I am even though I have tried to see this in a positive light, of the opinion that Lambie is being set up here to fail.
Since joining the Bok setup Lambie has been coached to play differently, and also one can see his kicking style has changed, as well as his tackling, another thing of course as mentioned he now stands deep in the pocket.
Now for me it is no use telling one player he can play his natural style and not the rest of his team mates who are not used to the style Lambie normally plays, bar of course one or 2 of the players.
If one looks at the forwards it is easy to see why a plain running rugby style struggles as the ball in phases are always slow as the tight 5 are not hitting a ruck as they should.
The looseforward trio, although playing well and defending well as a unit, are very slow in getting to breakdowns thus most of the ball has already been slowed down or been lost.
In the previous matches, to take Juandré Kruger as an example and as I re-watched the matches again, where one is not all nervous as to who is going to win et cettera, it was interesting to see how little this player was doing, how many tackles he missed (7 in 2 matches) and also how poor his attention to what his job was at the broken play.
By the way, on 3 of the 7 missed tackles it was Lambie who had to make the cover tackle for the tackle missed by Juandré.
Now getting to the backline, who again are nowhere and this is where my biggest concern is and why I have this feeling Lambie is being set up to fail.
Firstly the players in the backline are not honed in to play an attacking running game as has been seen so far, and all one has to do is break up the backline into individuals.
Zane Kirchner, all be it he has been secure on defense and the high ball, is not even an integral part of the backline. He never joins the backline and he never runs running lines to create overlaps, he never hits the line at pace thus leaving the backline a man short whenever they attack.
Wings cannot be blamed here, as it comes not due to the lack of coaching and although JP Pietersen does do this, one hardly sees Francois Hougaard do anything besides defend, who by the way is very poor under the high balls.
Centre play is a huge problem and it matters not how many passes Lambie makes, but if the ball is not passed further that the No 12, no move will be successful, Jean de Villiers just does not pass.
I do not really want to lay blame at the feet of Juan de Jongh here, as even though he is known as a ball hog too. He had his first match and actually played well but never received the ball to be able to pass it to the next player.
Now to scrumhalf, where Ruan Pienaar also seems to be under some form of coaching and under instruction to play a kick-and-chase game or who knows what. Ruan, when he came on as a substitute in the English tour to South Africa series in June was in the situation that his service was snappy, yes he had faster service than Francois Hougaard and his option taking was good.
Suddenly Ruan is slow behind the srums and rucks and kicks 90% of possession away – and a kick one must remember is only as good as the chaser – and in the case of the past two Test matches it became an attacking weapon for our opponents against us.
Lambie is clearly very unsure as to his role and has looked out of place, something we don’t see when he plays for his provincial team, this also does not help towards flow in the backline.
There is also the problem of forwards in the backline and it is probably the biggest problem we have, as our forwards do not try attacking with off-loads and creative play, they all run to steam roller the defense in front of them, where they go to ground and ball is taken off them or slowed down.
I am sure if one looks more closely you would find more issues in our play, so how will one man in our team be able to make us a running rugby attacking team if it is not entreched in the whole team’s mindsets, and not an integral part of their style of play and drummed into them or being the style they play at their provinces?
This is the reason for saying Patrick Lambie is being set up, be it on purpose by the coaching staff or not, and to be very honest one can say the same for a few players in the Bok setup as one can’t see Juan de Jongh weave magic if he never gets the ball for example.
What a lot of utter bollocks and tripe… pure conjecture… and making early excuses for a Sharks homeboy.
You really think we are stupid or something?
I have NEVER read a rugby article containing such irrelevant and useless nonsense in my life!
Wow… glad to get THAT off my chest!
@ grootblousmile:
good happy for you
2 @ Sharks_forever:
Freegin hell, how far will you stoop to to make Lambie a hero?
You think for one silly moment a coach, who’s own head is also on the line, in the last Test of the season, will deliberately set up one of his players to fail and therefore enhance his side’s chances of failure in the match?
Come on, pull the other one!
… and you say you’re not anti Heyneke and his staff…. yeah right!
IF Lambie fails to produce, given licence do do what YOU want him to do and have been baying for by playing his natural style – then he fails point blank… plain and simple. IF however he produces, Lambie will get ALL the credit, not the coach who has given him the opportunity and the tools to do so.
Don’t agree, don’t think Lambie is being ‘set-up’ to fail, can’t see why you would think the coaching staff who are decent human beings and also whose job depends on getting the Boks to win and play well to please the fans who pay their way indirectly would want to do that. That just seems so vindictive for them to do that and can just not see them doing that – maybe I’m just too naive (spelling?)
Regarding Ruan Pienaar was just wondering where the stat of him kicking away 90% of the ball can be found. I think he was man of the match against Ireland or thats what it sounded like they were saying when I caught the end of the game on BBC, watched the first half and first 10 min of 2nd half of that game and then just managed to catch the end.
Agree on your concerns regarding the forwards Sharkie and in particular relating to last weekends game, have also expressed my concerns but you have been able to do it in a better technical way to explain what you think they are not doing as well as they could.
