Flyhalf Handre Pollard may have got the official Man of the Match in Birmingham on Saturday, but the Vodacom Rugby Community definitely disagree, instead voting centre Damien de Allende as their MVP.
Tank Lanning
The very cool “Rate the Boks” section on the Vodacom Rugby site allows readers to rate every Bok player after every game they play, which is then collated into a community average. On a rating of 8.1 out of 10, De Allende sits comfortably ahead of the next best, which sees both Fourie du Preez and Eben Etzebeth equal second on a rating of 7.7 out of 10.
Interestingly, both JP Pietersen (7.6) and Schalk Burger (7.5) both come in ahead of Pollard, who only managed to garner a rating of 7.3 from the community.
With match stats of 31 metres run, 9 carries, 7 defenders beaten, 3 tackles, and just the single missed tackle, one can understand the inside centre’s popularity amongst the ratings, and does make one question how the tournament organisers decide on their official Man of the Match winners.
And the experts agree! To make up for the mediocrity of having me in tow, Vodacom have invited Bok legends Rob Louw, Corne Krige and Breyton Paulse to join me on the panel of “Expert” raters, with the average of our ratings this week also giving De Allende the MVP nod, this time on a far more generous 9.4 out of 10.
On the other end of the scale there was also wholesale agreement between the Vodacom Rugby Community and the panel of experts. Front row stalwart Jannie du Plessis had one of his poorer days at the office, often finding himself in real strife against a Samoan scrum that looked a whole lot less menacing when replacement tighthead prop Frans Malherbe (who got a solid 8.5 out of 10 from the experts), and thus finds himself on the wrong side of the pass mark. The community were scathing, giving him a rating of just 4.4, while the experts were again a little more generous, giving the big man a slightly better 5.7 out of 10.
Amongst the bench, both the experts (on 8.7) and the community had Lood de Jager (6.9) coming out on top.
Coach Heyneke Meyer got just 6.3 from the community while the experts seemed a tad happier, giving him 8.3.
And to finish things off, the poor man in the middle, Wayne Barnes, these days between a rock and a hard place no matter the decisions he makes, copped 6.3 from the community, while the experts rated him 7.4 out of 10.
The highs and lows according to the experts:
Breyton Paulse: High – Damien de Allende (9), Low – Jannie du Plessis (7)
Corne Krige: High – Fourie du Preez (10), Low – Jannie du Plessis (6.8)
Rob Louw: High – Damien de Allende (10), Low – Jannie du Plessis (5)
Tank Lanning: High – JP Pietersen (9.2), Low – Jannie du Plessis (4)
Click here to see all the latest ratings.
Click here to compare various ratings like those of the experts vs other experts or your own ratings, the ladies vs the guys, or perhaps the under 20’s vs the over 60’s.
Rate the Boks and WIN – Vodacom are giving away 2 Samsung GALAXY A3 smart phones. All you have to do is watch the Boks play their last 2 pool games against Scotland and the USA, then go and rate the players in their cool new “Rate the Boks” section of the site.
