[2019 Rugby Championship] Round 2: New Zealand vs. South Africa (27/07/2019)

[Bada-Bing!]

he's knocked it against himself.

 

[smartcooky]

Draw is probably a fair result

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Try, Boks.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Outstanding.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Jeeeeezzzz. This World Cup is gonna be good.

 

[bushytop]

Herchell's career is sprinkled with magic pixie dust!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Mental! What a try!

 

[die_mole]

Kolbe has to be man of the match.

I'm a little upset pollard didn't try to get the kick off before the hooter, go for the win.

 

[Al Bangor]

A draw on the road against the All Blacks is pretty impressive. Good job Springboks!

 

[TommiG88]

Gonna be a cracker in the opening weekend of the World Cup.

 

[Jockstap]

Encouraging for the rest of the world, both teams looking very vulnerable.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

iTs rUgBY VaLUeS

 

[unrated]

Great end to the game, really thought this game was out of reach three minutes from the end the game but loved the dedication. It's only a draw but it's now two years in a row that NZ has not been able to beat the Springboks in NZ. They did beat us in Pretoria last year though.

Come World Cup at the Neutral venue !

 

[BakkiesBokke]

I really hope Test number 100 (between these two teams) is the World Cup final!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I really hope Test number 100 (between these two teams) is the World Cup final!

Third place playoff hopefully!

 

[Alex Anghel]

Draw is probably a fair result

More or less, to be honest. ABs were very dominant in the second half (71% to 29% in terms of territory possession, I believe) and certainly bombed a try when they had that scrum in the last 6 or 7 minutes, 5 m out from Bokk's try line. Not to mention that Barrett left more points on the park than Pollard.

Just some random thoughts:

- both teams looked to be somehow inferior to their 2015 RC/RWC versions;
- Retallick's injury is a huge scare for ABs and I really, really hope he will be available for the RWC;
- Mo'unga at 10 and Barrett at 15 experiment went down pretty well (in my view better than Barrett at 10 and DMac at 15), but both Ben Smith and especially Rieko Ioane were too quiet on the wings;
- Frizzell played well at 6, but one of Hansen's problems post 2015 is that no new Kaino could be found;
- Too bad McKenzie is no longer a bench option, could have really set the last 20 minutes on fire;
- Dan Coles added a spark to the ABs attack and I wonder who would be better to start at 2;
- Jack Goodhue's second-half charges were dangerous and I felt like he partnered well with SBW. I'd still use the Crusaders midfield combo though;
- Aaron Smith's habit of wasting a couple of seconds before cycling the ball, in order to show to the referee whatever kind of supposed infringement of the other side, became increasingly and alarmingly annoying;
- Kolbe was outstanding, I don't know if Habana had that kind of pace when he was in his prime.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Reading that Rettalick suffered a dislocated shoulder. If he misses the RWC that'll be a massive blow for the ABs.

 

[mdaclarke]

Will Snyman be cited?

 

[SomeOke]

Game thoughts:
- Desfensively SA looked really good, the one exception was the Barret try when Mapimpi doubled up on SBW when unnecessary, creating space outside, seems the players are getting used to the system.
- Box kicking in general for Sa was really good, possible down to the chasers as well, often a hoist resulted in SA ball just by pressure alone.
- Line-outs were average as is typical over the last couple years.
- Scrums were mostly good.
- NZ handling errors in the first half were uncharacteristically poor.
- Aaron Smith showed his class, the Kiwi backline looked far more threatening after he came on

- We looked awful on attack our backline was always set up waaaay to deep to be threatening.


In general I'm obviously happy with the game, a draw in a NZ is always a great result for us. That said it didn't feel like either team really pitched up. In comparison to last years tests against NZ this was an anti-climax. Are both teams holding a bit back?

 

[Every Time Ref]

Will Snyman be cited?

For what?