Wallabies end Highveld drought
4 Sep 2010
JON CARDINELLI reports on the Wallabies’ monumental and dramatic 41-39 win in Bloemfontein.
Saturday was a sad day for Springbok rugby. With the Boks’ fifth defeat of their 2010 campaign, they completed their spiralling journey to rock bottom. Since the start of this year’s Tri-Nations, they’ve surrendered the Tri-Nations title, the Freedom Cup, and now the Mandela Plate.
They’ve lost three consecutive games to the All Blacks, and allowed the Wallabies to break a losing streak on the Highveld that goes all the way back to 1963. If there’s any doubt that this nightmare’s reached it’s nadir, the doubters need look no further than the Tri-Nations log.
The broken records and surrendering of trophies aside, the manner of defeat in Bloemfontein was sickening. Most would have expected an improved Bok showing, and perhaps a lift in the Wallabies’ intensity and accuracy was largely underestimated. The visitors scored four tries in the first 27 minutes last week, but it took only 25 before they bagged the bonus point in Bloemfontein.
They failed to hang onto that lead, a fact that underscored their soft mentality. But Kurtley Beale showed some deep steel when he silenced 38 000 booing South Africans in the dying seconds. Beale’s penalty, from a difficult angle on the halfway line, was a hit and hope. As it sailed between the uprights, Beale’s team-mates celebrated while the Boks could only hang their heads.
David Pocock was prolific at the breakdown once again, slowing South Africa’s ball and affecting some crucial steals on his own tryline. The addition of Stephen Moore to the Wallabies pack added some grunt, while the selections of Mark Chisholm and Ben McCalman ensured the visiting lineout enjoyed plenty of momentum from the lineout.
The decision making and incisive running of the Wallabies backs translated that pressure into points early on, and Peter de Villiers’s failure to pick a specialist fetcher for the fourth game in succession meant the visiting team recycled their ruck ball at a frenetic pace. Will Genia darted while Quade Cooper surged and probed, also showing his versatility with several ground-gaining grubbers and chips.
While the Wallabies were accurate in the first half, their attack was helped by some shocking Bok defence. The home backline was cut time and again, the men in gold making linebreaks look embarrassingly easy. Matt Giteau kicked well to help the Wallabies to a 31-6 lead, and with the way they started, it seemed they would cruise to a comfortable victory.
But the Boks nabbed a try before half-time as the Wallabies began to lose composure. The home team was the more impressive of the two in the third quarter and when Gurthro Steenkamp barrelled over from close range, a repeat of Pretoria began to seem likely. Jean de Villiers ran a brilliant line in the 54th minute, and Morne Steyn’s conversion saw the Boks trailing by just 31-30.
Bryan Habana had another torrid evening, his missed tackle allowing James O’Connor to make the break that set up Rocky Elsom’s try. He was subbed early in the second half for Gio Aplon, who showed why defence is more about technique than it is about size.
But Habana wasn’t the only player guilty of errors. The Wallabies were far less accurate in the second half, both at the breakdown and with ball in hand. Genia throwing the ball over the dead ball line was the worst example, but costly, momentum-culling mistakes prevented the Wallabies from making ground.
Steyn goaled a penalty in the 62nd minute to earn the Boks the lead for the first time in the game, and amazingly, it was the Wallabies that looked the more desperate side. The Boks were on the verge of their second come-from-behind win, and the Wallabies were staring down their second implosion.
The moment of madness arrived when replacement hooker Saia Faingaa spike tackled Flip van der Merwe in the 69th minute. Steyn kicked the ensuing penalty and the Wallabies faced the impossible task of closing the gap with only 14 men.
Drew Mitchell snatched a try, but the one-short Wallabies defence could not repel the Boks for long. Beale slipped before receiving a pass and the rebound was run upfield by the hosts. A breakdown transgression allowed Steyn an opportunity from a difficult angle, and the South African sharpshooter slotted the penalty to regain the lead.
Unbelievably, the Boks conceded a penalty in the final minute when Van der Merwe went off his feet at the ruck, and Elsom asked Beale to have a crack for the unlikely win.
What makes this defeat especially hard to bear is that the Wallabies were missing a number of first-choice players, while the Boks were only missing Fourie du Preez and Heinrich Brussow. There is a lot wrong with the Boks at the moment and changes need to be made.
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335 Comments
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5 Sep 2010, 13:14 pm
@grant10(grant10)-249:
Okay, but if you’re all for form showing you the team closer to the WC for the rest, why won’t you allow Smit, Steyn and Spies the same privilege?
5 Sep 2010, 13:17 pm
anyone know what time we’ll know whether PdV is fired or not? this could be the best day in sa rugby since the world cup
5 Sep 2010, 13:20 pm
GREAT RESULT
The Boks deserved to lose even though the Aussies choked.
