SARrugby.com

1) If you don't have it, it's better to play to your strengths. The Bargies could have made things so much tougher for France. Instead they kept spreading and losing the ball.

2) One player doesn't change things. Lambie who I like for his nous, hasn't made a damn bit of difference. Today he kicked 12, passed 11 and ran twice for 4 yards. Likewise one player, like Morne, doesn't kill the running game. It's a team thing.

 The players are following a game plan- and Lambie has to play the way the bulls play. If Morne has kicking for poles well, he would be starting. It would not surprise me to see Morne get more game time next week,

Mozart

I believe the issue insofar as a running game is concerned, namely -

*    the game plan and the quality of ball they receive in execution of the game plan;

*    the personnel you have to execute the game plan; and 

*    the technicl ability of the players involved in the process.

Lets start with Lambie.   There was a massive difference in the way he played for the Sharks and the way he played in boh the Irish test and the Scotland one.     Meyer at one stage moaned about the issue that their was a problem with Lambie's kciking game and now suddenly he became a kickibg flyhalf like the useless on attack Morne Steyn - WHY?   It foes back to the instructions given to him by the coach as to how the game is to be played - nothing else.    Whilst De Villiers got the ball 11 times - he crashballed nine times and passed the ball to De Joingh twice.   That as well indicates a certain game plan to be followed.   In any event - this is not really happening on a planless basis - it is because it is an integral part of the overall game plan.

The second issue is the selection of players that can contribute positively to running rugby.    The Sharks and the Cheetahs play very good running rugby.   Michalak and Lambie both contributed very much to that in the case of the Sharks.    The dead backline game was more specifically characterised by the Stormers backline.   You cannot pick players that has proven that they cannot contribute to attacking backline play and then made a statement made by Meyer - and in essence repated by you above - that we do not have the players that can play running rugby.    We have - but the selection of centers have been a disaster in the relevany respect.   De Villiers by instruction play crashball without any off-loading ability in tackle situations.   De Jongh is a proven failure in attacking play and there is never an overlap created because of Kirschner joining the backline - if the latter ever did - he dies with the ball.   Both him and De Jongh has no distributional skills.   We have wonderful wings - but the inside players made it impossible for them to do any attacking.

*    Running ruigby requires constant technical supervision and skills development - there is none in the present Springbok coching set-up.   Maybe the reason for that is that Meyer does not regard it as important - we would never know.

You point out the mistakes made by the Argentinians - but not the succcess.   They scored a try and made many meters over the fainline by using their attacking players    Surw they did mke some handling errors that prevented the scoring of further tries - but they are getting better and with our present  selections we ar egoing to be in deep rouble against them next year.   

The French, Irish and Wallabies plyed magnificent running rugby yesterday.   Why can they do it and we are incapable of it?   Why can some of the Super 15 teams do it and the national team cannot   Why does the WP backline perform better without De Villiers and De Jongh in the mix than they do whenthese two are playing.. 

It is ot a team thing at all - it is a gameplan and team selection thing.   

 Let John Plumtree coach the boks and I think we would see a better 15man game plan that suits the boks skills and capability

Meyer is Bulls rugby. He will in time probably build a formidable forward pack, in the their mid 20;s with test caps prior to the World Cup. Meyer/Bulls approach is about smashing the opposition upfront before earning the right to go wide. The only problem is the opposition takes the right to go wide quicker than us. Scotland have tradtionally had the worst backline I can remember, but allways good strong forwards. yesterday we saw a Scotish Backline insides backs controlling the game better than us.Lambie has become Morne Steyn under the Bulls game plan, and Jean Devilliers if you give him a chance will become a loose forwards crashing the ball over the advantage line. 

Sharkbok in essence I agree with you about the Bulls game plan issue.   The opposition has learnt what to expect from the one-dimensional approach apparently used by Meyer and is countering it easily.   Lambie cannot successfully play that game plan successfully - he is not a kicking robot - and even Pienaar is playing different from what he used to play.   Jean is a weak version of Wynand Olivier - crahsball every time you get the ball.

What makes Meyer's idea of dominance up front so unachievable is his prop selections.   Beast and Jannie in part are OK - but for the rest he tried out Werner Kruger, Greyling, Steenkamp, Cilliers and Van der Linde.  In this regard it is noticeable that Kruger, and Greyling plays for the Bulls and Steenkamp is an ex-Bull,   All three are disastrous choices.   Cilliers is mediocre - but Van der Linde is a joke in extremely bad taste 

There is no way that what Meyer apparently has in mind can work - and we are doomed if he continues like he is at present.       

Its obvious that Lambie is playing under instruction to kick the ball. Morne is equipped to do this and thats all he can do. Lambie offers so much more but is clearly not allowed to express himself - its the Meyer way.

So Goosen was encouraged to break, but Lambie isn't. Nope, it makes no sense.....Lambie just hasn't seen clear opportunities.

Crap Lambie has kicked as a first instinct, Goosen made one break and kicked the Meyer way for the rest.

Lambie is playing under instruction, Meyers tactics are to kick, hence Pienaar ahead of Hougaard.

Lambie is an attacking player and playing Scotland should be no more onerous than say taking on the Saders at S15 level