Let us not be guilty of suggesting all is suddenly hunky-dory again in Springbok rugby: it isn’t. But there are also times when the pessimists must be banished, humiliated, to the back seats for a while and a special weekend – “finish and klaar!” — be savoured by those who doggedly keep the faith.
Article from Sport24
Considering the swirling cloud of negativity after the Scotland debacle only seven days earlier, and the general mood of public disenchantment with both the touring Bok team and their head coach of late, beating England by an emphatic 10 points at Twickenham on Saturday was a riposte of some force.
Personally, I am wallowing unashamedly in a wee measure of self-satisfaction after daring to suggest from the British Isles in midweek that Victor Matfield’s team had no reason to feel cowed by the England challenge and that, pound for pound, a win or at least rousing visiting performance was wholly feasible.
Well, this Bok team produced both. And perhaps now those who scornfully thought I was smoking my 3G card or even the entire laptop may at least put their noses to the hot humble pie even if they are not prepared to brave a bite.
I suggested it was frighteningly close to disloyal to wish the Boks a hiding against such long-time bitter rivals simply because of a clearly well-rooted wish to see Peter de Villiers given the heave-ho.
Surely support for your team should always come first? Surely you appreciate a bit more now that any distaste you may have for the coach and his co-strategists is best channelled toward those who employ them, and not the men who actually go out to defend the country’s honour in the green and gold?
I do not harbour affection for De Villiers: I still believe he is skating on thin ice after a rocky old year, and that there are better brains capable of plotting the Boks’ World Cup defence, even if upheaval at this point would contain some obvious elements of disadvantage.
But in the (unlikely now, perhaps) event that the coach does see the door, he would leave with the minor satisfaction, I think, that he still had “the dressing room”, as they say.
For if there was significant anti-Div rebelliousness in the camp itself, it certainly didn’t surface on Saturday as Matfield and company saved their most full-blooded and polished performance of the Grand Slam tour for last.
Three wins from four on an end-of-year slog with a greatly weakened squad: that’s not nirvana, but it’s also not a ruinous state of affairs and South Africa have had coaches who have kept their tracksuits after worse tour returns.
But let’s abandon the bigger picture now, because sideshows deserve suspension – even if short-lived — when a terrific win like this is achieved, don’t you think?
Yes, this wasn’t too far off a Bok hall-of-famer, when you consider how they were being written off after the Murrayfield mud-bath and England, simultaneously, were being hyped – outrageously, I’d strongly suspected – on the grounds of the 35-18 whipping of the Wallabies at the very same venue.
Martin Johnson’s charges had won some plaudits a little earlier in the month, too, when they at least gave the All Blacks some “problems” along the way in succumbing 26-16.
Well, here the Boks prevailed by the same margin, yet arguably with greater comfort: remember that England’s lone try was a late, flattering intercept and that both Steyns, Morne and Francois, had thumped the uprights with much earlier penalty attempts within the space of seven minutes.
Both even-handed English television commentators, Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes (what a relief not to have had that barking anti-Saffer Brian Moore in the booth) were unreserved in their praise for the whip hand South Africa held, virtually across the park.
“South Africa look the more experienced and better team,” Harrison had simply but aptly noted as the teams trudged off at half-time, with England somehow level-pegging then at 6-6.
And afterwards former Test flyhalf Barnes, while also suggesting the Boks suddenly didn’t look so dead in the water as a World Cup 2011 factor after all, observed: “This was their shot at redemption (after Scotland) and boy, have they fired the bullets.”
He gave player-of-the-match to Bismarck du Plessis, the hooker who threw into the lineout beautifully after his bad day at the office in Edinburgh and rampaged about the pitch like a man possessed in the general exchanges.
Mind you, there were many colleagues like him in muscular commitment and positive energy.
One was Pierre Spies, the big No 8 who has rather pole-axed some detractors in recent weeks, this one included.