Cant suuport this lousy Bok team
although i thought Matfield was magnificent
5 Sep 2010, 13:21 pm
@Hooker22(Hooker22)-251:
Van Niekerk is far superior to Spies
5 Sep 2010, 13:22 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-204:
All you bok fans need to listen to this guy. He is a rear breed amongst the bok supporters who understands the issues and knows how to fix them.
5 Sep 2010, 13:27 pm
@superba(superba)-217:
Bok player picked up the ball in an offside position after it was knocked on by a team member.
5 Sep 2010, 13:42 pm
De Villiers has put full faith in his senior vanguard and his close confidants and they the ones who let him down ultimately on the field of play. Now the lily white bitter and twisted gall bladder contingent want to bury a sharpened kitchen knife between his shoulder blades. I reckon he should bale because he’s up the creek with no paddle, stuffed if he stays or stuffed if he goes, he’s in a no win situation either way they decide today.
The rugby following fraternity in this country the most fickle bunch of underhanded bigoted white twats you will find anywhere anytime. They want a white fool idiot that cries out for assistance from a washed up Aussie to bale their inadequacy or else a puppet stooge like Coetsee to toe the white mans whims and fanciful party line.
De Villiers should stay and shove these peoples snotty nosed whitey White opinions up their highfalutin nostrils. But if they gonna muzzle him and turn him into the white mans stooge they all looking for then bale out now because no way in hell you gonna appease this blood thirsty mob of howling heinous hyenas any which way you make your peace or apply your rugby application.
5 Sep 2010, 13:49 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-250: He won’t be fired because Hoskins is a politician and is in it for the wrong reasons. SARU is doing everything in their power to pander to politicians and not to rugby (new stadiums case in point).
5 Sep 2010, 13:57 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-257: Vent much? Need tissues? How about a Pap sak?
Dear me. Blame the coach. No blame lilly white Smit. No blame the coloured guy! Blame the white guy! Blame the guy with the moustache! Blame the crowd for being naughty. Blame the ref for looking like Tintin (Barnes does doesn’t he? LOL).
Blame Habana. No you can’t he was once IRB playe of the year so he will be brilliant FOREVER!!!!!
You people are all quite insane.
If you can’t handle each other then listen to the guys from across the oceans, they have no motives for saying anything other than the truth.
If you really want to ask the ‘right’ person, ask a Kiwi with more than 10% Maori ancestry so you don’t have to worry about the race thing and make sure at least one of his parents is a South African (so he isn’t saying things to make us lose).
Ask Brendan Canon too, he seems to know something.
Or you can continue to insult each other, the Australians for beating us with a combined age of about 12.3 and the Al Blacks for walloping us but being bad in World Cups. Somehow the fact that the All Blacks haven’t won a world cup in a while seems to make it okay for the Boks to be in a shambles.
All very odd.
5 Sep 2010, 13:59 pm
Hoskins is a two faced idiot that sold his own brother down the river. By stating they appointed De Villiers ‘not solely for rugby reasons’ and then endorsing it all along the mans tenure and giving the white anti De Villiers, pro Meyer lobby more fuel and ammo to stoke their ravaging bazookas with is almost tantamount to treason.
They should back off and leave the man to sink or swim by his own devices, if he’s inept and can’t cut it on the big stage his inadequacy will bear fruit of its own accord same as they allowed Streauli or White to live or die by their own reasons, decisions and devices.
5 Sep 2010, 14:02 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-259:
Habana is Pathetic
and your defence of him is sad
Smit has become a joke, pity that a Bok hero has not got
the integrity to retire because of his greed for the 2011
world cup
5 Sep 2010, 14:03 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-260: I think, to be fair Div was hung out to dry long ago. SARU appoint the guy and then make no attempt to help him with PR.
Not Divs fault no matter if he’s a great or terrible coach that PR isn’t his thing.
SARU should be ashamed for so many reasons.
5 Sep 2010, 14:03 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-258: the point is SARU is looking bad…Hoskins just might fire him for selfish reasons
5 Sep 2010, 14:04 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-260:
Hoskin is just trying to keep his job
like the ANC politicians, no different
5 Sep 2010, 14:05 pm
@Boksarenumber4(Boksarenumber1)-261: Come on surely you get sarcasm? I’m not defending Habana I am taking the p1ss out of people who do because he once won a trophy.
Read the thing again.
5 Sep 2010, 14:07 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-263: True, but firing the first non-white coach is going to be an awful balls up. Just shows what happens when you hire the wrong guy for the right reasons.
One more tenure of a Meyer etc and we’d have a decent non-white to put in the job for the right reasons and then this kind of thing would be a non-event.