@ grootblousmile:
Relax boet, I aint stooping down anywhere, I got this Idea from a couple of tweets and some tweeted by some prominant People in rugby circles,
In Lambies case if he fails he fails, but according to the press articles saying Lambie can now play his natural game? it also seems to make out the coach saying it like Lambie did not understand him?? HOugaard also it seems does not understand the coach then, and the list goes on
Here is a paragraph from an article re Hougaard>
‘The coach plays me ahead of Lwazi on wing, but I feel for him. I would understand and support the decision to play him ahead of me,’ he said. ‘It feels unfair to me because I’m playing in his position and not doing that well. Its easy to tell the guys to keep themselves up on a three-week tour, where they sit on the bench or never play. It’s not nice and not easy, I’ve been there. But I’m here now and I have to take the chance. I’m working hard every day to improve.’
Fact is someone aint telling the truth or a few journo’s and i am not talking about us here but real journo’s doing interviews are not bringing the story exactly as told????
And thats the reason for the article, I am asking people for their views
7 @ Sharks_forever:
It’s simply inconceivable….
I said in the last couple of days that Hougie needed to be dropped from wing, he’s lucky to be there in my view.
Like I say, the pure conjecture is baffling!
Conspiricy Theories come to mind… not the intelligent ones either…
Waar’s Asbakkie, hy hou mos van Conspiricy Theories….
Some interesting theories, statements, stories and insights going round the internet at the moment.
@ grootblousmile:
Not saying you are wrong at all,:wink:
@ Just For Kicks:
Correct, and thats the reason for the article, besides the fact that we will enjoy many hits i am sure, 😆
Yes where is asbakkie, come along ashwee come give your view
As a neutral who couldn’t give a toss if SARU’s minnions get fukced over I have to say that after 20 minutes of the game v the Irish I thought to myself “What the fukc is Lambie doing? That’s not his playing style. Surely the coach has told him to play the “kick and chase” game.”
Whether the management / coach / SARU are trying to set the lad up for failure or not is probably irrelevant, except of course to the player.
Personally, I don’t think the coach or players would do such a thing DELIBERATELY, but may well be doing so without even realising it purely because they are too rigid in their ways to see that they are doing it.
With SARU, well anything’s possible from the spineless fools.
I’m just VERY inrigued that Morne Steyn has been replaced on the bench by Elton Janjies this week.
Personally, I would have STARTED with Steyn and punted the ball into the English 22 and tried to play the game as far away from my own try line as possible.
The English like to play a predominantly forward oriented game, and that may have been good for a player like Morne Steyn.
Anyway, I can see where Sharky is coming from, but don’t believe it’s being done deliberately. I just don’t think the coach / coaching team are perhaps the right combination to take SA Rugby’s senior side to the top of the pile with the current approach to the game.
I hope the English give them a hiding on Saturday. Maybe then they’ll wake up.
If they scrape a win, everyone will say, “3 out of 3, flipping well done”, despite the fact that the standard of Rugby played was at best mediocre IMO.
I went and googled Crazy Conspiricy Theories on the net…. and this one about Lambie puts ALL of those crazy ones to absolute shame… in fact they might even make a Youtube Video about this one eventually…. hahaha
@ grootblousmile:
Go for it 😆
@ Scrumdown:
Good post. We do not have the FH’s except for MS to play the 10 man game. The 3 heirs apparent have games that are more biased towards running, and have to adapt to style that does not suit them in the pressure cooker that is test rugby. Imagine if Taute plays at 15 and Jantjies at 10, and we have a good 12, who should also be a good distributor and playmaker, how dangerous that backline will be. Think of a 10,12,13 axis of Jantjies, Lambie and De Jongh. Potent on attack.
Look, HM’s style of rugby does not suite a player like Lambie, Godsend or Jantjies. They have too much “flair” for stampkar rugby.
I really dont think Lambie is being set up, it wouldnt make any sense, HM is the guy who selects as well as coaches the team, so if Lambie does fail, HM is also going to take flack. However I do take the point that you cant say to one player ‘play your natural style’ and expect the whole team to change. The current Bok team is just not used to running rugby, so just because Lambie starts playing his natural game, doesnt make a hell of lot of difference. Based on the performance so far, in the back line, the ball will reach JDV and that is where it will stop.
Ah, well all speculation on everyone’s part I suppose, all we can do is wait until Saturday, see what happens, and then analyze from factual information.
By the way, I think the article is good in that it got reactions, maybe mostly negative, but if an article gets reactions, its a good one
This MUST be Tjarkie’s dedication to Lambie…
Oh, when I said ‘reactions’ I should have said ‘passionate reactions’ all the articles get some kind of reaction
@ grootblousmile:
Actually gbs I must admit that is one of my favorite songs, thanks I downloaded it
Or this one…. Looking for a hero
22 @ Peter J:
Good!
Name a song which fits this Article, Katte… I’ll find it!
When Tjarkie wrote this article he must have been like this….
…. or this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQF8CILMt8c
😆 the article sure has Rudi excited and posting like crazy
28 @ Sharks_forever:
I thought I would try and put some videos on which reflect the crazy… nah INSANE, nature of this article!
Better to see videos than read tripe…
THIS is what Sharks supporters think Lambie is…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhs1VQkB0RA
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