Corne Krige
Naturally there has been plenty to discuss since New Zealand defeated the Springboks in Wellington and Australia grabbed their second win of the Championship over Los Pumas.
One man though has stolen the headlines since Aaron Cruden’s ill-advised late night drinking session caused him to miss the flight to Buenos Aires.
His two-match suspension is completely the right call in the eye of Krige, who described his actions as “bordering on criminal.”
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“When you play in any international team you realise the responsibility of being on time, the respect that shows to other players by not holding the team up for example,” said Krige.
“For him to go out drinking and miss the flight to Argentina seems to be totally out of character for him and he’ll be devastated by that mistake.
“His absence will weaken New Zealand slightly. It’s one of those mistakes a player only makes once. Steve Hansen has absolutely done the right thing.
“Going out to have a couple of drinks to alleviate the pressure of playing for your country is not a problem, but it’s bordering on criminal to do what Aaron Cruden did. He’s paying an expensive price.”
The reality is however that it won’t even effect New Zealand in Argentina. Beauden Barrett will come in at fly-half and a simple win will be enough to earn New Zealand their third straight Rugby Championship title. Winning it a round early would underline their dominance.
“The All Blacks have played consistently well for an exceedingly long period of time. The record at home especially speaks for itself,” added Krige.
“If they do win the Championship early in Argentina, it’s a testament to how good they are.
“What’ll be interesting is to see if they can keep up this pace over the next 12 months.”
The All Blacks’ tense win over South Africa has set them up for glory in La Plata, but they were forced to dig deep in Wellington.
Even though the Springboks certainly produced their best performance in this year’s tournament, they still fell short in Wellington.
“That’s the best they’ve played and they still weren’t good enough to beat New Zealand. South Africa had all the chances to win that game and some bad decision on their side cost them the game,” underlined Krige.
“There was a marked difference in both the line-out and scrum when Bismarck du Plessis came on and I don’t really understand the reason for that. Bismarck has always been a very powerful guy and strong scrummager, but suddenly the Boks were under pressure in the scrums and lost three line-outs in a row.
“When the pressure should have been on New Zealand, the Boks gave the ball away three or four times.
“South Africa did score a great try, but losing line-out ball and scrums limited their chances. It’s hard to win without the territory that comes from that, you can’t always run from your own half.”
Heyneke Meyer has had a tricky selection to make with the absence of Francois Louw in the six jersey, while Krige also picked out the vastly different performances of Handré Pollard and Willie le Roux.
“It would put massive pressure on Heyneke if Tebo Mohoje was leapfrogged again. Schalk Burger can come off the bench and cover all three positions and it’ll be good to see him back in Test rugby,” said the former Bok flank.
“The worry was could Pollard make the jump to Test rugby and I think he’s answered those doubts. Now he has to grow into the role and become a match-winner.
“Over the last 15 or so Test matches South Africa’s main attacking option has been Willie le Roux, and he had his worst game in a Springbok jersey. Perhaps if he’d been on form they would have taken more chances.”
Looking ahead to the final round at Ellis Park, Krige also knows that a result against the All Blacks would be massive going into next year’s Rugby World Cup.
“What’s important for South Africa is if they can win against New Zealand at Ellis Park, even with the Championship lost, it will give them a lot of confidence to take into next year.”
First though are Australia in Cape Town, playing at a venue where they haven’t tasted success now for 22 years.
Ewen McKenzie’s rag-tag group last year where in dire straits as he tried to instil his philosophy into the side – something that is clearly coming into effect.
The Wallabies have managed to both not entirely convince and yet only lose once so far, making them difficult to rate.
A combination of injuries and sub-bar physicality in the eyes Krige though may lead to their unravelling, even with the return of Will Genia.
“I can’t see the Wallabies breaking that run at Newlands,” stated Krige.
“Genia is a game-changing player but it even takes the world’s best players a couple of games to come back into form.
“In a way I have been a little bit disappointed with Australia. After their players had a great Super Rugby they haven’t quite translated that into this tournament.
“At the same time criticising them might be a little harsh given their results, only losing once so far.
“They just haven’t really shown me anything though that would make me really scared. South Africa should destroy their forward pack given Australia’s injuries at hooker – it’s that lack of physicality that might prevent them from winning anything in the near future.”
Finally turning to Argentina, progress has undoubtedly been made under Daniel Hourcade but that first win still eludes them.
Krige believes the pieces are in place for it to happen, although not against New Zealand, but their three losing bonus point illustrate the closing of the gap.
“Argentina were written off because of their restructuring and the integration of those younger players into the side, but they’ve run South Africa close twice and were well in the game against New Zealand,” added Krige.
“At some point it’ll happen, they just need the belief that they can get that win.
“They have improved though. Their set-piece is better, the defence has improved, they’ve become difficult to play against because they’re unorthodox. They’re definitely building.”