Yes, he did bungle one routine, no-pressure kick-off collection, but otherwise the Bulls man was dynamite at Twickers.
On one sublime occasion he not only stopped a rumbling English attacker near the Bok line, he drove him several yards backwards – it is moments like that that demoralise opponents and gee-up allies.
Beast Mtawarira, meanwhile, tackled and made metres, tackled and made metres … you get the picture of the loosehead prop’s levels of industry. Oh, and before we forget, he was also part of a jubilantly successful effort to lower the colours of a supposedly immovable English scrum!
All the while, veteran blindside flank Juan Smith took alertness to new levels, making rangy strides at times to smash unsuspecting English raiders and counter-raiders into touch – the Bok old-firm locks weren’t too shabby in that respect, either.
Where they had come up short against the Scots for precision, the tactical kicking and body language of Ruan Pienaar and Morne Steyn was light years better here, while Jean de Villiers simply oozed zeal and tenacity and a desire to stay on the front foot.
The substitutions, so often an area of wrath by Bok monitors, were like clockwork this time: the right men came off with understandably wearying legs during the second half, and bench performers like Willem Alberts, CJ van der Linde (save for that ill-fated but ultimately not too expensive “prop’s pass”) and Adi Jacobs busied themselves with commendable immediacy.
“We played the way we know we can,” a bursting-with-pride Matfield said pitch-side afterwards, “direct … and then we took it wide.”
Yeah, the various, still complex elements of controversy and disenchantment in Bok rugby can wait a few days.
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
gbs @ 30
hmmmm, ek moes eers jou comment vertaal
…
“Hoekom is dit dat die All Blacks bereik ‘n Grand Slam so maklik nie, maar ons bekommerd oor die Bokke in elke wedstryd in die Noorde …. waar ons weet ons sal vervolg 1 of 2 wedstryde, en nie bereik ‘n Grand Slam?
Onder elke afrigter wat ons gehad het …
Is ons gedoem om te bly onder die All Blacks vir ewig en ‘n dag … of moet ons daarna strewe om beter, beter as die All Blacks … beter as enigiets wat enige iemand gooi by ons?
Ek sê ons moet streef daarna om nr 1 konsekwent en ek sê dat ons daar kon kry!”
..
so na die vertaling kan ek trots sê … ek verstaan heeltemal
en
ek stem saam!! 😀
@ grootblousmile:
The reaction to this win is very predictable and shows just how short sighted and unambitious many fans are, and that is why we find SA rugby battling, because fans will suck up whatever SA rugby throw at them by thinking that afer a win we are brilliant and after a loss we are terrible.
SA rugby know that any win will shut up the fans.
We simply accept mediocrity.
I predicted a win last week.
I also said that we are too short sighted and need to look deeper into our problems.
Bloggers here are now going on about negative fans and acting like everything is perfect with the Boks.
We get the team and coaching that we deserve.
I said it last week that Ireland and Wales were terrible and England are nowhere near as good as they think they are.
Of course we have forward power and committment, but we need more than that.
Anybody who saw the pace, running, handling skills and decision making of NZ and Aussie this week end would realize that we are not putting together rugby of that standard.
However in our sheer stupidity some of us think everything is allright now with the way we play.
It’s no different to England thinking they are great exponents of the modern game after one win against Aussie!!
32@ tight head:
The Bokke are playing against 9 All Blacks PLUS one uncapped Kiwi (Colin Bourke), 7 Wallabies, 2 Italians, 2 Welshmen and 1 South African (Anton van Zyl) this weakend, with a mish-mash 3rd grade Bokke 2nd or 3rd team side.
…and all the bloody inform attacking backs are there to run us ragged….
How realistic is a win for us this weekend??
We should have a good front row, with Matfield gone an average No 5 lock… and will the correct loosies be selected?
Then we have possibly one regular backline starter left in the Bokke backline, and a situation where most of these guys have hardly played next to one another, if at all.
