Resign Smit, Retire Habana, Fire de Villiers
I think I can speak for all self respecting South Africans when I say that Saturdays loss to the All Blacks was heart breaking. I am so angry over the manner in which we went down that I am finding it hard to get back into the swing of things. John Smit missing that tackle was honestly the single worst moment I have ever witnessed in a Springbok test. Some of the drubbings we have received over the years pale in comparison.
Let me start with that sniveling, unqualified quota coach Pieter de Villiers.
Firstly the man has zero respect for the game and puts his foot in his mouth every time there is a microphone near his face.
Secondly perhaps ability should have been taken into account before skin colour when the coach was selected. To quote Oregan Hoskins at the time of de Villiers appointment “not only rugby reasons were taken into account”.
Thirdly his selections have been disgraceful with no fetcher, not having the authority to drop a grossly out of form Habana and that fat plodder Ricky Januarie making the cut time after time. When I saw his overweight and utterly useless frame rolling onto the field with less then 5 minutes to go I knew there was trouble. Why sub Francois Hougaard at that stage who had performed so well? If one watches the replay of Smit missing that tackle you can clearly see the overweight and useless Ricky Januarie jogging in cover defence. He made absolutely no effort what so ever and then was completely outpaced by Morne Steyn, not a particularly fast man who had played 75 minutes more rugby. It is pitiful.
One also wonders how Chilliboy keeps making the squad but I fear for my safety when talking about him as I am fairly confident he is an ANC spy. However at least he is a good player, does not deserve his place but a good player nonetheless.
Why in the name of all things sane was Jake White fired less then a week after achieving rugby’s greatest honour? Only the spineless politician kissing toads at SARU will ever know.
Brian Habana needs to be dropped. How many times this year is he going to go for that opportunistic intercept and fail? Where is the management? Where is the accountability? I for one would love to see the South African press do their job and ask Pieter de Villiers at the next press conference if anything is being done about this problem. I know Brian Habana is now a money hungry media whore rather then a proud Springbok but is it really too much to ask for him to communicate on defence? I blame the loss on him more then Smit. The forward pass should be overlooked despite the ref and linesman blatantly ignoring it. Brian Gary Habana is the reason we lost on Saturday with his glory seeking and stupidity. One good break the man made and they stole the ball right off him (illegally if you watch the replay). It is Lwazi Mvovos time to shine.
Things have changed.
John Smit’s time is over. We should have nothing but respect for the man and I was not even angry that he missed that tackle due to his distinguished service. It is Pieter de Villiers fault that he missed it because he has failed to uphold the high standards of conditioning set by Jake White and Eddie Jones. It would take far more courage to resign at the end of the Tri-nations to give way for Victor Matfield then to try carry on holding the team together.
Piere Spies is lazy. Much more is expected from a man with his physical attributes. I stand by the opinion that he needs a quality scrum half to perform properly and Francios Hougaard may be it but he should have been playing from day one? Without Heinrich Brussouw, Spies should make way for Ryan Kankowski especially when you consider his current form.
One set of rules should be applied to both teams. I have watched the game 3 times now and I have noticed the All Black policy of three lazy runners on the open side on many of the Boks attacking rucks in the visitor 22. This obviously stops us from using the full width of the field. Its an absolute disgrace that Paddy O’Brian does not have the spine to address these issues. I do not care what anyone says, the All Blacks cheat at almost every break down, ruck and lineout. They have been the smartest team in world rugby for some time now. From the kick off Matfield was tackled in the air and at the first line out at 2;20 Richie Mcaw pulled Burger down before the ball was even caught. How the man gets away with what he does only he and the refs will ever know. He gets allocated so much more time to roll away then any other player in the world. We deserved to lose that game due to our poor conditioning but poor refereeing consistently cheats us. Why do other Tri Nations games get the use of vastly superior southern hemisphere refs but we get these useless yarpie loathing Europeans.
Id like to finish by reminding everyone of this previous post five months ago where I identified four future bok stars. Three of whom made their first starts this weekend. If Pieter de Villiers had any intelligence or insight perhaps the fourth would have also had the opportunity.
http://blogs.sport24.co.za/brigadier-dylok/the-stromers-and-the-unbeatabulls
Post courtesy of our resident rugger writer, Brigadier Dylok! Cheers my man!
