Ireland hosts the Springboks at Aviva Stadium, Landsdowne Road, Dublin at 19:30 SA Time.
What is in stock for the embattled Springboks, from the lands up North?
I am apprehensive about this game, like I have not been in a long time, including how I felt during the disasterous Tri-Nations of 2010.
The Springboks seem to be a mish-mash of frontliners and young untested talent, between absolute quality and some shameful selections and we could expect a stutter or three from players who are not used to playing next to each other, players playing out of position and lack of proper training time and bad coaching.
Hell, that sounds ominous and a recipy for failure, but we are standing behind and bargaining on traditional Springbok resiliance, grit and determination.
A good tight 5 combination, with players who we all would go to war with is supplemented by a rookie at openside flank, a great blindsider and an off-beat No 8.
In the backline the selections were strange if not shocking, with Ruan Pienaar suddenly slotting in next to Morné Steyn and thus shunning the form of Francois Hougaard, we have one half-injured Inside centre and at Outside Centre we have a fullback. On the right wing we have a left wing, on the left wing we have a superstar whose star seemed to be burnt out in the Tri-Nations.. and at fullback we have a right wing. Then we have a backline coach who’s had the worst possible run coaching a Super Rugby Team in history.
Ireland on the other hand, has beaten us the last three times, they have possibly the best center combination in world rugby in Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy, and a forwards pack coached by one of our own, Gert Smal.
The Irish forwards will be a hand full at all set pieces, scrums, lineouts and they have an abrasive backrow containing Jamie Heaslip, David Wallace and Stephen Ferris.
OK, prediction time… I hate doing this but I cannot logically see a Springbok win and hope to hell I’m wrong in predicting an Irish win…. Ireland by 15.
Recent results:
2009: Ireland won 15-10 at Croke Park, Dublin
2006: Ireland won 32-15 at Lansdowne Road
2004: Ireland won 17-12 at Lansdowne Road
2004: South Africa won 26-17 at Newlands
2004: South Africa won 31-17 at Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein
2000: South Africa won 28-18 at Lansdowne Road
1998: South Africa won 27-13 at Lansdowne Road
1998: South Africa won 33-0 at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
1998: South Africa won 37-13 at Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein
Teams:
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12 Gordon D’Arcy, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Mick O’Driscoll, 4 Donncha O’Callaghan, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Donncha Ryan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Keith Earls.
South Africa: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Zane Kirchner, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 François Hougaard, 21 Adi Jacobs, 22 Patrick Lambie.
Date: Saturday, 6 November 2010
Kick-off: 19.30 SA Time (GMT 17.30)
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road, Dublin
Expected weather: Scattered clouds with a 20 percent chance of rain, a high of 9°C and a northwester of 28 km/h. The temperature is set to drop to 2°C, -2°C with windchill.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Keith Brown (New Zealand)
TMO: Hugh Watkins (Wales)
Have I been too harsh?
How can I be so critical of the World Cup Winning Springboks.. the No 2 ranked rugby side in the world… it’s simple really, we have not seen Springbok rugby coaching bungling like this since Rudolph Streauli and Harry Viljoen.
Ek eet sommer my hoed op more as ons wen…. hoop ek het nodig om mooooooooooosa honger te wees!
@ grootblousmile:1 – Hope you eating your hat tomorrow….hehehe.
I too don’t feel confident for the game against Ireland. Boks have not had enough game time together either.
2@ Puma:
Tell me, do you still get lots of ERRORS opening pages here??
@ grootblousmile:3 – gbs, Yes all the time. Got it right now when I tried logging in. Then tried on Google Chrome and the same happened. Not sure what is up. Also takes a long time to refresh or after I have posted it takes a long time to go through too. Never used to be this slow. Not my pc as not having any problems on any other blog.
Some of my posts never go through and also I get bombed out too then have to log back in and sometimes can’t get back on. So there you have it gbs, maybe it is something to look at. Think a few are having the same problems as BB, Loosehead and 4man have had similar problems.
Hope the ref has a good game tomorrow. Only really good ref there is the assistant Keith Brown. The other two not that great.
