Yet another cracking test match between these 2 rugby loving nations.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game, even with the weird calls by a retiree, the unsportsmanlike booing of the crowd towards Francois Louw, and that double yellow for the props. Let me start with that, I thought the purpose of the 23-man squads was to have 2 props on the bench and to prevent things like uncontested scrums from happening???
I think both nations should feel aggrieved by the performance of Rolland as well as his assistants. One obvious one would have been the Springboks 3rd try, where Jaque Fourie was ahead of Du Preez when he kicked the ball ahead, before showing some Samurai Skills to get the ball to Fourie Du Preez to score.
I thought both teams got away with murder at the breakdown areas. and there were plenty of times where the ball just popped out of a ruck and Rolland waved play on. Was the Ball as slippery as a bar of soap?? then why weren't there so many handling errors?
Here's my take on the Boks performance:
1. Beast, did his part in the scrums, and clearing of the rucks.
2. Bismarck once again showed that he is the Battleship we all know and enjoy watching.
3. Frans Malherbe, did some things well, got pinged a couple of times at the scrums, even though I thought he wasn't the transgressor. He had a mammoth task in his debut against a very good loosehead prop, and for such a specialist position, I thought he did a very good job. I don't miss Jannie at all.
4. Eben Etzebeth, He had a goodish game, but his temper once again got the better of him. Leave the nitty gritty stuff
5. Flip van der Merwe, One of the better performers in the forwards pack. He made some big tackles, cleared plenty of rucks and was just an overall good support player.
6. Flouw, The difference between the 2 teams IMO at the Breakdown area, apart from the handbag stuff that lead to his yellow card, he once again showed his class.
7. Willem Alberts aka the Bone Collector, Why does he always manage to play so damn good in the NH?? I think there are a bunch of sore Welsh bodies because of him.
8. Duane Vermeulen, I'm glad his form hasn't faded out. Was a tremendous asset at the breakdown and in supporting Flouw.
9. Fourie Du Preez, MOTM, the General. Welcome back!! nuff said.
10. Morne Steyn, too short on the field to make a proper contribution. Maybe his injury was a blessing in disguise?
11. Bryan Habana, Once again he showed that pace is a devastating weapon. And handing off the Jonah Lomu of the Northern Hemisphere wasn't too bad too... Hehe, I liked that very much.
12. JDV, Had a lot to deal with in this game, and a bunch of times he shot out of the defensive line, which worked well. looks like the deep playing style of the welsh backs doesn't work so well against a rush defence? there were so many gaps because of Jaque Fourie and JPP not shooting up along with the rest of the team, yet they always managed to cover and prevent the Welsh from scoring tries.
13. Jaque Fourie, apart from his great samurai skills, he had a rather poor game. Which was to be expected as this was his first international game since the 2011 World Cup.
14. JPP, probably the worst performer for the boks. A pedestrian in my view, and apart from that one break, he didn't contribute much else to the team. and he's a bloody winger!! how does a fly half outrun you JP?? that was terrible!!
15. Pat Lambie, moved to fly half earlier than expected. had a good game and his tactical kicking was spot on. still needs to work on his goal kicking though.
The bench:
I can only really comment on Willie as he was the only player that had an impact off the bench and played long enough. He showed that he can improve under the high ball.
And what a proud moment for PSDT! While many would argue that he was suppose to replace Flip, I thought HM did the right thing in subbing Etzebeth.
It was a scrappy game, and it was the type of game expected when the roof would have been open. But closing the roof, hoping to make the game more attractive, only works if the field is dry...
