Liefling sinks hapless SA
17 Nov 2009
Derick Hougaard kicked a 75th minute drop goal to secure a 24-23 victory for Saracens over South Africa at Wembley.
It took five drop-goal attempts for the man they call Liefling to find his range, but when he did the tourists had no reply. Hougaard’s performance wasn’t his best, but it was still good enough to win the match.
The top tier of the magnificent Wembley Stadium was closed for the occasion, but the 90 000-seater still attracted over 46 000 spectators. On a brisk Tuesday evening, it was no mean feat, and these fans were rewarded with a contest that never lacked for drama.
Saracens enjoyed the best possible start with Hougaard goaling a penalty inside the first minute. This was to be one of the rare occasions where the former Bulls pivot struck the ball true, as Hougaard missed a few subsequent penalty kicks for touch and mishit another goal kick horribly.
The lowlight for Hougaard was when former team-mate Wynand Olivier cut him in half with a tackle that wasn’t unlike Brian Lima’s in the 2003 World Cup. The collective shudder of the crowd said it all.
The Boks fronted physically with captain Dewald Potgieter and Adriaan Strauss starring as ball-carriers, but their inaccuracy and lack of synergy let them down again. The scrum wobbled when CJ van der Linde went off in the 11th minute with an injury, and Heinke van der Merwe, who was a late replacement for Wian du Preez, moved to tighthead.
Andries Bekker was the banker at lineout time, but the Boks just couldn’t get clean ball. They spent a significant period in the Saracens’ 22, and it was only when Juan de Jongh slipped a feeble tackle attempt in the 29th minute that they recorded their first try.
This try was preceded by a wonderful counter-attack from deep in their own 22. Earl Rose, who enjoyed his best performance in a very long time, spun a floating pass to Bekker, who in turn freed up Nokwe. The Bok winger sped 40m downfield before relinking with Bekker. Unfortunately the rangy lock just didn’t have the pace to beat the cover defence.
There were times where the Boks sizzled, but the quick hands that created the space was often undone by an untimely knock on. They were helped by Saracens’ own poor hands, as although the English club defended manfully their skills left a lot to be desired.
The moment of controversy arrived late in the first half when a Rose up-and-under resulted in a try for Nokwe. Ashley Johnson reached for the descending ball, but amidst the contest, the referee missed the knock on. Nokwe collected it on the bounce and rounded the posts to make it a simple seven-pointer, and the tourists went to the break with a healthy 18-6 lead.
The South African scrumming woes continued into the second period, and replacement scrumhalf Francois Hougaard saw his clearing kick charged down by Saracens No 8 Ernst Joubert. The former Lions captain had the pace and skill to swoop on the loose ball and bring his team back into the game.
Francois Hougaard them relinquished possession when the Boks were in an ideal attacking position. Coaches Peter de Villiers and Dick Muir had obviously decided to give the bench players a run in the dirt-trackers’ last match, but it was a substitution that cost the South Africans momentum. Heini Adams enjoyed a great first half, and the coaching staff would have done better to keep him on until the end of the third quarter.
Saracens seemed to prosper as the game grew looser, but a great surge was ultimately snuffed by a copybook Rose cover-tackle. A South African error off the next lineout gifted Saracens a scrum, and another strong platform allowed Brad Barritt to barge his way through. With Hougaard’s conversion, the scores were level at 18-18.
Having missed a drop-attempt in the first half, Hougaard then attempted two more without success. Another unforced error resulted in another scrum, and the result was another mauling. But Hougaard couldn’t find his range and the Saracens fans groaned as the ball drifted right.
South Africa took heart from this miss, and played themselves back into Saracens territory. A botched Sarries lineout gave the tourists possession, and a wide strike saw Nokwe touching down for his second try. Rose was again prominent, delivering a quick pass infield to find Odwa Ndungane who in turn fed an unmarked Nokwe.
Ruan Pienaar missed a difficult conversion attempt which would have provided South Africa with a seven-point lead. As it was, Saracens hit back through a Hougaard penalty, and with 12 minutes to play, there was plenty of time for a comeback.
Hougaard then went for his fourth drop-attempt of the night, but another shocking mishit was easily fielded by the opposition. Amazingly, he backed himself for a fifth time, and in the 75th minute Saracens were in front.
South Africa are now 0 from 3, and although the dirt-trackers will return to home on Wednesday, another losing performance is not good for the Bok brand.
By Jon Cardinelli, at Wembley
67 Comments
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18 Nov 2009, 01:50 am
It was a fair attempt to introduce players of color to a EOYT, but then:
Ndungane, rose and Adams should never be there, and Ashley Johnson and Raubenhimer may get better in time, the trouble is, there are better players in SA than those two loosies.
There were certainly better SA players playing for Saris
18 Nov 2009, 01:55 am
#21 I wanna be coach:
Ha ! Craig Joubert makes Wayne Barnes look a genius !!! Joubert ? haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ha. He should be calling the Lotto numbers, not whistling rugby matches.
