The Wallabies have their ammunition for a drought-busting Newlands ambush thanks to derogatory newspaper comments that have made the Springboks wince.
Coach Ewen McKenzie is certain to plaster the back-page of the Cape Times over the Australian dressing room wall on Saturday night after their chief rugby writer claimed the Wallabies didn’t deserve to be on the same field as South Africa.
SMH
“Let’s be honest about this – there is no way this Wallaby team should be living with the Boks, let alone play on the same field,” wrote Ashfak Mohamed.
“That is why it was actually embarrassing to see Heyneke Meyer’s team roll over and die in their last match against Australia in Perth.”
Springboks captain Jean de Villiers, preparing for his last Test at his home ground, visibly winced when notified of the incendiary column at his press conference on Friday.
Worried about what sort of motivation that would give the Wallabies, who haven’t won in Cape Town since 1992, De Villiers stressed it would be a tough encounter.
“I wouldn’t agree with that (belief),” the veteran centre said. “I think Australia have shown they have come a long way under Ewen and beat us the last time they played us (24-23) so I don’t think there is any way we can say that.
“I always enjoy playing against Australia and it’s never easy.
“Both sides have come out and said they want to keep the ball in hand and that will make for a great game.”
Dry and sunny conditions are forecast and De Villiers also expects that Welsh referee Nigel Owens will ensure an open contest, which will suit both sides as they battle for the Mandela Plate and the world No 2 ranking.
The South African skipper spoke with class when he chose to ignore the media debate about the surprise selection of rising black flanker Oupa Mohoje ahead of 71-Test local hero Schalk Burger.
“What I care about is the individual, and the person, and Oupa is an unbelievable guy,” he said. “I think we’re way past those days where we judge each other by our colour.
“We play for each other and we care about each other.”
******************************************************************
Bok face-off: To kick or run?
26 September 2014
By Zelim Nel and Ashfak Mohamed in the Cape Times
Should the Boks run the Aussies off the park on Saturday at Newlands or should they grind out a win with the percentages and kicking game? Cape Times rugby writer Ashfak Mohamed and Cape Argus rugby writer Zelim Nel face off on the issue.
Zelim Nel – Kick
The Boks shouldn’t commit to a shootout against the Wallabies on Saturday but, without the sniper rifles required to fire up a lethal percentage game, they may have no choice.
With Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar out injured, Francois Hougaard will feed the scrum. The all-action Bulls halfback is an inspirational competitor who will challenge the Wallabies as a line-break threat, but who does not have the boot to keep the opposing back three on their toes.
Speaking of the Aussie back-three… like the Super Rugby champion Waratahs, the Wallabies have a bloke at fullback called Israel Folau. By rugby standards, he is a freak of nature.
Players capable of breaching well-organised defensive lines on their own are in extremely rare supply. Folau is joined by All Blacks gamebreaker Sonny Bill Williams on the exclusive short-list.
The rangy Aussie fullback arms the Wallabies with a get-out-of-jail free card. Any time their attack sputters, Folau can be trusted to get across the gain-line, putting the pressure back on the defending team.
The game-changing phenom allows Australia to laugh off the idea of kicking the ball.
The Boks don’t have that luxury. With Hougaard at No 9, they are also too short-staffed to mount an aerial assault, despite flyhalf Handré Pollard’s tactical expertise.
Consequently, coach Heyneke Meyer appears to have resigned himself to taking the Wallabies on at their own game.
Hougaard is capable and eager to exploit gaps around the fringes, while Oupa Mohoje will boost the pack with speed.
However, it remains to be seen whether the decision to load the bench with four grizzled veterans was the right one.
Meyer rightly believes that Bismarck du Plessis, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger and JP Pietersen have the experience to close out a tight contest, but experience is seldom the top priority for impact players.
With the possible exception of Pietersen, these veterans are past their physical prime. Bakkies turned 35 on Monday this week.
The whole concept of an impact player centres on the physical mismatch created when a fresh, nimble athlete comes off the bench in the final quarter to take advantage of flagging rivals. The Boks would have been better served by the experience of this savvy and abrasive group in the early exchanges. The 270-cap quartet also run the risk of becoming redundant reinforcements if the Wallabies take an early lead and the hosts are forced to chase the game.
