[2017 Rugby Championship] Round 5: South Africa v Australia (30/09/2017)

[Ospervat]

Fair result.
Would like to see post match sanctions against Falau and Etzebeth.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Cracking match for the neutral and a deserved result. With the head knock to Jantjies I'd have subbed on Pollard and had him kick it even if cold. I'm not sure Jantjies was 100% with it at the end.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Didn't like the refereeing one bit.

 

[Caitlyn Jenner]

Most enjoyable Aus vs SA game I have watched in a long time...

 

[The Jones Boy]

I would never have predicted home and away draws for these two teams, I still don't know what to make of it but a really interesting game for the neutral.

 

[Brigantine]

Another draw? Seriously?... So after a drawn Lions series, New Zealand could also be the only team this TRC to win more than 2 games.

If South Africa don't redeem themselves in Cape Town, can we just call Australia and South Africa 3rd equal?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Koroibete is a huge upgrade on Speight (who for me is the most ordinary starting winger in the competition). Kurindrani blew it with a bit of greed late on and he is pretty ordinary whenever I watch him. If Chieka can get Kerevi & Beale working as a tandem at centre then they will have an extremely high quality set of backs. Wafer thin depth though. I can only assume Kerevi is still in the dog house for his contribution to that woeful first 40 in the first AB test.

 

[die_mole]

It was an amazing match to watch. A lot of guys on both sides left everything on the pitch.

Apparently etzebeth was right to take care of falau himself since falau got away with murder on that hair pull.

Speaking of, what's the name of the Bok back 3's ska band?

 

[smartcooky]

I thought the referee was very good. He got most things right. Probably could have been harder on Folau and Etzebeth (there should either be post match citings or at least Citing Commissioner Warnings for them)

I think his scrum management was a bit lax. Sometimes he let the front rows engage on the 'bind' call rather than the "set", and that could have been a contributing factor to the collapses we saw.

His communication and his pre-emptive management was excellent. I give him a 9/10

 

[galumay]

A draw was probably a fitting result, although the missed forward passes certainly favoured the Boks, as did the missed touch by SA before the ball went into touch from the kickoff. Folau should have let go of the hair once his hand slipped off the collar, probably marginal YC depending on the day, Etzebeth probably also marginal YC for retaliation, given both calls were marginal I dont expect any citings.

Overall a hugely entertaining game, Boks were really good with their width tonite and looked postitive most of the night. Wobblies showed just how far they have come, their ability to regather and put points straight back on the board after being scored against was impressive.

Koroibete was great, I have not been a fan of Speight for some time but wasnt sure whether Koroibete was good enough - tonite he showed class in both attack and defence. Kurindrani was great again, Foley and Izzy were very solid, Beale made a couple of uncharacteristic errors in defence, Hodge had a solid game, MacMahon was OK although I am still not a fan.

Both sides will look to small mistakes they made that made the difference, but they should also consider how well both sides played for most of the game, certainly a showcase for spectators.

 

[die_mole]

How come Marx can nail the runner on the overthrow but is dreadful on any throw to the lineout?

 

[galumay]

How come Marx can nail the runner on the overthrow but is dreadful on any throw to the lineout?

Not sure! He was lucky not to be pinged for "Not Straight" at least twice as well, one was an absolute crocker.

 

[Ospervat]

Reading reports it would seem SANZAAR may look at the Folau hair pulling incident.

As it appears when he grabbed Leyds it was by the collar with hair IE first pull. The issue comes in when his hand slipped off the collar and was left holding just hair. It was at this point there was a deliberate second pull which may br deemed avoidable as he held on too long with the knowledge that he had a player by the hair.

It looks worse in slomo replay as these things do but it may yet meet red card threshold.

 

[galumay]

It looks worse in slomo replay as these things do but it may yet meet red card threshold.

Would be very unlikely, especially in the circumstances, ie that Folau clearly grabbed for the collar initially, when his hand slipped off the collar he was left holding hair only. Immediate sanction is a penalty under Law 10.4(m), on field Referee didnt see it as a YC level offence, very unlikely to be cited IMO.

But hey, with the lottery of SANZAR who knows, much worse incidents causing severe injury have been ignored, and similar low level, no impact incidents have led to suspensions.

 

[Nubiwan]

A cracking game for the neutral. Here are some thoughts and questions.