4@ Puma:
Think we need to switch web hosts, to some company who does not CPU throttle us when we get busy… in addition I need to bloody finish with the new “Look and Feel” it will be much lighter on resources…
Time, bloody time, that is the freegin problem…. and of course you guys with parraffine PC’s … hehehe
15 punte? Jy speel seker! Hier kom ‘n moerse drag slae manne. Die 3 stooges is clueless en leef in ‘n droomwereld. Ek hoop so ek is verkeerd oor die uitslag.
Ek skaam my dood. Die eens trotse en kragtige Springbok word nou al afgeskryf teen spanne soos Ierland! Wie sou ooit so iets kon indink? Nie eers al speel die AB hul derdes teen Ierland sal ons hul afskryf nie.
En dis nie die pessimiste wat so negatief is nie. Ek is een van die mees positiefste mense wat jy kan kry. F@kkit, ek verkondig al die afgelope 9 jaar hoe WP die CB gaan Kaap toe bring! But you must know when to call it quits.
Sal maar wag tot die 2 messiaste Fourie di Preez en Brussouw terug is. Want die Bokke verloor mos volgens almal nie met daai 2 innie span nie.
@ grootblousmile:6 – parraffine pc’s…hehehe. That was funny boeta…….hahahaha.
Well you know more about this than me. So whatever it takes probably needs to get sorted. Not a problem with me only if we blogging during a game then get a bit frustrated if I keep getting bombed out, or my post don’t go through. When I have time not a problem if it not going at normal speed.
@ Rugbyprof:Rugbyprof, Hope we not going to get a hiding by 15 or more. 😯 That would really not be great. Also think we will get beat, but have a small good feeling we may just do it by 1 or 3 something like that. Hoping like crazy we win this one. That would lift the team for the next 3 tests.
Okay out of here now. Going to watch the rest of the crici.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOKKE
@ Rugbyprof:
Fourie du Preez is die beste rugby speler in die wereld, en Heinrich Brussow was laasjaer die beste fetcher in die wereld. Julle WP ondersteuners wen nie eens ‘n donderse kompetisie nie dan is die hele span vol van julle spelers. Markotter, en Craven sal trots wees daar word op hulle tradisie van net WP gemors kies voort gesit.
Die Iere weet uit eerste handse ondervinding dat Jean de Villiers useless is, en O’Driscoll gaan weer om hom hardloop dat hy nie weet watter kant O’Driscoll verby is nie. Donder hoe lank gaan hulle nog vir Gifappeltjie speel?
11@ vanStraaten:
Pasop, die woede sal jou opvreet broer… bedaar!
@ grootblousmile:
GBS, the site is worse up here in the N.H today, very slow and it keeps flashing back to the desktop when you do a page refresh or go from article to article.
Give your web hosts a blast…..you are good at that!! 😉
@ grootblousmile:
Oh, Good Evening by the way!
13@ Blue Bird:
I think the site is better today, less moaning received from all the AGED Folk….
@ grootblousmile:
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but honestly it is worse in the ‘Muddy Island’ today!! 🙁
Hope you did not put me in the ‘aged’ bracket!! 😀
The cricket is getting tense…. Pakistan needs 32 runs, 25 balls left, 3 wickets standing
Wicketttttttttttt
Morne Morkel strikes…. Razzaq outttttttt !
Fark, Greame Smith has just put down a catch…. it was high in the air….. eishhhhhhhh
Oi, 4 for Pakistan
22 runs needed from 16 balls, 2 wickets standing
Another 4, Dale Steyn is EXPENSIVE!
They run 3… it’s going down to the wire
Damn, a 4….
run a ball needed…. 10 balls left
9 runs, 9 balls
Eish i had a good day, with all this humidity and warm weather it was predictable, we are having the mother of all storms hitting us now, when will ESKOM fail, it is matter of minutes. Fark we need this rain, i did my African naked rain dance on the lawn.Nothing like this African thunder storms.
3 runs.. eishhhh, now they’re coasting
Damn, 3 overthrows…
Dot ball
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