18 Nov 2009, 02:02 am
#39 aliboy:
Castrogiovanni was doing exactly what Beast did to Vickery in the 1st Lions Test – bore’ing in. Not only clearly illegal but highly dangerous and painful. Bryce let Beast away with murder that day and Castro took advantage of the same leniency for Italia vs Blacks.
Basically very few of the refs know anything about the scrums whatsoever and its mostly guesswork.
18 Nov 2009, 02:35 am
Waka …then do away with scrums ! Its unfair on everyone !
Hondo …Adams and Rose were 2 of the best players on the pitch and as you say introducing players on an EOYT….so I don’t know what you are saying.
Seeing as Ndungane has been poor and Mapoe looks like a new talent,im not sure why they did not look at him. I think it may be wanting a balance of experience with the newbie’s,but it never worked out in this case.
Why Odwa ahead of Akona I don’t know….it seems they are rotating the years as they are both similar yet Akona had a better season at the Bulls. That is why I say our brains trust is not so brainy !
18 Nov 2009, 04:18 am
Funniest thing about it is that every Saracens point was scored by a South African!
18 Nov 2009, 04:24 am
#54 ddrek:
you have your opinion, I have mine,
Mapoe is the best wing in SA right now, beats Habana easily, I hope he stays injury free.
Just like with the Anthem performance: we need to establish accountability, i.e who selected them to tour, who pays them and at what pay scale, and who is responsible for the defeat?
PdV?
**** Muir?
Gary Gold?
The wit players in the team?
Organ Hoskins?
Ras Dumisani?
Brendon Venter?
All of the above
18 Nov 2009, 07:36 am
It is time to accept the scrum crisis and look overseas !! Will SARU do the right thing or do it on the cheap as per usual ?? I wonder hmmmm ..
18 Nov 2009, 08:08 am
SimiJan,
Some good points. I think it would be of theoretical interest to imagine what “well drilled SA club side” (Bulls or Sharks say) would have done against Saracens. I can’t see them losing by more than the Boks and they (Bulls etc) have a similar mix of players in terms of ability. If they (Bulls etc) beat Sarries it would show up the Bok coaching for not drilling their team well.
And this is what I suspect the problem is. Plenty mad muppets blame the players whereas I suspect the coaches (or lack thereof) is the problem. PdV is a great motivator and has an overall vision, DM has a good grasp of attacking backline play (the Oz TN testwe won) and is a good motivator, GG is a tactician a bit like JW. SA seems to be missing a scrum coach and a master tactician as well as a master flyhalf coach (Percy is OK ish for kicking). Then all the Bok squad (40 or so players) need to be drilled in the Bok set pieces and moves. Then flyhalves, fullbacks and scrummies could do worse than copy Jonny Wilkinson – prcatice, practice and practice. I suspect that this is why Earl is mercurial – he’s talented but lazy.
Finally Aliboys’s comment about the NZ vs Italy scrum penalties is telling. You can be sure it was NZ that brought this to the IRB’s attention. This is what the SA admin should be doing. A wake up would be nice, but sadly unlikely.
18 Nov 2009, 08:22 am
K@K selections and playing players out of position have cost us this EOYT
18 Nov 2009, 09:05 am
#37 NANASHI: You are right, Barritt will not play for SA. He was already capped by England in this year’s Churchill Cup tournament.
18 Nov 2009, 09:12 am
#58 husky: I think GHenry was quoted after the game saying that the scrum rules ‘need clarifying’ or something similar. Hansen said in a straight out quote to the media that Dickensen was ‘guessing’ at scrum time. I figure either Hansen had to get censured for publicly saying the ref was useless, or the IRB had to admit that the ref got it badly wrong. Whether Hansen openly critising Dickensen was a master plan to get some action from the IRB or just him expressing how annoyed he was is open for debate.
18 Nov 2009, 09:19 am
#Hondo
It good to see what confidence of a coach can do to players.
Earl Rose
He showed what his capable of if he is given afiar chance
18 Nov 2009, 09:37 am
Ashley Johnson did a Maradona……”The Hand Of God”!This was clear when after the try,his hand needed medical attention!
18 Nov 2009, 10:20 am
#52 WakaNathan: No ways dude, Craig Joubert is a pretty damn good ref. Still a bit behind Lawrence and Kaplan though.
On a sad note I see that this James Jones genius is a touch judge for the Italy game…
And the only *** in the rugby village (aka Nigel Owens) is reffing the SA vs Ireland game… I am now even more worried because besides him being useless Mr Mujati didn’t do us any favours by shoving him in the back
18 Nov 2009, 10:40 am
you cant even call this a springbok brand
18 Nov 2009, 10:44 am
Missed the game, but reading the commentary I could have mistaken it for a Super 14 game! Is there even one mention of a non-South African in this report..
It’s pretty funny I must say!!
Oh wait yes – Ashley Johnson knocks on..
18 Nov 2009, 10:57 am
#64 I wanna be coach:
Craig Joubert stars in the next Saw VI movie, he’s THAT scary !
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