Now that the excitement of the crazy last 10 minutes at Newlands has subsided, maybe it’s time for a reality check for the Springboks and their supporters – regardless of what happens at Ellis Park this coming week, the All Blacks remain top of the southern hemisphere pile and there is still a lot of work to be done before their position will be properly challenged.
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Although a win over the old enemy in Johannesburg will mean that effectively the difference between first and second in this year’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship for the Boks was George Clancy’s debatable decision to yellow card Bryan Habana in Perth, there are still a lot of things the All Blacks just do better.
One of those is the way they deal with Argentina. After the first round game in Napier everyone agreed that the Pumas punched above their weight. But the All Blacks still managed to grab a four try bonus point. The Pretoria game between the Boks and the Pumas was admittedly played in unseasonal monsoon conditions, but it also rained in Napier.
On the three occasions the Boks have visited Argentina in the Rugby Championship era, they have been fortunate to escape with log points and have been subjected to harrowing ordeals. In 2012 the match was drawn in Mendoza, last year they won it late, and this year they won in the final minutes too. In none of those games did the Boks pick up a four try bonus point. The All Blacks have yet to go Argentina and not clinch a four try win.
Whereas the 20 points scored in the final minutes in Cape Town will doubtless obscure many memories of what went before and it was undeniably a rousing, deserved and much needed win, the All Black performance in La Plata later that night was arguably still better than the one produced by the Boks. The Kiwis were playing on the other side of the world and never looked like being challenged, with the win that clinches them the Championship for the third successive year being achieved with some ease, as was the bonus point.
Now the All Blacks have to travel across the Atlantic Ocean, and back across several time zones, before arriving in Johannesburg to prepare for Saturday’s final match of the series. The Boks let it be known last week that they feel they are still disadvantaged in the Championship because they have to play three consecutive games on the road, but what the All Blacks have to do in the build-up to playing the Boks in a stadium that is supposedly the South African fortress is also most emphatically not for the faint hearted.
That they have managed to leave Soccer City and Ellis Park as fairly convincing winners after their two previous visits to the Highveld where they arrived via Argentina is to be applauded. If they do it again, with the Championship trophy safely under lock and key, it will well and truly underline how much better Richie McCaw’s team are when it comes to the southern hemisphere competition.
Note, that doesn’t mean they are better off when it comes to being prepared to retain the World Cup, for that is debatable if you consider sea level venues and softer underfoot conditions in the northern hemisphere winter with the faster track at Ellis Park, as well as the advantage the Kiwis currently should have in the kicking game in the absence from the Bok side of Fourie du Preez.
That said, the way the Boks finished off the last time they played the All Blacks and the way they finished off Australia at Newlands should give Jean de Villiers’ men massive confidence that at last they can make some dent on the aura of invincibility the Kiwis have carried with them since 2011.
The Bok fitness levels for a start have quite clearly improved dramatically this year, with the Boks effectively outlasting the Wallabies at Newlands in the same way that the All Blacks have outlasted them on their recent visits to South Africa.
But the line that the Boks spun afterwards that they always knew they would pull away at the end should not just be glibly accepted. For 70 minutes on Saturday it looked as though the Sunday headlines would be about the Boks’ first defeat to Australia in Cape Town since 1992. With just a bit of luck, and but for some heroic South African try-saving tackles, the Wallabies could have put the Boks away in the third quarter.
Indeed, they might have been more than a score ahead at the break had they better exploited the De Villiers knock-on when the South Africans spread the ball across their own tryline when trailing by five. If ever there was an example of why some say it is imprudent to run the ball from close to your line, that was probably it.
The first half was an odd one in that the Boks seemed dominant, and yet so much of what they did was reminiscent of the title of the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. They seemed to be rushing everything, it was as if they were chasing something that didn’t need to be chased, and it led to mistakes that let the Wallabies into the game.
Turning down a penalty in front of the posts when you are five points down also wouldn’t be a good idea against the All Blacks, who are also better equipped and more efficient at punishing misdirected kicks than the Wallabies are, as well as more adept at seizing on handling errors and turning them into profit. There were too many elementary errors, such as failing to find touch from penalties, for the Boks to be totally happy with the performance.
And yet overall the fact it wasn’t perfect is probably precisely the reason the Boks should regard the win as a significant step in their growth. Psychologically they should have gained a lot from closing down a close game – it was close despite what the final scoreline might suggest – where they had failed to do so overseas.
Perhaps that showed that lessons were learned, as De Villiers said they would be. If that is the case, hopefully from a South African viewpoint more will be absorbed from the weekend, for in the middle 40 minutes the Boks conspired against themselves in a way that will play into New Zealand’s hands.
@ ufo: @ 18.
Nice post and good, valid comments.
