“Pienaar gets my man of the match award. His kicking game was outstanding and he adapted well to the conditions,” analyst Skinstad told pay channel SuperSport after South Africa ended a run of losses in Dublin.
Another former Springbok, right wing Ashwin Willemse, backed Skinstad and added that the entire South Africa pack, led by stand-in skipper Victor Matfield, was a close second behind Pienaar.
There was quite a reaction on this article; some supporters stating that Pienaar was slow and that Skinstad obviously watched a different game.
This prompt me to watch a replay of the match and after watching the first 15 minutes of the match I’ll have to agree with Skinstad. Pienaar did enough in the first 15 minutes of this test for his performance to be rated top class.
He was definitely not slow behind the scrums, rucks or lineouts. His service and ball clearing was fast, precise and straight. He varied his game constantly and did take the ball up and essentially was the man that kept us attacking the gain line. His service was so fast and accurate that we saw Morné playing a lot flatter than usual –definitely flatter than he played against NZ and Australia in the tri-nations. This allowed us to create play around Jean de Villiers and we were able to attack the gain line in channels 2 and 3 -making contact on the gain line- a lot better than was the case in the tri-nations.
This was something that we just absolutely could not get right during the tri-nations. Also we didn’t get tackled way behind the gain line as was the case in the tri-nations. This was a crucial factor in the match as this kept us on the gain line and moving forward when we went into contact, essentially allowing us to keep asking questions from the defenders in channels 2 and 3 in contrast to getting tackled 5 to 7 meters behind the pack; as was the case in the tri-nations.
Pienaar then added another dimension with his quick decision making and variation around the fringes of the rucks and scrums utilizing his big men like Beast, Spies and Jannie du Plessis with variation. It is no co-incidence that both Spies and Beast played their best test matches this year with Ruan on No9.
Ruan was excellent he got us attacking the gain line with quick decision making and variation and his quick and accurate clearing of the ball. Ruan rarely got tackled behind the rucks, scrums or lineouts and he always looked like he had lots of time against excellent and quick rushing defence around the fringes. When Lambie came on he tried his little breaks and was flattened in no uncertain way. I see people arguing that Hougaard should have been brought on. I don’t believe Hougaard would have made any impact what-so-ever in this match with the tight Irish defence.
Considering the wet conditions and the fact that the ball was -more often than not- played out of the air to Ruan in the lineouts it is astonishing that Raun did not knock one ball in the entire match. He also did a lot on cover defence and in the first 15 minutes he made two crucial tackles preventing what looked like possible tries for the Irish.
Lastly, Ruan took a lot of pressure of Morné Steyn with his tactical kicking, straight and accurate passing, his quick decision making and his ability do something creative with poor ball. Never once did he put his backline under pressure with a poor pass or by passing a “backfoot” ball to his flyhalf.
Some argue that he played well because the pack dominated and I tend to disagree with that and think it was to some extend the other way around. Our ability to keep moving forward at the breakdowns was a result of Ruan’s play making. If you go and watch the replay you’ll notice that the breakdowns was a 50/50 situation with our big men like Spies, Bismarck, Jannie du Plessis getting driven back in the tackles more often than not. Ruan kept us moving forward by putting the ball receivers into space with clever passing, running lines, stepping and inside passes. We kept moving forward around the finges because we were attacking space due to Pienaars play making and not just smashing into opponents.
This was the best performance by a South African scrumhalf in a test, this year, by far.
Spot on Mclook
Sheez mcLook are you Ruans priase singer(imbongi)? Although i agree he played his best game at 9 for the Boks ever. Dan Retief agrees, “Operating on this platform Ruan Pienaar rewarded the faith the coaches had shown in him and gave the best possible retort to those of us who had queried his selection. He was composed, accurate and always a step ahead and to my mind gave one of his best performances in the green and gold”
According to Dan
It’s been a long time since a Springbok pack was this dominant. Jannie and Bismarck du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira, raising a big question about why he was ignored during the Tri-Nations, gave the best scrummaging performance since the first half of the first test against the British Lions in 2009; Victor Matfield was back to being the world’s finest lineout forward and the abrasive running of Juan Smith, the Beast, Pierre Spies, Bakkies Botha and the rest wore down an Irish team who started out determined to smash the Boks on the gainline.
