A late penalty try saw the Springboks claim a dramatic 31-30 victory over Wales in a match dominated by the whistle of referee Steve Walsh in Nelspruit.
Wales came within minutes of recording their first-ever victory over the Springboks in South Africa, but it was not to be as the home side came back from the dead to sneak a victory.
After being blown off the park in the opening exchanges in Durban last week, Wales served the Springboks some of their own medicine in the first half-hour by scoring 17 unanswered points.
Both sides made a fairly sloppy start to the game, with crucial handling errors killing any meaningful momentum but Wales drew first blood when Dan Biggar sent his second kick at goal through the poles and Morne Steyn had a chance to respond but sent his kick wide.
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The visitors crossed the whitewash soon afterwards when big Jamie Roberts powered his way over from a set move after a line-out which put them 10-0 up.
Wales kept the pressure on as the Springboks started falling off more tackles in their own half and it was not long before they had crossed the tryline again with Alex Cuthbert dotting down and Biggar’s conversion gave them a healthy 17-0 lead.
However they were struck a double blow when first lock Luke Charteris and then Biggar were shown yellow cards for deliberately collapsing two different mauls and the Springboks were awarded a penalty try after a sustained period of pressure in the corner.
With Wales down to 13 men the Springboks sniffed blood and a flowing movement from their own half started by JP Pietersen saw them stretch the Welsh defence with Willie le Roux eventually putting Cornal Hendricks over for the try.
That reduced the gap to 17-14 at the break after what had been a half of two halves which saw Wales make all the early running before the Springboks were able to bring themselves back into the contest.
Wales struck first in the second half when hooker Ken Owens barged his way over for their third try to cap a period of pressure and give them a valuable 24-14 cushion.
The Boks got back within striking distance with a penalty from Steyn after spending some quality time in Welsh territory without much reward, but Biggar responded almost immediately with three more points of his own.
Things got even worse for the Springboks when Flip van der Merwe was shown a yellow card for playing Alun Wyn Jones in the air at the restart and the lead was out to two converted tries soon afterwards when Biggar slotted another penalty.
The Boks got back within striking distance when Le Roux ghosted through a gap to score, and the conversion from Steyn made it 30-24. That left them seven minutes to find the winning try and it came when Liam Williams barged Hendricks into touch in the corner without using his arms.
Scorers:
South Africa:
- Tries: Penalty Tries (2), Cornal Hendricks (1), Willie le Roux (1)
- Cons: Morné Steyn (4)
- Pen: Morné Steyn (1)
Wales:
- Tries: Jamie Roberts (1), Alex Cuthbert (1), Ken Owens (1)
- Cons: Dan Biggar (3)
- Pens: Dan Biggar (3)
Yellow card: Luke Charteris (Wales, 30 mins – Deliberate infringement), Dan Biggar (Wales 32 mins, Deliberate infringement), Flip van der Merwe (South Africa, 58 mins – Dangerous tackle)
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 JP Pietersen, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield (Captain), 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Lodewyk de Jager, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Wynand Olivier, 23 Lwazi Mvovo.
Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Josh Turnbull, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (Captain), 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Gethin Jenkins
Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Paul James, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 Jake Ball, 20 Dan Baker, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 James Hook, 23 Matthew Morgan.
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Romain Poite (France), Francesco Pastrana (Argentina)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)
This one was way to close for comfort. Springboks has taken some great strides forward under Heyneke Meyer. The ‘tackle ball’ or genral ground skills play has improved. The line-out is looking good with Matfield in the mix and the scrum is slowly but steadily improving. The discipline is good and the team is starting to run more with the ball. The backline play is generally better with more variation and they are using more dummy runners (something that was totally lacking a few seasons ago).
Area’s that still need work is starter moves of set piece. Morne Steyn (or who-ever is on No10) need to attack the defensive line with more speed. Generally there is not enough speed onto the ball and we tend to go either pods or lateral. Some scissors moves or doubling around moves between 10, 12 and 13 with speed onto flatball are required. We rely way to much on Willie le Roux to score tries. Have a look at the first Welsh try to see what I mean with speedy-interplay-starter-moves flat on the defensive line between 10, 12 and 13.
Lastly running rugby doesn’t mean you run everything to the wing. Get into the opponents red zone first; then get frontfoot ball before going wide. You need to pull the lateral running defenders in to create space out wide by either taking it up into channels 1, 2 and 3 with speed or by using deceptive starter moves (such as interplay between your inside backs).
The weakest part of our game -at the moment- is: 1) Lack of speed off the line when we carry the ball; 2) No interplay between inside backs; 3) Almost never flat enough on the defensive line when we run the ball down the backline (we need to alter the dummy runner backline play with some flat on the d-line stuff).
Who schedule these June international matches? Is it the IRB or SARU? The person who scheduled the Scotland test outside the test window should get a slap against his head.
@ leon:
Can only be the dynamic, honest and irrepresible SARU team of Hoskens, Alexander and Roux (inc?)
