Ireland v South Africa AI 2017.

[the spoofer]

The most pleasing aspect for me on Saturday was the continued upward curve in Cian Healys performances. He was excellent, carrying rubbish ball and cleaning out rucks.

There is some tussle between himself and Jack for the 1 jersey.

[Logorrhea]

I don't like to rate players based on one performance I tend to rate them based on their average performance. Etzebeth is meh and has been for quite a while. He offers an embarrassing lack of leadership as captain yet gets away with it constantly. He doesn't seem to have the ability to tune in mentally the way that real world class locks do.

[CiaranIrl]

The most pleasing aspect for me on Saturday was the continued upward curve in Cian Healys performances. He was excellent, carrying rubbish ball and cleaning out rucks.

There is some tussle between himself and Jack for the 1 jersey.

Interesting comments from BOD on off the ball: Healy had severly limited movement in one hand for 18 months, and it was only during the summer that it came back. He aportioned a lot of form loss to that.

[simonokeeffe]

I don't like to rate players based on one performance I tend to rate them based on their average performance. Etzebeth is meh and has been for quite a while. He offers an embarrassing lack of leadership as captain yet gets away with it constantly. He doesn't seem to have the ability to tune in mentally the way that real world class locks do.

I dont think hes a good fit for a captain. Hes a bit of a thug. That didnt stop Martin Johnson but he became a captain at a much later age

[TerenureJim]

I don't like to rate players based on one performance I tend to rate them based on their average performance. Etzebeth is meh and has been for quite a while. He offers an embarrassing lack of leadership as captain yet gets away with it constantly. He doesn't seem to have the ability to tune in mentally the way that real world class locks do.

I dont think hes a good fit for a captain. Hes a bit of a thug. That didnt stop Martin Johnson but he became a captain at a much later age

Did Johnson not captain the Lions pretty early on?

[simonokeeffe]

I don't like to rate players based on one performance I tend to rate them based on their average performance. Etzebeth is meh and has been for quite a while. He offers an embarrassing lack of leadership as captain yet gets away with it constantly. He doesn't seem to have the ability to tune in mentally the way that real world class locks do.

I dont think hes a good fit for a captain. Hes a bit of a thug. That didnt stop Martin Johnson but he became a captain at a much later age

Did Johnson not captain the Lions pretty early on?

Johnson was 27. Etzebeth was 25 so not that much later. He never struck me as captaincy material but that was always going to be a huge problem when Strauss retired. I think they need to go left field and pick Marx or Whitely

[Oldschool]

The BBC panel covering the Wales v Australia included Paul O'Connell.
They were shocked by the 38-3 final result.

[Experimental]

I would agree about SA choosing a different captain, Etsebeth is a good player, but maybe just needs to concentrate on his own game for a while. Not sure of the teamroom dynamics, but Marx certainly looks a better option to me for captain. I would also be starting Kitchoff, getting that cheetahs centre in, get pollard in and mix up the back 3 a bit. As much as I like Cotzee as a person, he is clearly not having the impact SA had hoped of him. Rassie will be in sooner rather than later I suspect. SA also need to tap the vast vast pools of black talent, the players are there, they are just not finding them (yet anyway). In reality despite the player exodus, SA could field about 3+ teams that could mix it with tier one nations if they played their cards right. SA have an average bunch of players at the moment, which I believe are playing above themselves for the likes of the All Blacks draw, which has to be commended to a certain degree. I would liken it to the Irish soccer team beating the likes of Germany, Italy and then losing to Denmark by a cricket score...