Springboks vs Wallabies, July 24th 2010, Third Tri Nations Test

[Seaton]

I wonder what SavageLez will have to say? thank God it wasn't Scotland anyway

I wonder what he would say if Scotland were to beat SA at the end of this year.

Or, should I say when B)

 

[smartcooky]

Brilliant try - execution was top class. But we were thinking truck & trailer. If Matfield passed directly to Steenkamp, then the players in front of him were offside and obstructing. Couldn't see in the replay, and it wasn't analysed after the match - maybe the ball went to the fair haired player with his back to the line, who then gave it to Steenkamp as he came charging in.

Actually Matfield passed off to Burger who ended up facing backwards. Then Steenkamp came driving in behind, grabbed the ball and drove over. The Maul was legit, and so was the try.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I didn't realise there were that many Scotland fans in SA

 

[Amobokoboko]

Wallabies missed some extra spice as they had two - three other opportunities to score a try but just didn't finish it.

 

[nickdnz]

To be honest, I'm not totally worries about Australa come the AB's games. Yes, there were a few good moments, but there were also times when I was thinking "If that had been the All Blacks, a try would have been scored". Anyway, only time will tell.

Poor South Africa. Talk about a fall from grace.

 

[allblacksfreak]

ALL of my South African friends are calling for PdV's head after this game, I know it's nothing new, but any comments from fellow TRF'ers?

 

[Amobokoboko]

Well, I wouldn't call for his head. SA also had some chances to score more multiple tries but AUS defense was just too strong.
Don't forget the kicking of Pienaar was poor as well. Despite the fact that the coach is doing everything except coaching you still have a very talented squad, with players who could have proven themselves. I hope that the coming weeks will be used to get the squad back on the rails so the coming games will have some more juice.

 

[User1245]

I blame Kurt Darren, who handed the Boks their jerseys earlier this week, his gay waving lochs made Olivier self-conscious.

Incredibly frustrating game to watch. I've been beating this drum for many seasons now, the Boks support play and ball protection is **** poor. In a ruck we play the man, not the ball. We're too concerned with imposing our physicality at a ruck and don't worry about accuracy. I've always noticed that the Aussies and Kiwis ruck with the mentality that ball is 1 metre more ahead. They basically force the first players who arrived to be pushed over the top and off their feet, essentially blocking off counter-rucking. We need to start doing that. Neither Kanko, Spies or Burger play towards the ball. Not their fault, it's not their style of play anyway, it's just PdV picked an unbalanced backrow. Much like he's picked an unbalanced centre pairing. We need a player like Brussow in the mix. Yes we have Flouw but his job has changed since he has started playing along side Spies, who is the exactly opposite of what Vermuelen from the WP is.

Poor decision-making and poor leadership cost us dearly. One glaring example was when we had a scrum 5m from the Wallabies line. The scrum went down and we got a freekick. STOP! THINK! Call for another scrum! We had them on the ropes the whole game in that facet. Instead Pienaar took a quick tap and we eventually got robbed of momentum. Yes the ref got it wrong and we should of got a penalty because the Aussies weren't back as smartcooky pointed out BUT we put ourselves in that position essentially. We know by now that the Irish refs haven't got a clue how to manage a ruck so we should of adapted.

And lastly onto the ref. Is Pocock the new McCaw now? Is he also immune to receiving cards? Unbelievable that he got away with so much cynical play. It's like openside flankers are getting deliberate leeway with killing the ball. He also should of been more strict at the scrum. Kiwi refs when we play Oz please.

 

[Amobokoboko]

I do understand the frustration from SA supporters but I guess they will only sack PdV after the WC. So far he won one Tri nations cup, some test games. Quite poor for a head coach off such a talented country

 

[ikvat]

François Steyn and Joe van Niekerk level is too weak because they plays in French top 14.
What about your other players Mr De Villiers?

 

[coonor]

Australia played with a good intensity today. The aussie backs were magical today, they played some great moves and passed well. I think Sharp and mumm were a great pair. Elsom and Pocock were brilliant today just collecting scrap ball, making tackle and winning breakdowns. Drew mitchell and James O'connor were fabulous. MOTM: Drew Mitchell
SA really need to buck their ideas up and PDV needs to try and pick the on form players or just get sacked (probally just get sacked)
I personally think Clancy was fairly good and had to refferee a difficult match.

 

[Gavin]

I thought it was interesting that the Australia commentators did not like the idea of having a northern hemisphere referee, they actually said 'can't there just be no northern hemisphere referees' or something around those lines. I think that it would make more sense to have southern hemisphere referees in the Tri-Nations and northern hemisphere referees in the Six Nations. Though that may leave difficult interpretation of the game come World Cup times when we both see northern and southern referees together.