Best game I have seen Foley play this year. Found his kicking boots. Great pass for the Obiwankenobe try. Very nice if flimsy pseudo fend on xolisi, who must feel rather emasculated after that.

How forward does a forward pass have to be before its called forward on that surfontein (sp) try? Holy ****. Might have been another howling forward pass ignored during a subsequent boks march down the near side for a subsequent penalty, perhaps even a try.

Law clarification request please? When can backs encroach the 10 meters on a long throw at line out please? My understanding.... Line out is over when ball passes either the last man in line out, or perhaps 15 meter line. At which point, backs can advance. If I am close to correct, then surely surfontein (sp) - or any back for that matter -is offside to be able to catch a long line out throw. Do officials simply allow it because it looks nice? I see pens all the time for backs advancing before the line out is over, yet the long throw is open season. I think it's called wrong.

Otherwise top entertainment.

Anyone take in the St. Helens Castleford league semi final earlier this week, what a great contest that was. League is fantastic at times. Right down to the final whistle. Will be watching the oz grand final later with probably greater interest than the ABs taking on the Pumas.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Would be very unlikely, especially in the circumstances, ie that Folau clearly grabbed for the collar initially, when his hand slipped off the collar he was left holding hair only.
.

I thought he was offside...

 

[galumay]

I thought he was offside...

Now I look at it again, in reverse, freeze frame, slo-mo with a bokeh filter, I think you are onto something there! Offside, hair pulling and headbutting at Etzebeth's elbow - 6 weeks at least!

 

[Durbanite]

Was great to see ball in hand from the beginning. Even though we drew, it's just so much more attractive to watch. Reminds me of a Sharks fan survey a while back in which one of the questions was (paraphrasing) "Would you rather see a win achieved through (boring) conservative rugby or a loss/draw through (exciting) running rugby until we can win with the latter style.". We're starting to find some shape with our running, was great to see us finally running support lines after the break as well, with the runner always searching for continuity through the late pass or offload. Not quite there yet, but if we keep at it we might create something special in the near future.

Has to be said that the penalties were a big issue, Dreyer is a poor choice considering his track record and I agree with Joel about him overextending, even when the Aussies collapsed or Sio lost his feet it was still too easy to ping Dreyer. Eben and a few others being overeager messing up their linespeed was frustrating as well as the constant lineout errors.

I can't help thinking we're delaying our lineout throw way too much, in Albany the ABs (knowing we were going to try compete) called the lineout before it formed and just got on with it, and it worked really well. We would benefit from decisiveness and quick ball. The Wobs however, did great to defend the maul and contest the throw even though they got pinged a few times for competing in the air. Marx needs to shape up, he was doing so well up until the ABs game.

Was great to see Flo out there, he didn't manage many turnovers but boy was he busy on attack and defense. Pity Cas went out the way he did, very frustrating we didn't have Dan on the bench to have a go at 8, JL is a solid 7 especially on defense but he battled to receive the kickoffs which tbf though I think is a bit uncharacteristic.

Thought Ross and Elton had a fair game, they partner up well and I much prefer an Elton that is ready to dart or shift the ball out wide to one in the pocket, there were a few times a little dink was on but we're not quite there yet. Was good to see a cross-kick or two find it's man again though. Ross showed us how to utilise the "Hougaard 2-step" well I think, he had a run here and there, passed back when the space was gone and I thought kept the Aussies guessing a few times. I had a bit of an issue with the kick down the middle by EJ that culminated in Koroibete's first, silly to give the Aussies the ball at that stage and we didn't utilise correct running lines, just smacks of knee-jerking imo and we need to be much more clinical with our exits in the future. Hoping with running culture comes better kick chases, perhaps we will start favouring the cross rather than successive up-and-unders like the old days.

Thought Serf had an awesome game, running for the gap and going around the defenders with his offloads led to some great breaks and a try, was good to see him sucking in the defense before releasing, he really was a key to unlocking the Wobs defense.

Kriel was very lateral at times, it's really becoming an issue and would've been a lot worse if Skosan wasn't handling the switch as well as he was. In the latter stages of the game he got really busy especially at rucktime but I seriously think we need to give someone else a shot at 13 now.

Leyds showing us all why he should've been picked ages ago, he had a solid defensive game (you have to admit better than RR on that one at least) He was dancing through defenders almost every time the ball reached the wing and he set up serf for a great try off Kolisi's monster break through Beale. I'm very worried about AC's warnings about Raymond coming back, I think it would be criminal to play him again after Leyds showed what he can bring to the position, not to mention how he can shift to cover other positions in a bind. AC has to get real and leave RR to grow in the p14.

