Tony Johnson

I’m not sure I can remember a game from South Africa in which it rained so heavily. We get a fair bit of that in New Zealand, but Pretoria? Is this global warming in action?

And Sydney turned on a bit of a shocker for the first Bledisloe Cup test, contributing to an error-ridden, penalty infested stalemate.

The Springboks will be happy to get out of a tricky game with a win, and they’re the only team to have one of those right now!

There’ve been a lot of changes in the Pumas setup, and they seem to have gone back to their traditional strengths, especially at set piece.

There was one magnificent defence of a Springbok lineout drive in particular where they just shunted them into touch, and they made a valiant effort to snatch a draw in the closing stages.

On the Springbok side there was much to admire in the skillful touches of Willie le Roux in the treacherous conditions… he’s the sort of player you just want to see involved as much as possible because he’s so skillful and creative, and even on a day like that he was able to have a strong presence in the highlights tape.

There are two ways of looking at the sequel in Salta this weekend.

One is that the Springboks have been given a bit of a hurry up, that the Pumas will not be able to catch them off guard as a consequence, have fired all their shots, and the Boks will get the job done in the shadow of the Andes.

The other is that the Pumas will have taken a shot of confidence from a close result in a place where it’s very hard to win, will feed off the boisterous home crowd, and really give it a crack. It could be quite tight again.

It’s a bit similar in the All Black Australia rematch. Does the draw in Sydney mean the All Blacks really have been caught, are really on the decline this time? Injuries to Jerome Kaino and Ma’a Nonu add to the doubts.

Or will they sort a few things out, draw from the energy and history of Eden Park and restore normal service?

The Wallabies and their fans may take some satisfaction from halting the All Blacks push for a record 18th win, but in the cold light of day they’ll know they really have let slip (literally) a great chance to win.

They had a lot in their favour… home advantage, a misfiring All Black team, and a heavy penalty count and two yellow cards issued by a busy Jaco Peyper.

They created periods of pressure, which forced the All Blacks to defend desperately, which they did, and into giving away repeat penalties, which they certainly did.

It has been a criticism of this successful All Black side that they are willing to concede penalties in tight situations to avoid conceding tries. It is considered by many to be cynical, but they are fully aware of the risks and are normally quite smart about how, when and where they do it.

They have been yellow carded nine times in the last 12 tests, mostly with justification, but once or twice quite without cause, so you can hardly say they have been treated leniently. They have still been good enough to win all but one of those games.

Jaco Peyper has copped flak for his performance. I’ve always thought he was a very good referee, but on Saturday night it was hard to escape the suspicion that he was being more vigilant on one team than the other.

He was severe on the All Blacks, but at the same time he cut the Wallabies a lot of slack at scrum time and ignored an obvious baulk at a lineout during a crucial period of the match.

The first yellow came from just the sort of situation Jonathan Kaplan was referring to recently when he talked about laws that are simply not applied. A Wallaby forward lying on the ground in the debris of a ruck, holding the ball with outstretched arms until his halfback arrives is not actually legal. Wyatt Crockett could see the ball, and felt entitled to come from the back of the ruck to challenge, only to be yellow carded for a “cynical” offence.

If Peyper had his finger on the trigger then the All Blacks have to take the blame for that. I’m just not too sure about the moments when he actually squeezed it.

No doubt many of you will see this as some sort of payback, the past catching up, karma on the footy field and about time the All Blacks got sorted out, but to have these continuing controversies is not doing the game a lot of good.

It’s understood a bunch of leading coaches want to have a forum with the IRB to try and clear things up, but I doubt that will do much good. Coaches are notorious for trying to work their way AROUND new laws, not WITHIN them.

Anyway, we are underway, and hopefully, like the Godfather movies, the sequels this weekend will be better than the originals.