Consistency precedes control
30 Aug 2010
JON CARDINELLI admits there were some positive signs in Saturday’s win but is worried by the ongoing absence of consistency.
At Loftus Versfeld, the Springboks recorded their first win of the Tri-Nations, beat the Wallabies by a 13-point margin and scored five tries to double their tally in this year’s tournament. But those aren’t the only stats that matter.
The Boks may have ended a four-game losing streak, but are still failing in their long-term quest for consistency. This is preventing them from controlling a Test, as recent evidence will confirm.
In their one victory, they’ve mixed incredible resolve with first-class ineptitude. Most will remember last Saturday’s game as the fixture where they rallied from 21-7 down to win 44-31; an unbelievable turn around. But break the game down into two halves, and the inconsistency is clear. In the department of defence alone, they conceded four tries in the first half, and zero in the second.
They’ve been consistently inconsistent over the last five games, having won just two of the 10 halves of rugby. The fluctuation of each scoreline also tells a story. In Auckland, they were done 20-3 in the first half and 12-9 in the second. Wellington was a bit closer with the Boks trailing 13-7 in the first half and 18-10 in the second. Brisbane was similar to Auckland, with the Boks behind 17-3 at half-time, and the final 40 also ended with the Wallabies 13-10 ahead.
The honours have been shared since the Boks returned to South Africa. They led the All Blacks 16-14 at Soccer City before throwing it away in the second half, the visitors scoring 12 of their 15 second-half points in the last three minutes. Pretoria witnessed a switch in fortunes with the Boks trailing 28-24 at the break, then turning it on to thump the Wallabies 20-3 in the second half; their best half of rugby in the competition.
Those last 40 minutes showed the accuracy and intensity that were absent for the majority of the first 40. It was the accuracy and intensity that was lacking for most of the three-match Australasian tour.
The Tri-Nations is lost, but the Boks can build on the second-half showing at Loftus. The defence was better although it must be said the Aussies’ poor handling helped keep the visitors tryless. The Bok attack also showed some neat touches and the backline combination of Francois Hougaard, Morne Steyn, Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie looked dangerous.
The Boks will take another ugly win in Bloemfontein to finish the competition with two wins and the Mandela Plate. Ugly is not good enough, though, if you consider the Boks won’t face a top-three team until next year’s Tri-Nations. They need to make the most of this final opportunity. They need to take control.
A consistent performance will allow them to control proceedings. It would mark a reprieve and indicate there’s some direction and purpose to the Boks, and that after a disaster of a Tri-Nations, there’s still time to set things right before the 2011 World Cup.
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635 Comments
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31 Aug 2010, 10:06 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-600: Did I miss something? I’m fairly new here (3months)….
31 Aug 2010, 10:09 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-596: Yes, Transie’s Mummy…
31 Aug 2010, 10:23 am
@Victor4CAPTAIN(UnbeataBULL)-601:
Yeah, there used to be a lot of bloggers who came here to talk about rugby. They started their own site when a number of other bloggers who are obsessed with race, turned every conversation into a race war. The ones obsessed with race hijacked a lot of threads, then play(ed) the race card, then accused the rugby talkers of being racist so they got fed up and left.
So really, a simple tale of every day South African folk.
31 Aug 2010, 10:26 am
@Victor4CAPTAIN(UnbeataBULL)-601: The blog has history, and it’s very ugly. Looks like the old dog has crawled back, but cannot do so under his own nic, as he declared that he will never blog here again. Hence the nic stealing (of only certain targeted bloggers etc).
31 Aug 2010, 10:29 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-603: Why don’t you ask Grant and Dawn and WPTID what was said to them, by your hero’s of RT. GBS blatantly posted on RT that he will shoot me. Don’t get it twisted. Keo is still going on, and new bloggers are still joining without the recruitment plan that RT uses.
There is a reason the RT blog is dead and all the rats are crawling back.
31 Aug 2010, 10:38 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-603: lol…it would be funnier if it wasn’t so damn true!
31 Aug 2010, 10:39 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-605:
My hero’s??? Oh, I see, you are starting to brow beat me now because I actually have a different opinion to you. Next post you’ll do a Transie and start to ridicule me, then you’ll call me a racist, hey?
I know, and don’t need to ask anyone, because I’ve been reading and contributing here longer than you, and usually just scroll past your poisonous rantings. But it’s hard to miss your M.O., so I do know how it goes.