That bunch should form a law firm.
One is a lawyer, one needs a lawyer and one does absolutely FA.
@ Scrumdown@3:
He he, Ja, sound like them.
@ leon:
it goes much deeper, who scheduled the fixtures for super rugby? thus leaving south africa with only a two week window for test matches opposed to everyone elses three weeks.
its those damn aussies. 😀 its always the aussies.
@ MacroBok@5:
I would also have thought it was the aussies, but we all know they cannot make any decision on their own. The paper work alone would have taken 3 years to complete.
@ MacroBok:
@ leon:
Which Aussies are you guys talking about?
The ones who will stop NZ from getting the record number of test wins in Sydney and the same ones who will be winning the World Cup next year?
@ nortierd:
The one’s from the sport capital of the world
nortierd wrote:
The well balanced Aussies!
The ones with a chip on BOTH shoulders.
@ Scrumdown:
See post #7
@ leon:
@ Scrumdown:
Passop vir hulle, their players, since the start of SR this year have all been putting their hands up to impress Ewen, our players on the other hand seemed to do their utmost to show HM they don’t have what it takes, so much so, that most of us were relieved that he picks overseas based players just to give us hope.
Based just on our current bottom of the table SR sides I don’t have much hope for a Bok side picked just on SR form.
As opposed to the Aussies where even the Force is up there
12 @ nortierd:
Actually I agree.
The Ausmob have been playing a good brand of rugger this season, both at franchise and test level.
So nou ja, let’s see what transpires this weekend.
@ nortierd:
I aslo agree. I’m actually looking forward to the match between OZ and NZ.
leon wrote:
Should be one hell of a match…one side going for the world record, the other, going all out to stop them.
There has been some humdingers between these two sides in Sydney in the past, and this one should be right up there with the best.
@ nortierd:
Sydney might also see a super 15 final this year.
15 @ nortierd:
I don’t think the Ozzmob has what it takes to beat the All Blacks… yet… home or away
“The Sharks face allegations of maladministration from a report that will be presented to a senior employee on Monday.
The report, conducted by the brand’s auditing company KPMG, has been labeled as “potentially explosive”.
It is understood that the allegations revolve around unauthorised benefits being handed to at least one senior staff member, but could spill over into other areas of the company.
The report is known to contain allegations of non-disclosure of benefits to people in the organisation.” (rugby 365)
This is not going to go down well in certain quarters. Fortunately Gerald Majola is not even linked remotely with the Sharks, so there can be no accusations of affirmative redistribution of funds.
grootblousmile wrote:
Not so sure about that, the AllBlacks look shaky at times, the Aussies have a lot of confidence and are astute enough.
McKenzie is not taking nonsense and clearly hasn’t got any favorites, he’s picking purely on form and not reputations
18 @ Nama:
I heard those allegations refer to matters well before John Smit’s time, maybe as far back as Brian van Rooyen’s days…
Interesting shit, could’nt have happened to a nicer bunch!
@ Nama:
White is at least safe, his bonus depends purely on winning the SR.
Guess that means he will be safe for the rest of his life, seeing as that won’t be happening any time soon
😉
@ grootblousmile:
Two years ago they were even worse and they drew against the AB in Hong Kong to prevent them from becoming the holders of the record for the most consecutive wins.
I think this Aus team has it in them to do one better.
@ grootblousmile:
Yes, van Rooyen is covering for his wickets, it seems. Wants the report to be made public.
@ nortierd:
22 @ Nama:
Well, let’s hope they knock the All Blacks off the pedastal a bit… some (not all) of the All Black supporters are becomming a bit much to handle, I suppose that goes with the territory and the bragging rights.
GBS or anybody, can you shed some light on this for me please?
Frans Steyn was given special permission by SARU to go and play in Japan. Now, that would mean that he would not have been available for the RC in any case. Keep in mind though, that he was one of the 17/18 players who were given Bok contracts until after next year’s RWC to ensure a nucleus of experience Boks and also ensure that they stay in SA.
My question is this: was that contract annulled when he signed with his club in Japan? Forget what transpired afterwards (him not making himself available for the inbound tests).
@Nama
If that piece was on Rugby365 I can only imagine all those Guppy emos that frequent that joint flapping about and throwing denials left right and center.
They will probably spin it that the blame falls on Heyneke.
@ Nama:
@ grootblousmile:
“Yes, van Rooyen is covering for his wickets, it seems.”
…should be, “van Zyl”
Wonder aan wie ek nou gedink het.
@ Nama:25
There is also no truth in the rumor that Frans lost out on his contract to cater for the Boks as well ” everyone knows I don’t share food” he was quoted as saying.
So I guess he has no more contract with the Boks
@ nortierd:
Een ding is seker, jy lag jou in jou moer in vir daai manne se segoed. Lyk my die Sharkies staan daar heeltemal alleen teen die Stormers en Bulle. Cheetahs en Leeus bly maar uit die fights uit.
@ nortierd:
Sushi, KFC en saki-saki.
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