Justice 4 I say, bring back the armbands, thats why they started losing, that and travel (we all know how far it is from SA to Europe, and how many time zones you cross) travelling North is so much worse then travelling South… the referees were against us, it was the Australasian alliance (The “European division”), FATIGUE (but hey, we can earn some serious Rand playing for the Baabaas)…

no wonder the end of year tour failed miserably…

isnt that like “nearly” losing your virginity ?

But this excellence was never truly sustained for 80mins in a match let alone for a whole season. 1stH’s were good enough to sub on the entire bench, followed by 2ndHs that required ‘injured’ replacement-props being re-replaced by a panicing Capt. This pattern continued throughout the year, only in Perth did the Boks sustain the excellence for more than 1 half of rugby.

It also symbolises a massive missed-opportunity for the Boks. What would most other teams do with clear and visible forward-domination like the Boks had ? well, what they wouldNT do is keep kicking the pill away. They would want to press home that advantage with tries, no doubt whatsoever. They wouldnt make Habana – the worlds best winger for years – chase the pill and leap about like a puppet. Habana in the ABs would be getting the ball off 1st-phase and 5th phase, no doubt whatsoever. And therein lay the problem. Too used to easing to wins on the back of longrange kicks and low-risk football, it all came unstuck in France and Ireland where teams, simply, need to have variety and different methods of getting over the line. The blinkers were on, the kicks werent sailing over, and the panic button wasnt working thru overuse.

Missed opportunity. Those limited tactics will only work for so long. The ABs, after running everything from everywhere in Bloem, learnt from that mistake immed and changed to a lower-risk approach at the start of EOYT vs Wallabies and Wales. But then the directive was clear and we saw and fusion of the styles vs Engl, and then the perfect symmetry exhibited vs France. They had the tools to have Plan A & B. If Boks are wanting to re-start that domination they took for granted mid-2009, then they are going to have to change up and experiment in 2010 unless they hope to get a lucky draw again in 2011. Otherwise teams would have worked them out by then. Like the lineout in Dublin.

ABs – undefeated on tour. Tries conceded – not 1, zilch, zero.

Boks – won 1 from 5. Humiliated by the NH. Tries conceded – too many to count (even against Italy – the kakkest team in the NH! )

Ja man we’re really going to clobber the ABs. Bet you they were having a good laugh watching us while they prepared for their systematic destruction of France. I’ve never seen a team revenge a home loss with such a ruthless, clinical display. The ABs are the rugby benchmark as far as I’m concerned and we are a country mile behind them.

They are going to tear us a new poephol next year, mark my words. We are going to get a massive pumping when we next play NZ unless the ‘Brains trust’ actually develop half a brain between them. Unlikely to happen, however, year from hell coming up. Mark my words.

I hope okes on here (including Keo) are happy they finally got their WO / Fourie partnership – what a load of kak that was! In my opinion JdV and Jacobs (when on form) works best. We scored so many more tries last year with Adi at 13 but there you go you wished and prayed Jacobs got injured as if it was some sort of sign from God! But what do you know we still lost to a team that didn’t even get within sniffing distance of our tryline! I hope this goes to prove that the problem does not lie with Jacobs but with our uninventive kick and chase crashball bollox! EEEEEISSHHHHH!

Otherwise next year’s 3N will be a disaster!!!!

What else could you expect him to say.
I agree almost entirely with his sentiments.

SA Rugby is lucky to have this man, he is respected around the World. (Well in my house he is anyway, and that is half way round the World).

Thats what will be remembered in 10 years.

I see absolutely NO signs of “player management” emminating from SARU.

Worrying times ahead…

Major depth worries at international level!

enlighten me please….. how you gonna do this?