Anyway, I’m just calling it as I see it and seeing as I actually have a life outside of the internet, I really don’t give a sook. I’ll keep on scrolling baby.
31 Aug 2010, 10:42 am
@Atreides(Atreides)-606:
Oh dear, hang about, Lilith will be along to shout at you in a minute or two… and if that doesn’t work, it’s the ridicule, then…… well, you get the idea
31 Aug 2010, 10:43 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-607: Jock. Why didn’t you leave too. If Keo was so unbearable. Why didn’t you also go with the crowd whose MO you so respect. Or are you back too.
31 Aug 2010, 10:46 am
@Atreides(Atreides)-606: So you can’t stand it here on Keo either.
Hahahaha. I just don’t get it. An alternative was created. Why did you stay?
31 Aug 2010, 10:48 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-608: Am I shouting? I’s just like to know that if you detest this blog so much, and agree with the thoughts and views of those that left. Why didn’t you join their ‘blog utopia’. You were given an out.
31 Aug 2010, 10:51 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-611:
You’ve now stepped across the stark raving mad line….straightjacket time!
31 Aug 2010, 10:53 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-607: hehehe when did i ever call you a racist? Ffs everyone wants me to play the proverbial race card
hahahaha i don’t have a ‘chip on my shoulder’ jockbok…
When i have a difference of opinion with you i doesn’t mean i think you’re a racist, it just mean i don’t agree with you…
31 Aug 2010, 10:53 am
You mention only dictators and tyrants, but just as in life itself, there is the opposite end of the spectrum. Not everything is equally good or bad, there are some ppl and acts that are more good or bad as compared to others.
Society is based on a set of rules to live by which are thought to be most fair so that ourselves, children and loved ones have a greater chance of survival and more pleasant lives.
These moral rules are one reason why humans typically lead a very different life to animals. These rules, which may not be perfect, create a more stable environment than would otherwise be possible.
If perfection is the only point at which morals should be applied, then they never would be, since perfection in this world is impossible as you have stated. Thus it is not perfection, whatever that might be, which determines morals, rather it is society who as a collective determine such morals however imperfect they might be and that is what is aspired to, more just and fair societies in which the tyrants and murderers do not hold sway.
By all means, let the courts judge, but judged by mankind he must be. If there is an ultimate judge which is a paragon of virtue existing outside of this world, then we will get judged there to regardless.
31 Aug 2010, 10:55 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-609:
Leave? How can I leave a website? Especially a public forum. I log out, then log in next time I’m on, if I see something I want to comment on, I post. The same goes for this site and several other groups I have a look at now and again. I chat on RT sometimes like I chat on here. Unfortunately, I have to work, and fortunately, I have a family and kids that take up my time, so I tend to only read some days, and post on others. Coming or going doesn’t come into it.
I do tend to laugh at your and certain others delusions of grandeur, but usually I avoid you and your type because I haven’t got the time to put up with your sh.it.
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-610: What is your point? Is this your place or a public forum?
31 Aug 2010, 11:00 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-611:
I don’t dislike this blog at all. I enjoy the articles and the news snippets as well as the comments. I get a good laugh here watching certain self important people criticise the journos and thinking they own the place, but I certainly won’t be dictated to by you or anyone like you and posting here doesn’t mean I agree with or support your agenda. Far from it, and I’ll continue to say what I want to whom and I when I want to. As I said, I’ll keep scrolling, you can do the same.
31 Aug 2010, 11:01 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-610: Who said anything about Keo? I was referring to the tatty, grubby dog-eared old race card in Sunny SA!
31 Aug 2010, 11:04 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-613:
Fair enough, I don’t have the time or inclination to flick back through your posts and prove you wrong, but can I remind you of your awb comments of a couple of weeks ago?
Anyway, all good clean fun. Keep it real bru, and as I say, it’s the internet, not real life. And there’s a few on here who could do with realising it.
31 Aug 2010, 11:11 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-610: Maybe we should reinstate the pass laws, and you can decide who is allowed to go where, when and how….?
Lol who died and gave you the right to question anyone else’s decisions or opinions?
31 Aug 2010, 11:12 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-618: oh don’t bother yourself i know how busy you are with your work and all…yes i asked if that particular thread was the ‘awb thread’, so how you translated that to myself calling you a racist is quite a leap
don’t worry jock, we’ll agree on some things and disagree on others ie quotas at age group level 
31 Aug 2010, 11:17 am
@Atreides(Atreides)-619: You agreed with Jock saying some people ruined the threads and your friends had to leave. The impression you are giving is that you miss those that left by their own choice, and certain people, read me, are to blame.
