James Gardner

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@twhwtwhw @RugbyBloggers Let me help you out. Blue line is the offside line. Red is his direction. Yellow is the legal onside direction to enter or form a ruck.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@twhwtwhw @RugbyBloggers "10.1 A player is offside in open play if that player is in front of a team-mate who is carrying the ball or who last played it." He arrived from an offside position either way you slice it.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@LionLagerRFC @RugbyGerrit @Springboks Good point.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@Da_Me_3 Same with Eben. Not his best game, for sure. But 4?

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@Jacodc40 @Brendennel I’m a Bok fan. I just don’t see how this is bad for the Wallabies. Yes to all of the above, but how would losing be better?

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@Slipcatch Don't forget that in the Nations Championship Boks played 43 different players. Between the Sco & Eng game, Boks made 14x changes and won both convincingly. The difference is that the team yesterday, wasn't a B team. It was a experimental C team with a reliable bench.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@HendrikSteyn6 @LaniRefiti I don't know. I actually think Grobbies did OK yesterday. Would like to see how he does with a stable team around him. I'd also like to see AHV get another shot. Hooker is probably our biggest problem. At 15 at least we have options like SFM and Kolbe.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@SimonBorchardt If the Boks had played an experimental C team against the AB's, the score wouldn't have been 42-38.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@HendrikSteyn6 @LaniRefiti Don't forget Carlu Sadie for tight head. For me, he only narrowly misses out to du Toit. That would make Porthen our 5th choice and Wessels our 4th choice, at best. I'd probably take Mchunu over Wessels at loosehead to be honest.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@RugbyGerrit @Springboks i.e. in some ways, this wasn't even a B team. It was an experimental C team with a reliable bench to bail them out. 1,2,3,5,7,8,9 were arguably 3rd pick or worse. I'd say 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 were 2nd pick. 4 being our 1st pick of course. For lineout stability I'd wager.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@RugbyGerrit @Springboks Not just that. Even if you rotate the whole side, would you pick that front row? Or Sous, Jantjies, Louw, Eskom? A lot of experimentation here. Rassie could have rested the same players, but put out a much stronger team.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@EngRugbyDebate He’s immense at club rugby, unproven at top international. Look at Evan Roos. Top try scorer for Stormers last season. Won’t see him in a Bok jersey again anytime soon. Perhaps he will be immense in the future, he isn’t yet.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@sa_cynical @SpringbokRWC I don’t understand the front row selection. Why not Boan and Sadie.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@scrumming_ten @adriaandelange3 Pollard and Lood will still be in the mix. Lood had a big impact despite his 2 knock ons.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@PieterCarter94 @Shobelkhulu He didn’t give away any penalties. Had the most tackles per minute. The knock ons are a problem.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@PieterCarter94 @Shobelkhulu Agree with everything, but why Lood? His hands were poor, but other than that he’s looked great in all games. Big hits. He had the most tackles per minute. If he had played a full 80 with the same pace, he’d have 25 tackles.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@PhumeleleH16553 @Zulu_Goku What do you think a captains job is on field? He was asking the ref good questions. You can hear the interactions. This was lacking in other games Siya didn’t play. I love PSDT but I don’t think he was vocal enough with the ref. His personal performance is another matter though.

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@maloNOTmilo I don’t know about that. Probably would have been accompanied by a knock on 5m out and a yellow card. At least Van Staden managed to get through the game without a card for a change 😬

[James Gardner @gardnerjamesza]

@quicktapsport @lmd_3212 Please no more Marco