In such an eventuality, Meyer will wish he’d started Burger ahead of Mohoje, Pietersen instead of Jan Serfontein or Cornal Hendricks, and that he’d kept Lood de Jager on the bench instead of Botha.
Ashfak Mohamed – Run
There’s no question that the Springboks should run the Wallabies off the field at Newlands on Saturday.
Let’s be honest about this – there is no way that this Wallaby team should be living with the Boks, let alone play on the same field. That is why it was actually embarrassing to see Heyneke Meyer’s team roll over and die in their last match against Australia in Perth.
The fact that it was such a tight game in Perth was due to the Boks not backing themselves enough on attack. They were way too cautious with their gameplan, despite the wet conditions caused by heavy downpours just before kickoff.
Poor old Willie le Roux, normally an excitement machine, had to be reduced to a kicking machine as he hoofed the ball back time and again, sometimes directly into touch, going against his natural instincts entirely and robbing the Boks of their main attacking weapon.
The Boks have just the right man to get their attack going in the shape of Francois Hougaard. The Bulls star made his name in the past as a dashing halfback capable of breaking open defences around the rucks with his incredible speed and stepping abilities, and it is vital that coach Meyer gives him the licence to play his natural game.
We all know that Hougaard is not the best tactical kicker around, but he needs to put those awful box-kicks away – preferably in a box – and have a full go at the Wallabies with ball-in-hand. He should use tactical kicks for variety and not as his chief weapon.
And then there is a heavyweight bench of outstanding operators, all capable of starting a Test, who will make a huge impact in the second half. Bakkies Botha and Schalk Burger might be over 30 and have been brought in from overseas clubs, but imagine the looks on the Wallaby players’ faces when they see these two Bok legends charge out on to Newlands pitch with about 30 minutes to go?
Bok coach Meyer has stated that it is easier to “grind” your way to victories away from home as it’s more difficult to get front-foot ball and attack.
But I say there’s no time for “bump and grind” – whether you are home or away. The Boks should rather “bump and run”, and they proved in Brisbane last year when they scored four terrific tries against Australia that show they can embrace a positive mindset away from home.
Now that they are back on home soil, there’s even further cause for making the ball do the work instead of bashing into defenders. Even the notoriously fickle Cape Town weather is set to play ball, but will the Boks?
If they are serious about being worthy challengers to the All Blacks, on Saturday at Newlands is the time to prove it.
@ Tassies:
Things got stale, he had one goal in mind, gone off bit by bit every season right off the track. There is/was no plan to think forward and evolve.
@ MacroBok: Never been a fan. Partly influenced by his disloyalty to my Prooovince. 👿
@ MacroBok: seems wierd for a professional sportsman. Does he have a day job as a distraction?
@ MacroBok:
Only HM and Ludeke who see him as an option at 13. He is not.
Move him back to the wing.
32 @ Tassies:
Well in a way I feel the same way lol
@ Nama:
Would you still play him at wing?
@ Tassies: Cheetah’s had scrumhalf yellow carded and Bull’s flyhalf at different times. During those periods neither team looked as if they were trying to take advantage of situation. That can’t be coaching, its poor captaincy, poor decision making and no confidence. I am beginning to believe the new generation players at these franchises are just plain stupid. Am worried about management too, “birds of a feather flock together”
34 @ Nama:
Or maybe you went to the Sangoma.
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
haha technically if you want to stick to pc terms you can just say dos.
My biggest fear today is that Newlands is wet and the Boks feels like they need to prove something and try to run everything. Will benefit the Ballas significantly.
John Mitchell summed up the Bulls perfectly on Boots & All this week.
He showed how they continuesly play dumb one off runner rugby.
His point about why he wouldn’t play Oupa or even Alberts is also food for thought. To him they are the same type of player as we already have in Vermeulen. We don’t have a loose forward that offloads and tries to put a team mate into space.