So, we should front up well in the forwards… and that’s about it!
@ grootblousmile:
Does this game really matter? These guys are not capped or am i wrong?
@ grootblousmile:
So a kyk weer of last week end!!
@ tight head:
Tight Head i think you know how i feel. But anyway i think we are not that far off from beating the All Blacks. We have the right players there or there about. We lose games but look at the stats we have enough ball, enough turnovers. If you can believe the stats of the IRB, Scrum, SA Rugby Referees …. we just execute bad.
Defense coach and a new innovative back line coach and there we go. I dont need to bring up the scores you know them , so where is there something that cant be fixed.
I am glad that Peter stayed mostly with the team and i believe the rewards for that will come in the big crunch minutes.
Where do you think is the damage unrepairable?
Bok ‘primal mode’ praised
9 minutes ago
Even Brian Moore, the former England and Lions hooker, found it impossible not to dish out some grudging laurels to the Springboks.
Heading of a article just posted
34@ superBul:
EVERY GAME, where the Green & Gold is donned… matters!
EVERY single one!
specialist rugby scribe Robert Kitson of The Guardian wrote: “South Africa turned in a strong-arm display which drove several ox-carts across the tender green shoots of English recovery.
“(They) demonstrated how difficult it can be to play against a team whose forwards are pumped up and who have the nous to vary the game when required.”
In the same organ, Paul Hayward said Martin Johnson’s men “went to work in white and limped home black and blue”.
“The autumn’s promising resurgence was smashed by a Springbok fist. South Africa were in primal mode. Not dirty, just merciless, man on man.”
Steven Howard in the mass-circulation Sun tabloid said the Boks had once again looked what they are – World Cup champions.
“They were superior in every department and nowhere more so than at the lineout where the outstanding Victor Matfield was untouchable.
“When it came to the contact areas, England were beaten up.”
@ grootblousmile:
38
Ja GBS ek voel ook in beginsel so maar kyk wie is oor daar om van te kies. Daar is seker nou al 15 van SA se bestes tuis weens beserings ens.
@ superBul:
Super I do not believe that we are unrepairable.
I believe that we should be challenging the All Blacks and Aussies with skills and rugby intelligence that is better than theirs.
Of course we have the players.
However we are running out of time and have been going backwards for too long.
The key areas where we have regressed are the following:
Conditioning
Pace
Ball handling skills
Tactics at the breakdown/tackle
Decision making
Now I believe that if we get a coach who recognizes the above and can work very hard at these areas then we can improve.
@ tight head:
Dont know if it was here or a previous chat site but we discussed this aspects before in length.
Ball handling skills
Tactics at the breakdown/tackle
Decision making
was said comes from schooldays and basic training. Just look at the vision the handling the young Aussies had a few years back, OK they were reckless , but lately they show much more maturity. And the results is spectacular. Some of them started at 17 playing S14 and 18 in tests.
We have a great youngster in Jantjies, but will we supporters be so lenient with him as the Aussies where with O’conner , Beal etc. No ways the guy will have to step into the team firing on all cylinders.
The ABs mature them a lot longer but that type of players are picked by them.
NB>
Mils Muliaina must be the best AB 15 in a decade, hell i enjoy his game.
@ superBul:
Yes Super the whole system from school upwards needs to work towards the skills required at Bok level.
However that is another debate that has gone around and around forever!!
I also love to watch Mills, who I think is right up there with their other great full back in Christian Cullen!!
The greatest rugby entertainment right now is watching those All Blacks backs run with the ball and off load like Sonny Bill!!
moenie ‘n fout maak nie, ek is baie bly die bokke het gewen.
Net so bly soos ek is as ons vir tonga wen. Nie dieslfde as jy die ab’s beat nie.
So sorry noem my maar ‘n suurgat. Ek is trots op die boktradisies en voel baie jammer dat ons tot op hierdie vlak gedwaal het…
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