Score flattered Boks, says Knuckles
15 Jul 2006
Wallabies coach Knuckles Connolly landed another blow to the concussed Boks in Brisbane. He felt the score should have been bigger.
Connolly told the media that despite the 49-0 massacre he felt his team had left points on the field through some poor finishing and sloppiness.
The Wallabies scored six tries and were three times held up when crossing the line, but Connolly said the 49 should have had a bit more to it.
“We left points on the field and with better finishing and better option-taking we could have won by more,” said Connolly. “But the win has given us confidence for our next match against the All Blacks.
“We are happy and will have a good party tonight. But the next 14 days will be hard work. We can improve and we are not near our full potential.”
Connolly also said that the Wallabies were never concerned the Boks would batter them as the All Blacks had a week ago.
“We always felt we could stand our man and knew what we wanted to do. At halftime we had laid the platform and we just had to ensure we kept them on the back foot.”
30 Comments
15 Jul 2006, 22:03 pm
Scary. 1st?
15 Jul 2006, 22:06 pm
Good thing I havent paid for any of my tri-nations test match tickets yet. They’re now good enough to whipe your *** with.
15 Jul 2006, 22:07 pm
I’m going to say it again.
YOU CAN’T PLAY INTERNATIONAL RUGBY WITHOUT AN OPENSIDE FLANK. OTHER NATIONS REALISED THIS IN THE LATE SEVENTIES. HAS SA FINALLY LEARNT??
LUKE WATSON TO FLY TO NZ TODAY??? Pienaar and Butch would help too.
15 Jul 2006, 22:12 pm
The boks were lucky to get 0!
15 Jul 2006, 22:30 pm
Oddly, Connolly was never going to admit that the ABs had “left points on the field” after his dismal showing last week. Instead he whinged how the gap was too large and not reflective.
I never had much time for Knuckles. Now I have even less.
15 Jul 2006, 22:50 pm
Dalek, just not true.
England beat Australia and came within a gnats whisker against the ABs last year at HQ without an open-side flanker.
15 Jul 2006, 23:05 pm
Delek
Luke Watson will not save this Bok team.
I think it is actually a blessing not be in this team.
They have 4 weeks left on tour. I don’t want to see the score in their last game against Oz.
It is scary stuff.
15 Jul 2006, 23:20 pm
ST M
BUT England were at their very best and WON A WORLD CUP with Neil Back very prominent, one of the best opensiders in the business.
Almost every team that has won a world cup had an excellent opensider/fetcher type player operating (except maybe Aus in ’91)
87 NZ – Michael Jones
91 Aus – Willie Ofahengaue (OK not opensider)
95 SA – Ruben Kruger
99 Aus – David Wilson
2003 England- Neil Back
16 Jul 2006, 00:23 am
Knuckles we will take again later.
16 Jul 2006, 01:15 am
A lot can happen in 7days let alone 14. This is the wake-up call SA rugby needed before the WC.
16 Jul 2006, 01:51 am
knuckles is right latho had a clear opportunity with a line break of about 30 metres he only had to pass it to his support but the ball slipped in doing so. a couple of chances with overlaps. tuquiri and gerrard didn’t get much ball. when gerrard got it a few times it was at first receiver and set up giteau’s first try by sucking in jaco and olivier
16 Jul 2006, 03:08 am
wie laaste lag, lag die lekkerste
16 Jul 2006, 05:52 am
St Mic, it is true accoridng to your fellow countrymen.
Every English disucssion on various rugby boards seems to center around finding a opensider better than Lewis Moody.
16 Jul 2006, 06:40 am
Delek, in 1991 Australia had Simon Poidevin as openside flanker. Poido was capped 59 times and captained the Wallabies. Was a hell of a player – hard, physical, determined, a real warrior.
But I’m sure if you named the flyhalves or halfbacks or a couple of other positions, there would be some great names there too !
16 Jul 2006, 09:11 am
Thanks NAAFI. You further prove my ravings about the need for a specialist openside loose forward, something lost on most South Africvan coaches.
But they seem to be seeing the light after years of dismal results where they just haven’t competed at the breakdown.
16 Jul 2006, 09:25 am
I think that we played rather well.