My question is how can you rate this better than the brilliant performances of Francious Hougaart against the All Blacks and Australia, both team who are higher ranked than Ireland.
Ok this is not worth arguing about but this is running away with a decent performance of a normal scrumhalf doing his duty.
superBul wrote:
Considering the playing conditions and the fact that we played with 13 non regulars and that we won this was an outstanding performance. Hougaard is a good player his main strengths his speed of the mark and his defence. However, I have not yet seen Hougaard vary his game and keeping his forwards on the front foot like Pienaar did in this test. Hougaard passing and kicking game is also not on the same level as Pienaar’s. Go to youTube and go watch the highligt of the soweto test and notice Hougaard’s pop pass and his predictability he either pop pass or try and break; both those two strategies would have been disasterous against the Irish.
@ superBul:
I think Hougaard is a great player. Scary great. but I sense a problem in that, as McLook says, e doesn’t vary his game too much. He has a few BIG guns in his arsenal, but once teams like NZ, Aus and maybe Eng or Fr. figure out how to work around it, he will go real silent real soon.
Pienaar is just one of those guys that has the potential to be like Pieter Russouw or Hannibal. Always have something up thier sleeves. Anyway, now we know what Ruan can do once he has been playing in one position for a while.
Terloops, ek het uiteindelik ‘n hughlights packag gekry van Saterdag se game.
ek wil net by almal, veral die bul-ondersteuners, hoor, watse stront is hierdie dat Aplon ons amper die game gekos het met 2 groot foute?
Met die eerste drie het hy ‘n lyn gehardloop wat hy die man en die bal sou kruis. Die Ier het op die heel laaste sekonde ‘n slim inside step gegee.
As jy moet cross defend, en jy is alleen, en die bal hop skeef, en daar is morge spasie, wat kan enige iemand doen?
Met die tweede drie het Habana gegaan vir ‘n intercept. Aplon het die man dopgehou, maar toe Habana gegaan het vir die intercept het hy die bal in ‘n rigting geklap wat gunstig was vir die Ier. Weereens was hy alleen met baie spasie, weereens het die bal verkeerd gehop vir hom.
Die greasy veld het sekerlik ook nie sy saak gehelp nie. Hoe back-sidestep jy iemand op ‘n nat veld sonder om jou enkel te breek?
Terloops, kort voor die 2de drie was ons op hulle lyn, en dit was k*k verdediging (nadat Jean af is) wat ons op die agtervoet gesit het en die Ierre ‘n kans gegun het om 80 meter te hol. In die geval was Lambie en Kichner veral te blaam vir hieper-swak kaalvoet rugby klas verdediging!
En snaaks hoe niemand gese het “Wow Aplon, hoe de hel hy met sy volle 75 kg aan die bal vasgehou het terwyl 4 Ierre in sy rug in duik, weet ngter alleen.” Daai was, terlooops, die einste bal wat ons behou het en uitgeskop het om die game te wen.
Maar ja, dis hartseer hoe porvinsiolisme mense se opinies beinvloed. Ek kan niks se oor die res van die game nie, maar dit is in elk geval die gevalle wat die meeste bespreek was.
hahaha, en nog hartseerder is al die typo’s wat ek maak.
@ Greenpoint-Gunner:
Wat se hulle “pot calls the kettle black” of so iets. Daai brille wat jy ophet , maak hulle soms net skoon ou. 😆
daardie eerste beskrywing van die drie, kan jy NIKS fout sien?
Ek stem saam met Mclook, Pienaar het n’ goeie game gehad, maar ek dink nie jy kan daarna in isolasie kyk nie, as die voorspelers op die agtervoet was saterdag sou hy gek@k het.
Die groot verskil was Pienaar het geen foute gemaak nie, as Francois Hougaard wat nog experience kort in daardie kondisies gespeel het sou dit vir hom baie moeilik gewwes het.
Hy is nog prone om k@k skoppies te maak elke nou en dan.
