[2018 Rugby Championship] Round 1: South Africa v Argentina (18/08/2018)

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I can't believe we're ahead. We were terrible. Lost scrums, didn't have territory nor possession, allowed Marx to get the ball twice when he was 3v1 and our scrum is just non-existent.
RSA should just start kicking to their wings. Our back 3 are useless.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Btw, what the hell is wrong with RSA's passing today. They were terrible.

 

[Every Time Ref]

I can't believe we're ahead. We were terrible. Lost scrums, didn't have territory nor possession, allowed Marx to get the ball twice when he was 3v1 and our scrum is just non-existent.
RSA should just start kicking to their wings. Our back 3 are useless.

...and they've scored 2 tries from doing exactly that!

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

No.
They've scored 3.

NB: the key word of my phrase was "just".

 

[mdaclarke]

Pollard needs to find his kicking boots.

Was amazed how poor Willemese played. Intercept pass and his kicking in the corners for lineouts was really really lazy

 

[FrenchFan]

Good contest. New Zealand have nothing to worry about.

 

[User1245]

Good contest. New Zealand have nothing to worry about.

I was thinking the exact same thing while I was watching...

 

[FNS]

We lack quality and it`s showing.

 

[unrated]

I was very happy with the manner of the victory. Six tries to three secured a bonus point and really thats the most we can ask of our guys.
Pollard missed a lot of his kicks and the score reflected that in the end. Obviously we should keep playing him though, no need to get Jantjies back for the next game based on the kicking performance of Pollard.

Our forward pack was immense, the Argentinian coach said he believed that they were the most physical pack in the world. If we replace Whiteley with Vermeulen and Kolisi with JLDP then they will really be a physical team.

I can imagine a team with Thomas the tank, Kitshoff, Marx, PSDT, Etzebeth, Vermeulen, JLDP, and Coetzee. That pack can beat the All blacks any day.

The Pumas will be very tough at home, i hope Rassie resists the temptation to make too many changes to the starting team, otherwise i fear we have a big chance to lose the next fixture.

Standouts for me was:
Marx - Again got about 4 turnovers and general play was outstanding but his line out throwing was average
Etzebeth- Just got back from an almost year long injury enforced absence and he played the full 80. He made some good runs
PsdT- Was just a good allrounder
Dyanti and Mapimpi - very clinical for our wingers ! scoring 2 tries each.
AM - he was good allround

 

[SomeOke]

Unrated pretty much said it all, our scrum and pack in general was very good and despite being behind at times I never really felt like the pumas were going to win two of their tries were kind of random break aways.
There rush defense was really good so our backs lookes pretty awkward at times, specifically Pollard and Fafs passing game was pretty awful. (Pollard had a shocker in general), other negatives were our line outs which were bad and Damian Willemse also looked awful when he came on.

In general not too much to complain about I do worry how our backline is going to function without Willie.

Player our back three were all good particularly Dyantyi, Eben was the pick of our forwards and was immense Marx was great but again, line outs...

 

[FNS]

Well, yes and no. SA was better overall no doubt there but the tries were retarded defense from our players. The cross kick Bofelli slowed down instead of just going full speed and tackle the guy as son as he got the ball(probably try anyways but go for it ffs). The other kick the cover was to far away(if you fullback is not there then the other wing must cover, kids stuff). Last try, classic fake, invented 100 years ago xD.

Same **** wont happen against AB or AU.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Pollard needs to find his kicking boots.

Was amazed how poor Willemese played. Intercept pass and his kicking in the corners for lineouts was really really lazy

I thought of the same thing. In fact I had a bit of Deja Vu when Argentina intercepted his skip pass. It was the exact same kind of pass he threw during the JWC earlier this year before he got injured.

I was very happy with the manner of the victory. Six tries to three secured a bonus point and really thats the most we can ask of our guys.
Pollard missed a lot of his kicks and the score reflected that in the end. Obviously we should keep playing him though, no need to get Jantjies back for the next game based on the kicking performance of Pollard.

Our forward pack was immense, the Argentinian coach said he believed that they were the most physical pack in the world. If we replace Whiteley with Vermeulen and Kolisi with JLDP then they will really be a physical team.