We kept the score below 50.
Can you guys imagine what the score would have been if we played poorly?
16 Jul 2006, 09:26 am
With those three held ups we could’v been looking at 70-nil.
16 Jul 2006, 10:30 am
Jake cleverly picked FduP as a specialist try holder-upper. Nobody in world rugby has ever thought of that before! I bet FduP benchpresses a whole Ford Cortina with 4 Blue Bull forwards sitting in it!
16 Jul 2006, 11:09 am
What is he smoking? Let’s not believe his bluff. Is the same guy he found it impossible to give the AB’s their due last week. Instead he blamed the match official. He came to his senses during the week and prepared properly. He was led by his nose by the Irish who talked them up in the build-up of TriNation’s/Bledisloe opener.
Jake seems to have followed him by critising the ref as well, and now will spin this sorry state of affairs. For how long can he fool us?
Spin brother, spin!
16 Jul 2006, 11:15 am
Got to agree with “Knuckles” it could very easily have been more and the Wallabies should feel that despite the drubbing they let us off the hook at the end.
16 Jul 2006, 12:14 pm
rasta, no-one would argue with the facts of what he says, it’s just not for him to say that’s all.
Something about good character being humble in victory and gracious in defeat…in 2 weeks he proven he has neither character attribute.
16 Jul 2006, 13:15 pm
Ricane,
Please explain the difference between Graham Henry’s statements of last week that NZ deserved to win by more and Knuckles comments of last night.
16 Jul 2006, 13:52 pm
When did Henry do that Clyde?
Even if he did, that doesn’t make Knuckles right, it just makes them both wrong.
16 Jul 2006, 13:55 pm
Post 18—Tackles,
Keep up the good work.
Extenuate the positives.
16 Jul 2006, 14:02 pm
Chiefsfan,
Your post 190- Boks Slaughterd.
Well said.
16 Jul 2006, 17:02 pm
Connolly is so right. The score should have been 70 without loss.
16 Jul 2006, 19:47 pm
This is what u get when u pick mostly Bulls in the boks team. Ironically the one Bull player who deserved to start was on teh bench and he was just about SA best player when he came on FDP.Knuckles is right , most refs would have missed that 3 saves of FDP when he held the ball up and credit to the ref for being in such a great position !! And to think Jake blames the ref ? Pathetic , The scoreline flatters us and thats a frightening thing to say.
I say make Luke Captain , sorry to beat this drum but we clearly need a openside and we clearly lack leadership. The worst part of yesterdays loss was after the game when guys like Matfield and John Smit was smiling as they shaked hands , whats the fluck was that all about ? Unless u like it up the bum which is what the wobblies did to us there was nothing to smile about after the game
17 Jul 2006, 01:17 am
Chiefs – Henry stated very clearly in his after match press comments NZ deserved to win by more – more agressively than Connolly. In my view Connolly has taken both the bad and the good calmly and not made excuses or gloated. I also think we are well on the way to cutting out the rubbish, pathetic excuses and puerile games Eddie Jones used to sprout – White tried it this week and made a complete drongo of himself. The media of course try to beat up controversy before a test – last year in England the Aus media spent most of the week pre-game lamenting the fact that Woodward wasn’t there for the kindy name calling that him and Jones used to go on with.
17 Jul 2006, 05:20 am
The only positive that we take out of this game is
THE BLOODY SCORE DID’NT GO OVER 50!
This only shows our lack of depth and over dependance on key players (Schalk,Vic,Bakkies,JDV etc).If we lose them we’re done.
This is a result of Jake’s insistance of Consistancy and refusing to bloody new players early.
But now that Jake has at least made an attempt to bloody new boys (Olivier,Spies,Akona etc),I say it can be a good thing in the long run.
Yeah give Watson a run as a the fetcher and BJ a run at tighthead.Where the hell is Guthro when you need him ??
But forget abt this Vodacom TN.Lets use it instead to blood the new boys.Something we should have done in the past two years EOYT.
17 Jul 2006, 08:01 am
It did flatter us, Fourie saved 10 -14 points.
Anvil, I agree, blood new players as we were never going to beat the Kiwis and win the 3n.
The loss is hardly a train smash.
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