Dr Johan or Mr Goosen?
February 27, 2013, 19:03:32
An interesting debate is forming around Johan Goosen. Is he the Dr Jekyll character we saw in the Aussie test and the second half against the Cheetahs. Or is he the Mr Hyde that couldn't make a kick against the ABs and blew the first half against the Cheetahs? The Dr Johan version is a brilliantly fast athlete, with a huge boot, reactions so fast his team mates struggle to keep up.....kinda like the young Gaffie du Toit. The Mr Goosen version is a herky jerky player who kicks balls out on the full, makes poor decisions and can hardly scrape them over from right in front......kinda like the young Gaffie du Toit. It was somewhat concerning that Mr Goosen appeared so soon against NZ, after we were all lauding the brilliant play of Dr Johan the week before against Oz. But last week we saw both players in one game! Is this following the Stevenson plot where flips between Jekyll and Hyde became ever more frequent, so we might expect both characters on successive plays.....or will one version gain the ascendancy? Most of us hope it's the latter and it's Dr Johan. Have we ever seen such an exciting prospect at 10.....a player who can reel in Ndungane as if he is standing still? Well yes, Gaffie was the fastest player in the Bok team when he started.....his kicks were massive soaring efforts, he had matinee idol looks. Now admittedly Gaffie was bundled into the Bok team before he had a chance to gain huge fan support such as Goosen has....but make no mistake, he was an enormous physical talent. The thing that destroyed him was the mental game. The need to keep his nerve....make the right decisions when he had no space, no time and the backline was making no yards. That ultimately cracked Gaffie. But he was a fragile character some would say......and that's true. But he also had some swagger at the start, just like Goosen. Personally I see them as remarkably similar and to me that means Goosen needs lots of support. Playing off the bench is probably a good thing at international level....he is more of a chaser than a front runner....he will play better if he can be aggressive, rather than precise. With Lambie as a starter and Goosen on the bench I believe we have the right formula for Goosen to succeed....but Mr Goosen will probably be in there somewhere for his whole career.
|