Skosan was on fire, I had forgotten he even had a leg drive, my word he was on another level last night. Gotta love his hands during the interplay too.

Andries annoys me, just don't get that buzz of excitement you get when other 15s are bringing the ball up to counter, he did have that great kick in the first half but his "monster" boot wasn't really utilised much otherwise. Combrinck or Gelant should be given a squirt after the RC methinks.

Thought the scrums were much improved after Kitshoff and Nyakane came on, we should really consider starting Trevor or drafting in someone to take Dreyer's spot.

Foley had an absolute ripper, very impressive though a pity about the penalty he kicked dead as it probably would've won Aus the game if they respected SA and went for points rather. Hooper saved the day numerous times and Speight should be really worried about how fast and hard Koroibete was playing. Beale was finicky but man that oke knows how to get his team on the front foot, an undeniable boon for the Wobs still.
Thought Kuridrani looked a bit blunted at stages and Genia hasn't been able to really reproduce his dynamism against the boks in these 2 tests as with the ABs and Pumas.

I think if Etzebeth had kept his head and argued for a yellow rather than being a complete doos it would've been given. A lot of people saying that it was collar first etc, but if you watch the replay he grabs the hair, starts to go for the collar, grabs the collar with the OTHER hand and completes the tackle by the hair with his dominant hand, after which momentum makes him tug on Leyds' hair after he goes to ground. I don't mind that it was penalty > play on but I don't think Folau's actions are as defensible as Cheika and others are making it out to be, even if it was an honest mistake and I thought Hooper's cheeky attempt to get Etzebeth carded was quite funny given the circumstances.

All in all, I reckon the result was very reflective of the game and I'm pleased the bokke showed a heap of fight. We will surely get hammered into oblivion by the ABs next week but at least this was a fair response to the Albany test and we can build upon the performance considering our backs are starting to look sharper and fate has delt Cas a supposed blow making way for another at 8.

 

[SomeOke]

I'm actually not that upset weirdly, obviously we should be winning at home agaisnt the Aussies but they are actually a very handy team.

As for the Bokke, we are a bit of polish, a coach and a few selections away from being a very handy team.

More to come when I've poured over the highlights a little more but in summary - I can't point to a single player who really let the team down in terms of performance (maybe Dreyer).

We need to be more clinical on attack, too often we're knocking on, or making a poor decision at the end of a promising move.
We need to be more structured on defense it's always going to be hard to win a game where the opposition scores 27 points.
Eben is a terrible choice at captain.
We looked much better when we started to play the ball flatter rather than deep, Elton is much more suited to that game which we saw more in the second half of the game. Also Kriel looks 100% better when he receives the ball at pace rather than when he gets a static start and naturally starts to crab-walk.
Coetzee is not the answer I feel, to be fair on him he's not an awful player, but he's not at the same level the other Tier 1 nations full-backs. I could live with it if he was nothing but solid every game, but he's not even managed to be error free lately.

We need time but I wasn't too disappointed with the performance.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

AC's low expectations / spin doctoring coming to the fore again in interviews. Honestly that annoys me much more than anything happening on the field. Anyway, unless Argentina beat the Wallabies in Argentina or even more unlikely, we beat NZ we end up 3rd overall. That is less than what should be acceptable IMO given our resources (ITO rugby specifically) vs that of Aussie.

And they would be full value for 2nd as well.

So moving on I hope AC's saying Rhule would be back was just his usual lip service. Leyds was a definite step up IMO. Cronje was a warrior as well. But we all expected as much. I am hoping for us to bring in Wilco Louw at tight head. Dreyer has been struggling and I've been saying Louw and TdT to bench from the get-go.

I hear Cassiem is out injured and I have no idea what to expect from AC in terms of back row. We are missing Kriel and Whiteley. I expect it'll be Kolisi, Louw and the Du Preez twins at 8 and on the bench? I really hoe we don't shift PSdT again. Don't get me wrong, I think Mostert and De Jager would both be fine, its just PSdT is a good lock and he does have a bit of game at flank but I fear he'd be horribly off the pace against NZ on the flanks

I also just read Retallick will not be traveling due to the most tragic of circumstances. My heart is bleeding and I have no words.