 and four points, the other time he passed to Ryan who ran into a gap to put Carstens or JP over the line, and once he cleaned the ball from a ruck.) He kicked 3 times and dropped once. 5 of the 21 times he had the ball he caught a kick and could not pass to Adi. He made 6 tackles were involved at 7 rucks, stole one ball and missed one tackle.
Now here’s Adi. He had possession of the ball 8 times. He ran with the ball 2 times and never went over the advantage line in the tackle, he lost the ball on the ground both times. He passed four times and kicked once. He was involved at 4 rucks and stole 1 ball, he made 2 tackles, but also missed 2.
Those are the stats, based just on that you really didn’t watch the right game. Sure Adi didn’t get the ball a lot, but Steyn ran the ball only four times when he could have passed to Adi, the other times he passed, kicked or received the ball from out of position.
“he is all arrogance and bluster”? What evidence do you have to this fact? Or is that line motivated purely from your massive despise for this player. I really do think you should get over it.
Sure he does make the occasional mistake, or bad decision, but so does most if not all rugby players, non of them are perfect. Is it because you expect him to be some kind of miracle player every time? He had a standard game and should at lest get a 7 for his play. Non of our backline players really got any momentum and our only good play in the backline came from loose ball. Now you single out one of the players in the backline? It just doesn’t seem right.
I know you love Barritt and you think he’s the greatest thing that happened to South African rugby, but the fact of the matter is that he is leaving the Sharks at the age of 23 and probably also deserting South Africa because he couldn’t fight for a place in the Bok team a little longer. Besides that he didn’t even have a very great Super14 and after the World Cup Steyn should have been switched to 12 from the get go, but because the coaches likes Barritt so much they decided to move Steyn around the whole season.
Answering comment one, here’s a Steyn fan whose got all the facts and stats straight before retaliating.
I do agree with your last paragraph though, that’s something right?
Also my mom will probably see Jacques this wednesday, if you can give me details on how you want to do the interview we might be able to organize something depending on Jacques.
I meant we got 3 points when Grobbelaar slapped down that pass of Steyn.
If you remember correctly, Ruan took a quick tap and passed to steyn who in turned passed to the backline, but the ball never went to hand, because Cobus Grobbelaar who never retreated 10m got a hand to the ball.
@Letgo (Comment 50) : Letgo, I love this piece. If you concentrate on eliminating some of the more obvious mistakes by being not so hot under the collar, you will be taken more seriously. 
If you want to you can contact me at [email protected], for I would love to ask you a question or two.
Letgo, where can one get their hands on these stats?
Like I said…it helps if you have PVR 🙁 cos you can watch the game with beer in hand like the rest of us…sober up the following day, pause and rewind for the stats. That is if you have time in your hands.
@I’ce (Rebel With a Cause) (Comment 58) : 😯 I was also still awake at that time.
i am hoping for a cheetahs semi and a bulls final. the only two teams the sharks lost to this seaon are these two, so it will be good to beat them again and show they are true cc champs as they beat every team twice.
I don’t think it’s for “sounding knowledgeable” I’cey… but rather to have a clearer view of things. When the game is happening live it’s easy to miss some crucial points due to the pace of the game.
@try time (Comment 65) : I’ve thought about that too TT…but in the end I decided it will look and sound more poetic if we have to beat the Bulls ONCE, the Cheetahs TWICE and the Lions THRICE.
@I’ce (Rebel With a Cause) (Comment 68) : The score is just numbers too…but I bet you watch that closely….
I agree, it’s not for everyone…for most people the most visible parts of the game are enough.
@Letgo (Comment 50) : well well well letgo, i must give you kudos. you keep quiet for a long time, but when you make an appearance you take no prisoners. thank goodness it is not me that is at the end of your beating stick this time. you are in the fortunate position to have stats that does help make the picture clearer. but what stats don’t tell is when player mistakes were made. there is a big difference between a missed tackle in your own twenty two and a missed tackle in the oppositions for instance. frans bad knock on was in the oppositions 22 when we were looking good for a try. he also decided to crash ball instead of distributing in try setup positions. so stats don’t tell the full truth. one last example is how can you compare a player passing a caught ball in the open thats gets passed to a player in a better position, to a pass in the oppositions half that leads to a try. so just as rob went on on field performance, and you went on stats the truth is in between. but i do agree on certain points, adi was bad. i have always said he isn’t a starting player. he is far more effective off the bench. as for frans, a few of us expect a lot more from the guy and are probably disappointed when he doesn’t deliver. he makes no secret of what he wants, so if he wants it he must prove he deserves it. brad never made a scene about where he wanted to play, he just got the job done. frans seems to have unsettled the team by his demands so we expect him to make up for this with stellar performances. he hasn’t quite shown yet what we know he can do, and we don’t know how much longer we can wait. so yes frans isn’t the worst centre around as your stats have shown, but definately isn’t in wynands current class yet (and that hurts me to say).
@I’ce (Rebel With a Cause) (Comment 70) : 😆 I guess he gets the crucial I’ce stamp of approval.
@just blackshark (Comment 67) : blackshark that is poetic, but justice needs to be served for last years debauchery of a result. so it has to be the bulls in durban again without steve walsh.
@try time (Comment 71) : Is he even demanding to play at centre?
@Letgo (Comment 50) : wow – awesome comment. Remember, I have never had any issue with anyone disagreeing with what I write as long as they back up their views and are at least a little bit respectful, considering the effort that goes into running this site in the first place. So with that in mind, well done.
Your stats are far too detailed and accurate for you to have collected all of them yourself (no offence intended, but I doubt you really are committed enough to watch each match on slow mo for 5 hours) which makes you my new best friend, because it means that you are close enough to Clinton Isaacs (or someone else) that you can get the official stats. It’s an absolute goldmine and if you are able to get hold of that info every week, I would really love you to write match reports for us!
Again, asking me which match I watched, I watched the same one you did, although I was focused far more on effectiveness, rather than statistics. The latter can be a deceiving measurement of how well individuals actually play… would you not agree, if you allow yourself to step back from the numbers just a little, that the Sharks team put in a pretty substandard performance on the day? Go watch the first half again – pay particular attention to the scoreline at half time and again at 60 minutes.
One stat I will challenge you on – there were definitely far more than one wild pass thrown out on the day. Go back to your video and you’ll count at least 5 in the first half alone.
@just blackshark (Comment 76) : yes, when plumtree was interviewed two weeks ago about the drop goal, he said that frans said he doesn’t need to be at fullback to kick over drop goals, he could do it from inside centre. it obviously referred to a discussion held between the two over where he should be. nevermind the numerous other articles posted on this issue. at least ruan is open and humble about where he wants to play. frans seems more forceful.
@just blackshark (Comment 84) : actually, my comment was inappropriate and pretty close to slanderous… I made it sound as though Clinton Isaacs hands out the official match stats to anyone who’s close enough to him, which I’m sure he does not do. I