I can imagine a team with Thomas the tank, Kitshoff, Marx, PSDT, Etzebeth, Vermeulen, JLDP, and Coetzee. That pack can beat the All blacks any day.

The Pumas will be very tough at home, i hope Rassie resists the temptation to make too many changes to the starting team, otherwise i fear we have a big chance to lose the next fixture.

Standouts for me was:
Marx - Again got about 4 turnovers and general play was outstanding but his line out throwing was average
Etzebeth- Just got back from an almost year long injury enforced absence and he played the full 80. He made some good runs
PsdT- Was just a good allrounder
Dyanti and Mapimpi - very clinical for our wingers ! scoring 2 tries each.
AM - he was good allround

Yeah I'm happy about the progress. Etzebeth back in his first match since being out more than 6 months, and it looked like he was match fit and has been playing all season. But there were some glaring issues that bothered me:

1. Missing 5 lineouts 5m out from the tryline, and not being able to use the driving maul is unacceptable. Don't know if it's Marx's fault or the jumpers, but they need to work on their communication.
2. Warren Whiteley - Was he on the field?
3. Pollard's Kicking at goal - he needs to work on this, the rest of his game is pretty good though.
4. Am's handling - he knocked the ball on a few times when going into contact, and it seems like he's unsure where to put the ball at times.

Other than that, I can't complain too much about the result. We did what we had to do to get the win with a bonus point. Yes, our team is still a work in progress, but the shape it's taking is beginning to excite the fans. In fact I was surprized to see how full the stadium was, especially after the reports on Friday that less than half of the tickets were sold for the game by Friday afternoon 12:00. So a lot of people actually went and bought tickets at the stadium on Saturday.

 

[WaterboySA]

Bok back 3 were great. Centers nowhere. Pollard will pick up the kicks, rest was OK.......Faf went walkabout again. Same as with Marx, does not help one part of your game is good and the other so bad you cost us tries. At this stage Marx should not be near the team until he learns how to throw in a ball at line outs. He's had this problem for a while, and it's not getting better. Our loosies were on par at best, tight 5 good, I would replace Pieter-Steph with RG Snyman. Not good enough to take on NZ.

Edit: Not good enough to take on AUS either....Argentina made us look better than we were. Change the centers please.

 

[SomeOke]

I didn't think the centres were dreadful, do think their service from Pollard and Faf was pretty awful, and the argies rush defense was good. I like Pollard but he did have a bad game, I'm sure he'll improve.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Fully agree with Lourens and FNS. Re-watch the first half, you were awful. Don't get me wrong, a win's a win, and you deserved it in spades, but

1) 4 of the 6 tries came from comical mistakes from our back 3
2) Your line was a shadow of what it used to be. Not sure when/how you lost the plot there. You have the potential to have the best fixed formation asset in the game today (line/maul thingie, think lions on steroids) but somehow you end losing silly balls and comiting penalties.
3) Pollard. If this was his off game, that's ok. If it's not, you have a big problem.
4) Your handling of the ball quite bad.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Fully agree with Lourens and FNS. Re-watch the first half, you were awful. Don't get me wrong, a win's a win, and you deserved it in spades, but

1) 4 of the 6 tries came from comical mistakes from our back 3
2) Your line was a shadow of what it used to be. Not sure when/how you lost the plot there. You have the potential to have the best fixed formation asset in the game today (line/maul thingie, think lions on steroids) but somehow you end losing silly balls and comiting penalties.
3) Pollard. If this was his off game, that's ok. If it's not, you have a big problem.
4) Your handling of the ball quite bad.

All true. But the Argentine rush defence was also partly the reason why the centres didn't get good ball, it seemed like a tactic of theirs to close off Faf and Pollard, but that's also why we then reverted to a bit deeper play and kicking cross field, because the Argentine defence was so narrow that they created the space for our pacemen in the corners.

Yes our handling was bad, but then again they did play in Durban and it was very hot and humid, so the handling was going to be an issue.

As for Pollard, apart from his kicking at goal, he did the other things rather well, so I won't slate him over one poor performance, he's still miles better than the other FH.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I'm a big Pollard fan. I meant his kicking. Hopefully it was just an off game and luckily for you it happened against the weakest team.
Mendoza is quite dry btw.