HM would have been better suited to pick Potgieter, he already has a couple of caps as well, was one of the stand out loose forwards in SR, albeit for the Tahs.
Oupa isn’t even the best loose forward at his franchise, let alone out of all the Saffas.
Ha. The sun he come out. Maybe, just maybe, we might have a dryish pitch by 5 kick-off. Early days yet. 🙂
23 @ Tassies:
The Bulls is easy to understand.
They sold their soul to get in a couple of youngsters (Serfontein and Pollard) who are suppose to become “future greats”. No one knows how far in the future that “future” is.
May their misery continue for many years to come.
@ nortierd:
All valid points, but Oupa is there because of transformation, I mean, why is that so difficult for experts to understand?
@ Best: I would look there. Management. Why? Compare what Johan Ackerman is doing for the Lions. He holds the reigns, picks the captain(s) and welds the team together as a unit. Wonderful to watch their progress. From nothing.
@ Nama:
It has been established that Jan and Pollard is not the problem? or did they also play last night?
@ Nama:
Don’t forget all the money they spent on that other “white elephant” (no pun intended) called Arno Botha.
@ Nama: Nama I respect your opinion. But I fail to see how Jan and Pollard are the symptom of what’s going pear-shaped at the Bulls. There must be something else IMO. They are not playing ‘clever’ rugby.
@ Tassies:
I like ackerman too, but for now the Lions are being praised for doing better than expected, they still struggled for tries during SR and people raved because they did not finish last. They have the same CC team as well while other provinces but PW have been significantly weakened.
Will be interesting to see what they do next years when there is actual expectations on them.
MacroBok wrote:
It’s difficult to understand because every interview we hear it is affirmed that he is there because of merit and how hard he worked off the field etc etc
So either HM and Jean are lying through their teeth every single day or he is all of a sudden a world beater.
@ nortierd:
How much money was spent on them? Has there been actual figures? does pollard get paid more than lambie? Jan more than jdv? Botha more than Schalk burger?
36 @ MacroBok:
He did do well at wing when he played for WP. Why not give him a go there for a few games and see what he can do. If he fails you know you at least tried something else. He is a stellar failure at 13. We can agree on that.
38 @ MacroBok:
No need for that.
He never was a 13. Neither was Taute…
Janneman will also prove not to be one.
@ MacroBok: that may be true. I really feel for the poor bugger. Big burden to bear even if he has an unbelievable game, scores two tries and makes 24 try-saving tackles. He still carries the burden of what everybody thinks. This is what ‘transformation’ does at this level. That said, I hope he does really well and gets what he deserves. Respect.
@ nortierd:
So HM should come to the conference and say.
“Well Oupa may not be the best guy, but we live in a unique country where we have to give more black players chance to play for the springboks”
Imagine the PR STORM before the test match. Come on get real.
I think they handled the situation well, we all know why Oupa is there and at least they want the guy to have some confidence.
@ MacroBok:
Figure I got while he was still at school was R800 000, so with a Bok cap I guess he is closer to 3 Mill p/a?
Like Luke, paid a shitload of money for not playing.
Tally up what they are probably paying for Arno, Jan and Pollard alone, and you can understand why they wanted to cut Jano’s salary in half and also lost so many other seniors
35 @ Nama:
If JJE fails at wing Ludeke will play him there for another 20 games.
Anyway the Bulls cant play a white player at wing, because thats where they select all their POC’s
Janneman wore 13 and played on the inside center in both test matches… or did you miss that?
@ Nama:
Wings at the Bulls are reserved for merit selections.
How can you think of putting JJ there?
🙄
@ MacroBok: I take your point. But look at the names on the teamsheet. Not exactly household names with their pics stuck all over aspiring youngsters’ walls are they? JA has done an extraordinarily good job with little resources(including financial) and they play with passion. They also entertain.
@ nortierd:
That is one figure, come on Nortie stop sucking facts from your thumb, probably is not a statistic, how much do players at other franchises get paid?
@ nortierd: I did not know that. And yes, that makes a whole lot of sense now. Big holes in their forward pack and to my mind, unrecognisable as the Bulls I recall.
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