Lood de Jager

Lood de Jager, the ‘next big thing’ in the Springbok second row, has been ‘missing in action’ of late.

De Jager, after a series of stand-out performances for the Cheetahs in this year’s Super Rugby tournament, made his debut in the Green and Gold against Wales in Durban during the Incoming Series and currently has five Test caps to his name.

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However, his glaring deficiencies, particular when it comes to tackling, have been highlighted in the Rugby Championship.

De Jager currently tops the ‘unwanted’ stat of Tackles Missed – with SEVEN in the Boks’ opening two Tests against Argentina, including a staggering six in the second Test in Salta alone!

Sadly, for the Boks, De Jager has plenty of company in the forms of his team-mates in the stats, with Damian de Allende and Jannie du Plessis both guilty of four missed tackles to date, while Juan Smith missed three in the time he was on the field in Argentina.

Coach Heyneke Meyer will no doubt be working on shoring up his team’s defence in the two-week break before taking on the Wallabies in Perth on Saturday, September 6.

The performances of Springbok loose forwards Francois Louw and Marcell Coetzee against Argentina will however please Meyer.

The Boks stuttered to a 33-31 victory over Argentina in Salta at the weekend, largely due to a terrible effort at scrum time which put the team on the back foot from the get go.

However, despite playing in a pack going backwards (sometimes at a rate of knots!), Louw and Coetzee responded well under pressure.

Unlike some of their team-mates, both players have been impressive on defence this past fortnight and it comes as no surprise that they feature high on the Tackles Made list after two rounds of Rugby Championship action.

According to SANZAR’s official website, Coetzee has made the fifth most tackles (21) in the competition thus far. He is behind four New Zealanders on a list headed by All Black skipper Richie McCaw (29 tackles). Louw is in seventh spot with 20 tackles, with Eben Etzebeth (16) the only other South African in the Top 10.

In the weekend’s Test in Salta, Coetzee came on as a second half replacement for Juan Smith and provided some much needed energy and spark that finally gave the Boks some go-forward. His 68th minute try from a driving maul helped pull the visitors ahead after they had trailed 28-16 at one stage.

Along with No 8 Duane Vermeulen – who put in another hard-grafting performance under pressure – Louw and Coetzee were the only members of the Bok pack to emerge from the clash with their heads held high.