It didn’t take long for fly-half Elton Jantjies to be singled out as the premier scapegoat for a display many in South Africa judged to be underwhelming against Wales in Pretoria.
In truth, the jury has been out on him for some time and social media duly piled in after a personal effort at Loftus Versfeld that saw little go right before he was substituted at half-time.
One poster reckoned during the game he was “having an absolute horror show”, while another said he had boots on the wrong feet.
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Nor was there any place to hide in the mainstream media’s player ratings.
Awarding him a two out of 10, Garrin Lambley of The South African wrote: “Shocker! His first kick hit the uprights from an easy position and then missed another sitter. Kicked a penalty out behind the corner flag and displayed some very poor options. Pulled at half-time. Springbok fans will be praying Handre Pollard is fit for the second Test in Bloemfontein.”
Nor was the assessment o f Rugby 365's Jan de Koning much more cheering, with Jantjies picking up a two. The same scribe didn’t think much of Faf de Klerk’s effort, awarding him a three out of 10 and saying of the 2018 World Rugby player of the year nominee: “His service was not accurate as it should have been, not crisp enough. Took over touch-kicks in the second half and was even more erratic and had far too many shockers.”
Lambley was similarly unimpressed with de Klerk, marking him as a four and saying he’d been well below par and needed to up his game.
Will Rowlands and Louis Rees-Zammit did well in the marks game when assessed by Rugby 365’s Warren Fortune, who handed each player an 8.5 out of 10, but Rhys Carre won’t be delighted with the 3.5 he picked up, with the writer saying: “It’s a performance that he would want to forget. Apart from a few tackles, he hardly made an impact and he let his team down with a yellow card late in the game.”
Those marked harshly might console themselves they were at least spared the treatment the Spanish sports newspaper Marca dished out to Barcelona’s players after their 4-0 loss to Liverpool in 2019. Of the 14 who took the field that evening, 10 received zero stars.
There's always next time...
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