Conrad, you're completely underestimating both the Springboks (safe to say they're better than England, and probably than Aus also but that'll be sorted in some weeks) AND your Pumas. They just took it to the Boks, twice in a row. No fear.
Just no fkng fear:
my cousin and I were cracking up during this match when at the end right before the last wheeling scrum you see the Pumas go wide, there's a guy who throws a double skip pass way out wide, like a 200meter pass out wide. It actually works, but at a time where they should've positioned for a DG, they throw a 700m double skip pass !!! They're fkng crazy your Pumas ! I'm not saying incompetent, I just mean they have balls like elephants !! NOBODY does that !
Any other team in the Pumas' position would be saying before the game: "okay, we need to shut down Le Roux and Habana, focus hard on the rucks and lineout, use our scrum, and try and get lucky, let's see. Make your kicks and try a few Drops if you're close enough. This Boks defense is huge, we can't mess around, okay ?"
Pumas ? Pumas fkn play like it's the 80's all over again, they had more flair than France could dream of having atm, they were juggling with the ball, even forwards handling and passing, big fat fkng props, guys running support lines, no rucks, everybody up on their feet in fluid motions.
And the Boks backs may not be as entertaining as other nations', esp. NZ or AUS, but they're still very dangerous. Hendricks is a very good winger, he may not dance too much with insane steps on the field but he's quite lethal. And then Habana...well, I believe he, along with Lomu, are the two guys who've had the most direct influence on their teams in the pro era. They're just imminent 7 pointer bombs waiting to happen.
Then Le Roux, he's no Folau or Ben Smith for sure, but he beats defenders on the regular.
So I don't think these two games shake up the hierarchy of world Rugby. What it does is, it doesn't even really put the Pumas on the map again, as they could easily get smashed in the next 4 games; it just helps confirm, with tremendous, echoing intensity that when they're on, don't fk with em.
And then for the Boks it helps confirm, after that 2nd Wales game, a) that first of all they're much more vulnerable and accessible than we thought at a point and b) they sometimes need a huge knock on the head, get stunned, but they then have an uncanny ability to come right back and win.
For me atm: 1.NZ 2.SA 3.AUS 4.ENG.
France sucks, but although they took 50 from the Wallabies, England could never inflict that on them right now. Wallabies are better, they just drew with NZ after all, remember ? AB were just mad as hell in Test 2.
