , he has a groot bek (big mouth) that needs to be shut !
, also a site with results like below. would appreciate it greatly.