Speaking for myself, as a passionate fan, it’s not that I’m never satisfied, it’s that I hold the Boks to a VERY high standard, ALL the time. Yes they played well on Sat and yes the Aussies are no pushovers, BUT – why didn’t they play the entire game the way the played the last bit? That’s what I don’t understand.
But I take your point. I’ll try be more satisfied and happy in future!
Angostura wrote:
I actually mentioned when there were rumours that he would be joining WP, that I would flip and slit my wrists. I also mentioned he would up and leave the Sharks without thinking twice… So it happened… LOL
wahahahahahahaha
Gumboots wrote:
The only negative about him leaving the Sharks is that he will possibly go stuff up some new franchise.
Ha ha, imagine he replaces Ludeke…………..
Snoek wrote:
Well at least the Sharks will move forward now. He thinks he is above anyone… the best thing that could happen to the Sharks. They should never have got rid of Venter…
28 @ Angostura:
thanks ango… will read them just now…
31 @ GoBokkeAndIreland:
hehehe… that’s the spirit GB&I…! 😉
i understand your point too… i can only put it down to the subs stepping it up… schalk was awesome… imo… but maybe i’m a bit biased there… don;t think anyone can argue any more that he is “too old” or “passes it”…!
good day to everyone… gotta get down to some work…
laters…
or “passed it”…!
@ Gumboots:
Brendan is almost a given I believe.
MacroBok wrote:
One of the best rugby brains around – with Solomons…
I want to laugh at this but all I can hear is that Hondo Nancy screaming at the back of my head that Jake left to take over the springboks next year. ffs.
@ Angostura:
plumtree must be having a bit of a larf right now 🙄
John Mitchell is coaching the local Varsity team:
There must surely be a place for Mitchell in the Sharks coaching setup, now that the Big Ego has left …
pero
que sera, sera …
Charo wrote:
I think most knew this was going to happen. JW must be the most disloyal coach around… Ups and goes… Whoever appoints him now, needs their heads read…. 😆
@ GoBokkeAndIreland:
yep, my view too.
perhaps i expect too high a standard from our national team.
@ Charo:
Indeed
&
John Smit’s efforts at recruiting & vesting a new coaching team not exactly covering itself in glory …
How much money did the sharks spend paying off the fines of walking out of his brumbies cotracts…
A faulty audit comes to mind…
saw jake on ultra simple golf the other evening, going on how wonderful it was to be with the sharks in a “rugby mad city” (sic).
so this is a bit sudden although not entirely disappointing for us lot.
did he get the boot by smittie or found a better job?
@ Charo: @ Charo @ 44
That’s what i was wondering – are my standards for the Boks too high? But I don’t think so – they are a professional unit and the individuals are well trained, skilled and good at what they do – they should be consistently playing well for the majority of most games.
This must be why the sharks played so much better this weekend
@ Snoek:30
with jake gone chances are good that frans steyn won’t come back.
then the haters are farked……
no more excuses to publicly hate on the sharks 😯
@ Charo:
You still have beast and jannie
@ Charo:
50 Hi pal.Keep fighting the good fight.
Regards.Rye
and the “future of bok rugby” psdt 😀
@ MacroBok:
😉
@ ryecatcher:
howzit rye.
had lunch in your old home town weekend before last.
were you also ecstatic about the performance of the boks on saturday/
Pretty stoked about the Jake White story. Was never a fan of his. You cant have a coach who has openly said that he could leave at any stage. What the hell kind of message does that send.
My word I will be in hysterics if he takes a position with the Stormers.
Hahaha, so Smit got the NCM did he?
Bwahaha, serves him right.
I suppose the big problem with him leaving is that the ‘structures’ that he has implemented over the past year are all now farked. He effectively forced guys like Daniel and Deysel and a few others out and now that they have gone on to sign long term deals elsewhere, Jakey ups and leaves. Fark what a dick.
What happens to his coaching team like that Anthony chap who he pulled from the Bulls?
@ ufo:24
mate, so you honestly believe hm and jdv that they hatched a plan in the build up to the test to keep things close until the last 10 minutes?
sorry, but once again i call horseshit.
hm came up with it after the game as another soundbite to make him look like he had planned carefully.
“… the time is right for Jake to free himself up for any international coaching and consulting opportunities. The 2015 RWC is just months away.”
The Sharks CEO, John Smit, was quoted as saying, “… from the outset (Jake) stated his ambition to be on the international stage again … “
Kinda says it all, doesn’t it? (Jake wants to go to RWC2015, but not as a spectator) – and which country would be interested in playing Jakeball? Even HM has now moved beyond stone age footie …
I keep thinking Russia might have sent him a billet doux, or was it pehaps the other way around via the intervention of the Great Zuma-Gupta?
As an aside, things now decidedly looking UPꜛ for Lambie, not only at Bok level, but also with the Sharks, what with a change of tactics by HM & a good bye kiss to the Great White … the lad might actually receive the opportunity to play his natural game …
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