Shortsighted sillyness costing all, including Snor.
5 Sep 2010, 14:11 pm
your a toss @ssed f’ck face goodthingtwat that shoulda f’ckd off long way back you underhanded little cowering piece of two faced lily white garbage. Punks the likes of your snot nosed schmuckadilly ponsified prat@ssed idiocy are the worst kind of f’ckwit second grade supporter this country needs. If this Black Magic schmuck thinks you the kind of idiot palooka this country needs as the voice of reason in this country then heaven help the rest of us, you the most diabolical piece of underhanded schmuck@ssed backstabbing scum anyone could ever hope to look up to. You’re trash garbage only you and idiots like this Black Magic ponce don’t know it, despicable second grade underhanded two face paleface tRd.
5 Sep 2010, 14:13 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-265:
lol my apologies, it was a rather lenghty comment
5 Sep 2010, 14:14 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-266: I have to ask, are Gold and Muir window dressing?
PDV hasnt been given the right backing from the get go.
5 Sep 2010, 14:14 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-267: And a happy day McMeal to you too Skoppie the Love Monster.
I suggest you have a lie down before you rupture something.
5 Sep 2010, 14:15 pm
yeah that was a little heavy handed of me, read into it what you will. If you see anything there that resembles something worth considering then consider it, otherwise toss it into the garbage can where it might be deserved. Your choice.
5 Sep 2010, 14:15 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-267:
dude if youy are not drunk you need anger management
i am white, do you have a problem with that punk?
5 Sep 2010, 14:16 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-267: Breathe
5 Sep 2010, 14:17 pm
@RugbyRulz(RugbyRulz)-269: I have to imagine that Gold and Muir were suggested by Smit. (or at least Muir). Going back to the Sharks days.
Whoever’s idea, they have to be two of the dumbest inclusions in test match rugby history.
And you are right, Div, whatever his shortcomings or wonderfulness has been woefully helped by SARU from day one. It’s like they appointed him to please Stofile and then ran away and watched, hoping he would implode to say I told you so. Odd.
5 Sep 2010, 14:18 pm
i would even be happy if a statement was made saying that no player is guaranteed a place in the wc squad and that every game leading up to the wc 2011 can be viewed as a trial.
Its the complacency that has been created that i detest the most.
5 Sep 2010, 14:19 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-271: “Scratching his head, not sure what just happened”
5 Sep 2010, 14:20 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-274: Yep, Jake puts up his hand and voila… Steady Eddie appears. I think SARU could pull their fingers out and back the guy.
Hey! I don’t know if this guy can coach, but give him a shot. Get in some experts and trim the dead wood.
5 Sep 2010, 14:22 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-266: i dont think race will be a factor and it shouldnt save him…if he was fired for just bad results alone, that would have been tricky for Hoskins, but PDV is consistently giving him more reasons to fire him.
Especially after he mentioned that he supports a white man who, could possibly be convicted of the murder of a black cop… The coach-the team-SARU… is looking very bad. PDV is a political liability and that will be enough reason to give Hoskins the get go to fire him…
5 Sep 2010, 14:24 pm
@RugbyRulz(RugbyRulz)-277:
Yes EDDIE was never given the credit he deserved for helping
the BOKS win the world cup, Jake could never have done it without him,
it was a brilliant decision to employ him
5 Sep 2010, 14:25 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-267:
Shut up you racist idiot…
So much for thinking you had some sense.
5 Sep 2010, 14:25 pm
@RugbyRulz(RugbyRulz)-277: Well yeah. If you didn’t vote for him then it’s not your problem but the guys who marked an X next to Div’s name should have been there to support him. If he’s good enough to get an X then it’s your duty to help him.
@Jeez(Jeez)-278: Well to be honest if that is the case then SARU and Hoskins may have dodged a bullet they deserve.
5 Sep 2010, 14:27 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-266: Agreed, unfortunately I think PDV lack of experience in PR (putting it lightly) and managing senior players egos is costing him games …
5 Sep 2010, 14:28 pm
Did you guys watch the england aussie world cup womens game?
The Aussie left wing took the england right wing out
with a tackle the ABs would have been proud of
5 Sep 2010, 14:33 pm
@Boksarenumber4(Boksarenumber1)-283:
The English and NZ Womens Rugby Teams are friggen awesome.
Frighteningly so.
They would give Franz Steyn nightmares.
5 Sep 2010, 14:33 pm
@Boksarenumber4(Boksarenumber1)-283: Saw a little of the game. I couldn’t believe the size of the English scrummy, she was quite quick too for a keg with legs.
5 Sep 2010, 14:36 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-284: There is one area in which Kiwi chicks are hotter than SAFFA chicks 0 the ones that play rugby (yours are hectic but ours are from planet gorilla biscuits.)