 

[veux]

The Oz 2 and 3 seemed to be playing really well, apart from the scrums (though they still held SA). Sa looks like a past it team - I think they said 4 over 30 players in the scrum. I don't think that Oz have the polish to beat the ABs unless they get better at finishing and Elsom doesn't do stupid things, but they could well beat SA again.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

I thought it was interesting that the Australia commentators did not like the idea of having a northern hemisphere referee, they actually said 'can't there just be no northern hemisphere referees' or something around those lines. I think that it would make more sense to have southern hemisphere referees in the Tri-Nations and northern hemisphere referees in the Six Nations. Though that may leave difficult interpretation of the game come World Cup times when we both see northern and southern referees together.

Did mention that earlier ... Not one of Greg Martins best comments. I have said this many a time when watching and commenting on 6 Nations game why should there be a SH reffing a NH game. But the old man always says the same thing as you did above, for the World Cup so they get used to it. Then I argue why should laws be interpreted? They are there, if they are unclear then go back to Paddy and the IRB for clarification and then the argument with Cooky comes to mind. I don't think Clancy did that well, he got some calls right and missed a few things and let things go.

 

[Sker]

Disappointed...

If the Bokke played well but they still lost, we still would have been proud. If the other team played extremely well and the Bokke actually tried... We would still have been proud and said: "Okay boys, don't worry about it, you can fix it!"

South Africans have always been proud of their Bokke, but they didn't even... The ill discipline, the... **** it. You all saw it.

How can we be proud now?

Not taking anything away from the Wallabies, they played well.

 

[smartcooky]

I thought it was interesting that the Australia commentators did not like the idea of having a northern hemisphere referee, they actually said 'can't there just be no northern hemisphere referees' or something around those lines. I think that it would make more sense to have southern hemisphere referees in the Tri-Nations and northern hemisphere referees in the Six Nations. Though that may leave difficult interpretation of the game come World Cup times when we both see northern and southern referees together.

What do you think that would achieve? Let me tell you, it would isolate the referees in their own hemisphere based competitions, and widen the gap in interpretations between them. Sooner or later, we have to end up with NH and SH referees at the world cup, and we already have big enough differences now, without making it worse.

What really needs to happen is, not only to have NH referees in the 3N and SH referees in the 6N, but there should also be NH referees in the Super 14, ITM Cup, Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup, and SH referees in the Aviva Premiership, Magners League and Heineken Cup. If they had an exchange system set up so that, say, 10 referees from each hemisphere exchanged places each season, it wouldn't be very long before it wouldn't matter where referees came from because they would all end up singing from the same hymn sheet.

When Wayne Barnes came out to NZ last year, he refereed an Air NZ Cup match between Wellington and Southland. He reckoned he learned more about how the game is played here from controlling that match than in any test match.

 

[Gavin]

What do you think that would achieve? Let me tell you, it would isolate the referees in their own hemisphere based competitions, and widen the gap in interpretations between them. Sooner or later, we have to end up with NH and SH referees at the world cup, and we already have big enough differences now, without making it worse.

What really needs to happen is, not only to have NH referees in the 3N and SH referees in the 6N, but there should also be NH referees in the Super 14, ITM Cup, Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup, and SH referees in the Aviva Premiership, Magners League and Heineken Cup. If they had an exchange system set up so that, say, 10 referees from each hemisphere exchanged places each season, it wouldn't be very long before it wouldn't matter where referees came from because they would all end up singing from the same hymn sheet.

When Wayne Barnes came out to NZ last year, he refereed an Air NZ Cup match between Wellington and Southland. He reckoned he learned more about how the game is played here from controlling that match than in any test match.

I don't think that would ever happen. It would cost far too much to send, and house, different hemisphere referees in different hemispheres. Referees are used to the type of rugby that they are brought up with, things will only be constant when all nations play rugby of the same type - and that just won't happen.

 

[shtove]

Actually Matfield passed off to Burger who ended up facing backwards. Then Steenkamp came driving in behind, grabbed the ball and drove over. The Maul was legit, and so was the try.

Good. Not sure if that could have been defended except by spoiling Matfield - the maul formation was lightning quick. Strange that SA were so ponderous in the rest of their game.

 

[.me]

Quade Cooper is getting a two Test-ban for his tackle on his Morne Steyn. Unless Matt Giteau has an extremely good game at flyhalf for the next two game against the All Blacks I can see them losing by around 30 points both games.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...oper-banned-for-two-tests-20100725-10q53.html

 

[smartcooky]

Quade Cooper is getting a two Test-ban for his tackle on his Morne Steyn. Unless Matt Giteau has an extremely good game at flyhalf for the next two game against the All Blacks I can see them losing by around 30 points both games.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...oper-banned-for-two-tests-20100725-10q53.html

Fair call, and anyone who thinks that is too harsh, I promise you they will get more harsh if players don't learn to stop doing it.

If you lift player off his feet and turn him over, there is pretty much a 90% chance of getting a card and/or a citing and copping a judiciary suspension as well.