Springbok Rugby Championship squad

Its all falling apart already! No Bakkies please!!!

Why bring Bakkies back? Alberts seems to play lock well, he can cover.

We have Klein Flip. JdJ in for JP. Have no idea the maths behind this.

Thankfully, he is a turnstile in defense.

Really? Where did you read that or see that?

Quite the contrary. What has me more excited than his kicking and running game is his physicality. Not shy to tackle at all.

Not sure where you got that from.

He has enough wingers and needs 13 cover?

Goosen is an excellent defender, try something new. The only thing that may count against him is that he is still very young. With him and Pollard we are well covered for the future.

Maybe AlexH has been trying to go through turnstiles in the wrong direction so that they don't move.

This Goosen bloke gets talked up way too much for someone whose barley played a full season of Super Rugby (for a struggling team).

You obvious havent watch much S15 this year. The suppose struggling team won most of their matches when he played.

Try something new? I am not trying to bag him mate I just complimented him in my previous post in this thread and you were happy to ignore that one. I point out one weakness in his game and you are all over me like a rash.

Mate, did you see his defense stats for the Super Rugby season just past? I think most games he made no more than three or four tackles and fell off just as many. The few Cheetahs games I actually watched he was not even defending in the front line.

Give me the link to these stats, I only have the top 20 but Johann have only played till he got injured. happy to be proven wrong here.

According to rugbystats.com.au

R1 vs Lions - 3T 1M
R2 vs Bulls - 2T 1M
R3 vs Brumbies - 14T 2M
R4 vs Rebels - doesn't seem to be available
R5 vs Crusaders - 5T 1M
R6 vs Hurricanes - 4T 2M
R7 vs Lions - 6T 1M
R8 vs Chiefs - 1T 2M
R10 vs Highlanders - 3T 2M

. and that was his season done.

They won 3 with him, 2 without him..

A 2nd five in his debut year missed on average a tackle a game. Whoopee doo. And he plays for a team that relies on scramble defense because their structure is totally fucked.

That is not a bad defender.

I'd like to see those other stats.

But let's see Goosen play a season before we get too carried away. All of us. I will be happy to admit that I was wrong.

Seems the consensus here is that these bloody Saffers better not get excited about a young player. It's just not on.

The most reliable stats tend to be compiled internally by the franchises but the Fox Sports Fantasy statistics are also reasonably accurate as I believe they are compiled by the same statisticians who supply the journalists with their numbers. Unfortunately, these numbers will not be available again until the beginning of the 2013 season.

The statistics are actually the main reason I play fantasy rugby in the first instance. I compile a quantitative analysis of the major statistics for every registered player in the Super Rugby competition, of the previous season, at the beginning of each season. I published a watered down version of my 2011 QA on this website.

Remind me of this conversation at the beginning of next year when I am about to release the 2012 edition. You can quote me when in saying that I think Goosen's tackles to missed tackles ratio is around the 2:1 mark.

Anyway back on topic it seem Etsebeth could be fit so we won't see Bakkies. I hope so.

AlexH I'd like to see that when it's done.

So for now we can say:

1. Goosen can kick goals like Steyn (and has been better this year).
2. He may or may not be as poor a defender as Steyn.
3. He kicks better than Steyn out of hand in 2012 which was not hard but Goosen kicked some pearlers.
4. He is faster than Steyn (a lot)
5. He likes to play flat to the line.
6. He has a very good pass - both ways.
7. He seems to take it all in his stride, albeit a little too cocky but that's not a bad thing.

Explain to me why that should not at least make us Saffers sit up and take notice.

Look like he tackled him into a standstill in the Brumbies match. Pretty sure he was one of the top offloaders/line breakers till he got injured which is not something we are use to in SA from a flyhalf. I'll try and dig out that stats because we Saffers have this Lambie/Steyn/Goosen argument going till he got injured.