Morne Steyne to become most valuable player in world rugby

He wasn't particularly effective as he was on holiday by that stage... He wasn't much more effective in the 1/4 though.

as a saffa i must agree, How can steyn be considered one of the most valuable - the man is just a good kicker as Naas Botha was. Goosen and Lambie are far more complete rugby players, Even the Stormers Peter Grant is a better option now that he has the added dimension of a running game. Mayer was a good coach for hte Bulls, but im worried about the direction he will want to take this team, and of course his obvious favortism to anyone who plays in blue or pink. He must not overlook the talent from Stormers, Cheetahs, Sharks. and take note of the Cheetahs running game. I still predict a 3-0 whitewash, but is that any real victory considering England are rebuilding ? We have more to lose than gain here.

you mean concur ?

jiggles - i expected samoa to beat them but dont blame u for not feeliong the same way i reckon alot of the players, predominantly the backs were hampered by the boks shallow unimaginative game plan.

I've got to say I was always a big fan of Dawson. He had a sharp pass, organised his forwards well and had an eye for a break. I take your point on Cohen and he probably didn't have the all-round skills of some wingers at the time, but he had some serious speed and was very strong. He also, during his peak, had an Ashton-like instinct to find the tryline.

Steyn played a lot of his initial games as a late run-on substitute. That makes your use of the stats very interesting because it emphatically shows Steyn is light years ahead of Carter. Nonsense indeed but that is using your argument.At his best Carter was better than Steyn on most counts other than goal kicking and defense where Steyn is probably marginally better.

I agree; I don't think Greenwood will be up there with Horan, Sella etc but IMHO he was definitely one of the top operators in his field at his peak. Around 03 we had Mortlock, O'Driscoll, Umaga (who IMO wasn't near his peak as he was in 05), Tony Marsh (who I think was very underrated), and Fourie (who I think is overrated). I'd definitely put him in the top 3 of that list, but then he was a different type of player to Marsh, Umaga and Mortlock so it's horses for courses. He probably would have made the Lions XV in 01 were it not for injury, and in 1997 he pushed remarkably hard, showing a lot of class for a young man. I definitely think he's a cut above a player like Dawson or Cohen, and will go down as a top modern player of the professional era. Incidentally, I would certainly include O'Driscoll in the pantheon of greats.

He is definitely a classy individual thats for sure, and he could sniff out a try. In my opinion Greenwoods strength was that he was equally as good at inside centre as he was at outside centre, which is a very rare attribute. I am not sure though he would be considered as good as players such as Horan, Sella, Gerber, Bunce etc. and would you rate him above contemporaries such as Umaga, O'Driscoll or Mortlock? probably not. I think those players are all equally as good and are probably the level down from the other four I mentioned. It doesn't take away from what he achieved, which is far more than his peers though, and after all rugby is a team game.

I don't know, Jiggles, I agree re: Dawson and Cohen, but at that time Greenwood was a fine, fine centre.

agree about style and substance. wasnt calling steyn anywhere near the best player by any stretch. however, a winning player will always get the crowds to come, irrespective of style. and the crowds for the bulls show this. doesnt make steyn the best player, or even near it, but winning trumps all else. fijian rugby would not be considered the beacon of hope either to put it bluntly. the style they play is based on the romantic notion of days long gone. do i enjoy watching fijian rugby? yes, and i wish they had the pieces together to be a force, but they dont. samoa is almost the best of both worlds, how we think rugby should be played ( strong forward play and fast skillful backs), but again, results and support dont bear this out. when and if, fijian styled rugby balances the books then i may agree with your sentiment, but until then, winning rugby trumps style on every tangible level. and sport being a business, financials are important. p.s the fiji v samoa game at the WC was a cracker and the fans of both teams made the day exciting, not so much the rugby. and what about the haka face-off. wow.

Sorry, Morne Steyne puts me to sleep. Carter is a far superior player. Kicking goals isn't the only criterion forl greatness. Carter is still playing great rugby at 12 for the Crusaders and holds his place on ability while not even kicking. If Steyne had an injury that prevented him kicking goals, I don't think he'd even be on teh park at Super Rugby level. And I'm not a KIwi.

to be rated world's best, Stillmatic, the world rugby community has to declare you the best. Not a parochial home crowd. Carter and McCaw can draw extra people to a game simply because of their presence in the team, like Lomu did before them and like SBW is doing now (not that I'm saying SBW is world's best in his position!) I come from Fiji, stillmatic, so your second last sentence is something I've heard for so many years. Despite their losing streak, Fijian flair made them watchable. They may not have won many games but they were always going to entertain a crowd and probably (especially in the old days) made them draw bigger crowds then they were entitled to.. At the end of the day, it's all about the ideal blend of style and substance; you need both.

Steyn was trying to take it to the line in 2011 and the attack was still one dimensional.

No disrespect to the Samoans intended mainia, but you wouldn’t expect the Springboks to stuggle like they did against them. And with all the rubbish that was going on behind the scenes for Samoa, coupled with them playing below their best, you’d expect the Springboks to beat them by a fair bit more than they did. It still doesn’t hide the fact that South Africa had a lousy world cup, with Morne Steyn being below average, which capped off a pathetic couple of years for the Springboks.

can't believe anyone woudl rate steyne as highly as 3rd best player in the world. I rate him only the 4th best #10 in SA. Very one dimensional, and not the best goal kicker int he country For all that we can complain about the ref at the WC, the boks failed to adapt to that because steyne is not versatile enough.

Since when did Morne Steyn kick 60m penalties on any ground? That's Francois Steyn.

Matfield had some excellent games after coming back from France, hence SA could play the way they did in 2009...

Fair point. Agreed.

agree jiggles - jasonRobinson carried the england team in the WC of 2007. his contributions were massive and his attitude and proffesionalism shamed the rest of his team. imho robinson is the only back to successfully transition from league.

your deluded joshy - matfield never dominated again coming back from france. he no longer took opposition ball. he was great at getting his own ball in lineouts but he nver consistently stole opposition throws. matfield was luggage when he came back from france. the only reason he stayed in the boks side for so long is because he was selecting himself as they'd overthrown pdv.