Morne Steyn puts the boot in for South Africa.
So South Africa eventually cut loose and put the much vaunted New Zealand to the sword, reigniting their World Cup hopes in the process!
Well, not quite. South Africa actually played a fairly basic game against the New Zealand dirt trackers with the simple strategy of defending solidly and taking the points when on offer. It also helped that Morne Steyn was back to his best slotting over five penalties and an outrageous drop goal to give their ferocious defence an attacking edge.
As with most of the games this month the teams were playing under different agendas. New Zealand were giving their nearly men a final flourish before finishing of their build up next weekend against Australia and South Africa were in dire need of a win having experimented, fairly unsuccessfully, throughout the Tri Nations.
While I admit I only had half an eye on this game as I waited for the Ireland France match to kick off I must say that I really admired the South African’s honest brutality up front. Not sneaky, off the ball stuff, but good old-fashioned man on man action, if that doesn’t sound to erotic for some of our readers! Comprehensively outplayed for much of the first half it was real back to the wall stuff with a bruised and bloodied Heinrich Brussow outstanding.
Their simple strategy is one that I think Ireland should adopt, really should have adopted a few years back. Get the basics right and trust in your defence to force mistakes. Live of the scraps and punch up the middle through Ferris, Heaslip and O’Brien. Let O’Gara, or Sexton, take the points on offer and trust that the likes of Bowe, Kearney, O’Driscoll and Trimble can spot the chances!
It’ll take a big improvement from the front five but they have five games to get it sorted before they face South Africa in the Quarter Finals. Instead of it being a match to be feared it should be one to relish as while the Boks definitely have the substantial advantage up front I’d say that Ireland have the potential for a bigger advantage in the backs!
Ulster’s John Afoa came through the game unscathed playing 70 minutes. Subbed after 50 mins for Frank but he returned to replaced Woodcock for the remainder of the game on 60 mins.
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One Response to “Tri Nations: South Africa 18 New Zealand 5”
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Was a good match with the Bokkes really going for it up front, As you have said John, Brussow was outstanding closely followed by Bismarck du Plessis who continually stripped the ball at the breakdown, and was non too happy when he was subbed. Habana although he didnt get much of a chance to run at the AB’s, his defensive work was outstanding. JP Pietersen looked his usual dodgy self under the high ball, however both Jacques Fourie & Jan de Villiers will punish any lapses in the defence as they looked hungry and eager to run.
I thought that George ‘Clampett’ Clancy bottled it a bit and he surely should have yellow carded Sam Whitelock for his deliberate infringement when the Boks were 1 metre from the AB line.
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