There has been a fair amount of vitriol being sprouted around post the Springbok loss to the All Blacks in the World Cup semi-final last Saturday, but none of it from the fairer sex it would seem!
Tank Lanning
The “Rate the Boks” section on the Vodacom rugby website allows readers to rate all 23 Bok players, the coach and the referee after every game they play, which are then collated into a community average. Using the comparison tool, it then allows us to compare the ratings of the various sectors of the community.
And while the men were pretty harsh, their highest rating being the 7.2 awarded to flank Francois Louw, the ladies were a whole lot more generous, rating both Lood de Jager and Duane Vermeulen an impressive 9.1 out of 10.
But it’s at the other end of the scale that it gets even more interesting. While the boys were happy to hammer Bismarck du Plessis with a rating of only 5.3, the ladies, who deemed Beast Mtawarira the worst performer on the day, but with a rating of 8.7.
Much more forgiving are the fairer sex it would seem.
Looking at the Vodacom Community stats, scoring 7.5 out of 10 this week, Louw is the man deemed the best performer. Du Plessis cops the worst rating, notching up a mere 5.6 out of 10.
The so called “Experts”, comprising of myself, Rob Louw and Breyton Paulse, see things slightly differently, with Frans Malherbe and Damien de Allende (on 7.3) deemed best performers, and JP Pietersen (on 5.6) notching up the lowest rating.
The ratings are a little all over the show, no doubt given the two very different takes on the game. One group happy to see the Boks dig deep to get within 2 points of the best team in the world, the other very frustrated at having a chosen a game plan that relied on penalties and a slightly negative game plan.
Coach Heyneke Meyer bore the brunt of that frustration it would seem, notching up a paltry 4.7 from the community, while the experts rated him 5.5 out of 10. Now we wait to see if he survives to enjoy another four years at the helm.
Referee Jérôme Garcès had a solid game with whistle according to the experts, notching up a solid 7.5 out of 10. The community saw it completely differently, though, rating him a mere 4.8. Does this speak to the SA mentality of automatically blaming the ref after a loss?
The highs and lows according to the experts:
Breyton Paulse: High – Louw and Malherbe (7), Low – Beast (5.5)
Rob Louw: High – Malherbe, Le Roux, Habana and De Allende (8), Low – Pollard and Pietersen (6)
Me: High – De Allende (7.5), Low – Habana (4.5)
The community vs the experts:
Community: High – Louw (7.5), Low – Bismarck (5.6)
Experts: High – Malherbe and De Allende (7.3), Low – Pietersen (5.6)
A few fun comparisons:
Males: High – Louw (7.2), Low – Bismarck (5.3)
Females: High – De Jager and Vermeulen (9.1), Low – Beast (8.7)
Under 20: High – De Allende (8.8), Low – Pietersen (5.5)
Over 50: High – Vermeulen (6.8), Low – Kriel (5.3)
Lions fans: High – Du Preez (7.9), Low – Bismarck (5.1)
Sharks fans: High – Louw (6.7), Low – Bismarck (4.7)
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.
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