5 Sep 2010, 14:38 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-286: Geeez lost my $hit!
5 Sep 2010, 14:43 pm
got nothing to do with the color of your skin, got plenty to do with the color of your thinking, something all your highfalutin ducking and diving fancy footwork will never erode from your palefaced attitude. So call whoever you like as a racist. The ultimate racist is the one that judges people based on presupposed opinions around the color of their skin, and highfalutin white snotty nosed rugby supporters are riddled with the malady any which way you wanna try pretend they not.
5 Sep 2010, 14:45 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-288:
PDV is a f@ckup doesnt matter what colour he is
5 Sep 2010, 14:46 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-286:
“ours are from planet gorilla biscuits”
lmao
5 Sep 2010, 14:49 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-284:
It was the tackle of the year from the Aussie left wing
English wing could not get up for the rest of the match
5 Sep 2010, 14:52 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-288: Skop I think most people are intolerant but it’s not a colour thing, more a cultural thing.
Otherwise Hindus and Muslims would love each other and yet they don’t (at least in KZN).
English and Afrikaans would love each other and yet they don’t get each other.
Zulu/Xhosa etc etc etc.
That aside, do you really believe that Peter is a great coach, the best we could hope for and it’s the players who are the problem? Seriously 100% not his fault even in a tiny way. Even if he were Jan Smuts’ Great Grandson?
5 Sep 2010, 14:56 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-292:
i am not a racist
i hate all people equally
the human m.o.n.k.e.y race
smile m.o.n.k.e.y.s
while we destroy our planet
5 Sep 2010, 15:06 pm
@Springbokvel(Springbokvel)-208:
since when do you lose 2 Tests – at home, at altitude, with 3 weeks rest – and both at the death, despite the advantages… and its because youre “unlucky” ?
Perhaps the problem is that youve bought in to luck/external factors playing a part. Which appears to be Krustys problem too.
as if ‘Played 6 Won 1′ didnt already tell you enough.
@Boksarenumber4(Boksarenumber1)-254:
undoubtedly
5 Sep 2010, 15:11 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-294: The fact that the Boks were able to come back and beat the Wallabies once and almost twice is also telling.
It says that the Boks were beaten at home at altitude by a young immature Wallaby team that almost threw it away because of their inexperience vs the most experienced team in history.
Tell you what, that speaks even louder than P6 W1 as to the very very tragic state of the Bok 1st Team.
How many other test teams would throw away a lead like the Wallbies did? None because they have more experience. The Wobblies will only get better and this won’t happen again.
The guys who put on the Bok jersey and coach them disgrace the legacy.
5 Sep 2010, 15:19 pm
@RugbyRulz(RugbyRulz)-224:
100% correct. We had far more penetration with BJ on the field than with MS. Great kicker, yes, but there it ends.
I’m hoping that Jantjies will step up to the mark. Mvovo to replace Habbana and Lambie to replace JdV. then we’ll have a team that can attack with pace.
5 Sep 2010, 15:27 pm
@OCO(OCO)-296:
Jantjies is not the cure, he is part of the Bok disease
5 Sep 2010, 15:35 pm
then leave him be to prove it to you in no uncertain terms what a f’ck up he is.
So far he’s lost close encounters in the most demanding rugby competition on the planet, no 49-0 or 53-3 losses afforded to his white predecessors who were both allowed to see their tenures through to the WC, one of whom was bundled out the quarters by world no#1 team NZ, the other not even meeting any team ranked higher than 6th and fluking a p’ss easy WC win.
PdV is not without fault absolutely not by any standard, but to lose against Deans or Henry by close margins at the death does not equate to totally useless out his depth, because all his white predecessors proceded to lose against similar opposition by much higher margins and were spared the boot
He’s made some stupid mistakes and been taught valid lessons along they way as result of these, not unlike his white.counterparts before him. One went into the WC with stupid regimental type idiocy and lost in the quarters, another was so out his depth he called on an Aussie who had walked the road and utilized his WC acumen and experience to solidify his shaky out of depth base.
PdV has decided to utilize the experience of Smit and Matfield as his platform for his assault on the WC defence if his wrong then he’ll get the repercussion of his poor judgment. If he’s right an awful amount of raw egg beating going to be the end result.
5 Sep 2010, 15:43 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-298: If it isn’t about colour why did you mention the race of previous coaches 3 times?
Come now Skop, tell the truth and shame the devil. Peter could turn up at a game in a shower cap and a night gown and you’d still love him. Even if he picked a 75 year old transvestite as TH prop you’d think the man was on fire.
Truth Skop, is it about him being not white or about him being not White.
5 Sep 2010, 15:47 pm
Time to start planing for RWC 2015
(THE 2011 RWC trophy is a goner)
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