I never secretly e-mailed Roy to ban people, that was your friend’s MO. I never threatend to shoot people, that was your friends MO.
As far as I am concerned there is room for the whole world on this blog, no exclusions. All I was asking is that if you found it so unbearable here. Why didn’t you seek alternatives.
A fair question.
Your comment on pass laws. Was that put there to get a rise out of me? Just a little reminder of a past you may have prefered?
It’s 2010.
31 Aug 2010, 11:17 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-620:
Cool, can we have a hug now?
P.S. I’m on holiday
31 Aug 2010, 11:22 am
@Slartifartfast(Slartifartfast)-612: It was a question. If you cannot stand hot chillies in your food, surely you would order something else to eat.
@JockBok(JockBok)-615: What is my type Jock. I’m really curious to you definition.
@JockBok(JockBok)-616: I fully understand now. I’m a “type”, to you. Keep scrolling then. Glad that you are here to share your comments.
31 Aug 2010, 11:26 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-621:
Read again….
‘Yeah, there used to be a lot of bloggers who came here to talk about rugby. They started their own site when a number of other bloggers who are obsessed with race, turned every conversation into a race war. The ones obsessed with race hijacked a lot of threads, then play(ed) the race card, then accused the rugby talkers of being racist so they got fed up and left.’
A description of what, imho, happened when asked by a newish blogger. YOU appled the ‘hero’ and ‘friends’ tags turning the whole thing into your own little moral crusade, as you tend to do and are even doing on another thread with HG right now over something that doesn’t even concern you.
So please note, I have never missed an episode of Boston Legal and will never, EVER lose an argument to you or your type. And no, I don’t mean ‘non-white’, and no, I don’t feel the need to elaborate further. It’s patently obvious to anyone who has had the misfortune to read your supercilious ramblings.
31 Aug 2010, 11:28 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-623:
Well, rather than scrolling, I’m actually waiting on the kettle to boil and having sooooo much fun, I think I’ll keep showing you up as the nasty little piece of work that you are. It’s so easy
31 Aug 2010, 11:31 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-624: @JockBok(JockBok)-625:
Hey. I’m a “type” to you remember. Keep scrolling.
31 Aug 2010, 11:34 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-621: Lol….stop baiting
My ‘friend’…. I have no idea who you’re talking about. All I know is for a while, just about every thread on here was being turned into a racial argument, and it was always the same people instigating it. On balance, it’s now a lot better than it used to be.
Seems to me, in your book, if I dislike trolling and baiting, I must then automatically be a symapathiser with the more right wing elements? Your argument is riddled with fallacy, sorry.
31 Aug 2010, 11:37 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-625: Why dont just runoff to RT or even better migrate to your own country, England
31 Aug 2010, 11:37 am
@Atreides(Atreides)-627:
The ‘right wing’ types is also a fallacy.
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-626: Hmmm, kettle’s boiled. I might well do.
31 Aug 2010, 11:39 am
@Atreides(Atreides)-627:
So you’re happy at Keo. Congratulations.
31 Aug 2010, 11:44 am
@Mighty Horua(Mighty Horua)-628:
England???? I’m not from England. Is this a colonial dig or just plain racism because I’m white?
31 Aug 2010, 11:47 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-630: LOL
I have no feelings of ‘happiness’ or ‘unhappiness’ either way….it interests me, much like a TV show, or a chat with a friend…..don;t have particularly strong feelings about i one way or another. That’s what real life is for….
31 Aug 2010, 11:51 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-631: Effrica iss for bleck peeple! You whiteys must go!
And take your nice cars, and houses, and roads, and internet, and TV, and sewage, and infrastructure, and electricity, and running water, and medicine, and radio, and banks, and schools with you! Oh no, wait, on second thoughts, ok you can leave those. Thanks, we dig all that stuff. But you ******* whiteys must still **** off!
Bloody agent!
31 Aug 2010, 11:52 am
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-626:
Convenient. I didn’t expect you to keep up with me but this is a disappointing capitulation.
Oh well, a nice cup of five roses and a banana muffin awaits. Yummy…
31 Aug 2010, 11:54 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-613: But you and your hero ET always play that ace of spades…
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