Hopelik sal ons agterlyn n’ bietjie beter daaraan toe wees hierdie Saterdag, en kan ons in beter kondisies bietjie hardloop.
Wat ek gehou het van Saterdag is dat ons die regte tipe rugby gespeel het volgens ons sterktes. Al wat nou daarby nodig is, is n’ bietjie variasie in die aanval, goeie hardloop lyne deur die agter sepelrs an siedaar, het ons die game plan om op te bou en 75% van ons toetse te wen.
Some pretty big statements are made, best display by a Bok 9 this year, I was at Loftus when we had our only victory this year in the Tri Nations and Francois Hougaard played like 3 men, he was absolutely phenomenal, I agree that he is a big loss to the Sharks but he is mentally soft and a bit of a pri-madonna so I think the time in Ireland will serve him well.
Can’t agree with this Article… not even going to expand on it.
With a dominant pack like we had on Saturday, I expect better.
… one could award Man Of The Match to any of 7 or 8 forwards on Bokke side…
Beast, Bissie, Victor, Juan, Spies… all monsterous on the day and way better than Ruan.
Don’t get me wrong, Ruan was OK… but in the backline alone Jean de Villiers deserves more credit than Ruan as well, for organising the structures and defence…
@ superBul:
Super, ek kan defnitief die foute sien. Maar nie net deur Aplon nie, deur de hele verdediging. Teen die tyd wat die bal en speler by hom gekom het het die Ierre verseker reeds die oorhand en momentum gehad. Ja, as hy ‘n uitstaande verdediger was, soos JP of Dewet Barry, dan sou hy dalk die man kon afsny.
Al wat ek se is, om een ou vir daai twee driee te blammeer, of om meeste van die blaam op hom te pak, is bietjie eenoogig. IMO.
Beide daardie driee kan geblameer word op SA wat gaan slaap het, die intensiteit het afgeneeem, en hulle het gedink die wedstryd is gewen.
Dit help nie om rugby te speel vir 65 minute nie.
Daardie selde probleem het hom voorgedoen in die Drie nasies.
Kyk na die wedstryd in JHB teen die All Blacks, onse loop gemaklik voor, Morne Steyn se fokus faal, hy skop een skop oor die doodlyn, en nog een direk uit, wat gebeur, ons sit met die All Blacks in ons genied vir 15 minute.
Dieselfde gebeur teen australia in hulle toets, in setede daarvan om die f@kken bal uit te skop diep in hulle gebied, besluit ons om in ons gebied bal retensie toe te pas, en neuk dit op deur grond toe te gaan. Penalty pale toe en ons verloor.
Thanks for doing the analysis, for what its worth this was my opinion on Ruan after the game, I though he had a good game and in fact if anything your analysis takes away the idea that I had that the one thing he could of improved on was varying his play a bit. “he always looked like he had lots of time” this sums him up, class players seem to have that extra bit of time, you see it in cricket too.
grootblousmile wrote:
Go watch the first 15 minutes again. Our pack was dominating in the scrum and lineout but the gain line battle was a totally different story. We got smached back time and again and if it wasn’t for Ruan with his ability to put players in space on the gain line I reckon we would have lost this one. I’ve just watched a replay of the Soweto test in which Hougaard was No9. He had a good game and certainly have the X-factor but not once did I see him put a player in space from the base of the ruck with clever passing. He was not even near Ruan in terms of variation and mixing it up.
I agree the pack was brilliant against the Irish; best performance by a springbok pack in years but our precision, structure, explosiveness and general organisation at the breakdowns is the weakest part of our game and we did not dominate in that area.
Considering that; how important that is; how easily we tend to lose the ball when going into contact; the wet conditions (which makes it even harder to control the ball in contact) and it puts a totally different perspective on the way Ruan’s playmaking made us competitive in this most important part of the game. It was the cherry on the cake. Dominance in scrum and lineout is not enough anymore, in my mind, to win test matches and I was impressed how Ruan’s made us effective on the gain line.
biltongbek wrote:
I remember those incidents. Was extremely frustrating at the time and again this saturday when Morné starts making those basic errors.
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