Boks latest – Beast misses training
22 Nov 2010
Keo.co.za brings you the latest from the Springboks’ end-of-year tour.
Beast misses training – Beast Mtawarira sat out of Monday’s training session due to a knee injury incurred in the Boks’ defeat to Scotland. The decision on the prop’s availability will be made later in the week.
Should Mtawarira fail to pass fit, CJ van der Linde will be considered as a replacement. This would lead to Coenie Oosthuizen coming onto the Bok bench.
The team for Saturday’s Test is due to be named on Tuesday.
Poms buzzing ahead of Bok clash – England No 8 Nick Easter says his side is feeling confident about the coming tussle with the Springboks. England beat Australia two weeks ago, and despite a lacklustre showing against Samoa, he felt there were positives.
‘We’d created chances but had not nailed them,’ Easter wrote in his Daily Telegraph column. ‘We did in the second half. In many ways, we’ll get as much from this as we did from Australia. We’ll have to bring the best of both performances to beat South Africa.
‘I’ve played against them five times and lost the lot. England have lost their last six against them. Trust the Scots not to do us a favour. It’ll be a wounded Boks who come to Twickenham. It’ll be a full-blooded affair. It always is.
‘We want to finish on a high note. It would put a dampener on the autumn if we don’t manage to do that, difficult as it will be. We’ve got to make the most of these moments, all the more so as this is the last chance we get to clock a win against the southern hemisphere before the World Cup.
‘There’s a buzz in camp. We’re very much up for it.’
Matfield regrets poor tactics – Springbok captain Victor Matfield said his side employed the wrong approach and that contributed to a crushing loss to Scotland. The Boks tried to run the ball, even though atrociously stormy conditions prescribed a percentage approach.
‘There has been a lot of talk about us needing to be more expansive in our approach and maybe we paid too much attention to that,’ said Matfield. ‘These weren’t the right conditions to play expansively, and we made too many mistakes in our own half that Scotland were able to punish instead of us getting the ball down into their territory and playing from there.’
Bok coach Peter de Villiers defended his decision to sub goal-kicking machine Morne Steyn for Pat Lambie in the second half. Lambie went on to miss a crucial kick.
‘If we look at the Morne Steyn incident in isolation then it might have been a mistake, but if you look at the bigger picture towards next year’s World Cup then you have to say that the players need to get experience of playing in these conditions,’ De Villiers offered.
Poms take aim at Boks – Despite a disappointing showing against Samoa, England are feeling confident about the coming clash with the Springboks. Manager Martin Johnson wasn’t satisfied with the performance against Samoa, but said the fact that England ground out a win was important.
‘We had to keep our composure and keep on playing and it was a good experience for them,’ said Johnson. ‘I think we’ve clearly taken steps. This week was a new experience – not all of it good, but in a sense it is good because things like not finishing, going behind in the second half, are all ultimately good experience.
‘We’ve got one big shot at the world champions next week. Everything about us has got to have a little bit more intensity and accuracy. If we’d got that against Samoa we could have scored two or three more but we didn’t.’
311 Comments
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21 Nov 2010, 13:53 pm
me too
21 Nov 2010, 13:54 pm
Too late for tears! Awful captaincy. And it was Scotland! 49-3 bullwhipped Scotland! Complacency killed you.
21 Nov 2010, 13:55 pm
So kicking the ball away constantly is now trying to play an expansive game?
21 Nov 2010, 13:56 pm
If that grim kickfest was “running the ball” or the Boks “expansive game” then what the devil would you call the AB’s game? Basketball?
21 Nov 2010, 13:58 pm
Vic is a momparra or a liar. Or both.
21 Nov 2010, 14:04 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler) : I agree with your comments funny enough, but will add that Big Vics comments are not accurately recorded here. He had been talking about the pressure recently of everyone wanting to play an expansive game, but “the” conditions haven’t warranted it. Meaning the Irish and Scotland games. So really Classic case of dubious headline and cutting and pasting certain sentences to makes it all sound so nasty…
21 Nov 2010, 14:05 pm
I’m flabbergasted. There I was, expecting Vic to lament kicking every shred of our posession away. Instead he regrets our expansive approach!!! WTF!!! When were we expansive? I missed that incident completely.
So he reckons the problem is we didn’t kick enough ball away?
And these are the people we expect to solve this problem?
21 Nov 2010, 14:05 pm
Its kinda awkward reading Tackler’s comments at the moment because you know he is typing with one hand, with his other hand cupping his “manhood”.
It is sad when the only two ways one can get ar0used are when the country of your birth loses a game of rugby, and thinking of a 275lbs Sonny-Bill Williams.
21 Nov 2010, 14:08 pm
@WOLFMAN21(WOLFMAN21) : My team wins; yours gets drilled by Scotland… hahahahaaa!
21 Nov 2010, 14:08 pm
vic is clueless as to what this ‘expansive’ animal is! if he thinks the kak they were doing on the field is anywhere near what playing expansively…
21 Nov 2010, 14:14 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler) : Time for you to reach over for the Kleenex, and experience the post-event guilt and loneliness, by the sounds of that post.
21 Nov 2010, 14:14 pm
Tackler is actually spot on with his comments today. And as for Vic’s comments, what he said is literally the exact opposite of what went wrong, it’s frightening to see our players so clueless.
21 Nov 2010, 14:15 pm
@TheToady(TheTackler) :
‘My team’? Please explain Tickles. Explain how the glory is yours. Please do.
21 Nov 2010, 14:17 pm
@Transformation(Transformation) : Again. He is being misquoted here guys. He had been popped the question, why aren’t you playing expansive rugby? To which he offered the reply:
“There has been a lot of talk about us needing to be more expansive in our approach and maybe we paid too much attention to that,’ said Matfield. ‘These weren’t the right conditions to play expansively”
He wasn’t saying they shouldn’t have played expansively. It shows you lack of rugger knowledge of A.) the interviewer and B.) Keo journo for just cutting and pasting and thinking of good headline.
21 Nov 2010, 14:20 pm
And these coaching geniuses are going to take us to the world cup? As a
Bok fan I am so disappointed, in the players, and the coaching team. The sharks would have beaten the Scots yesterday. Snor your time is up, your skill ceiling was reached a while ago. We must move on. Anyone else embarised by yesterdays display?
21 Nov 2010, 14:22 pm
@toddke(toddke) : hmm interesting, do you have a link to the full interview?
21 Nov 2010, 14:30 pm
Anyone seen the Dan Retief response? danretief.com
21 Nov 2010, 14:37 pm
“The Boks tried to run the ball” – LMFAO! You have got to be farking joking…
Thats it, these okes need to get back into the real world. This Bok bubble is causing fits of delusions!
21 Nov 2010, 14:37 pm
Dam if the boks consider that expansive imagine their kicking game. LMAO!!
21 Nov 2010, 14:40 pm
Wow if that is expansive then I don’t know what. Perhaps Vic is as delusional as his coaches…
Next he’ll start talking about Samson, flowing locks (ha ha) and being the chosen one.
Seriously, I am more concerned with that statement than I was watching yesterday.
21 Nov 2010, 14:40 pm
The boks are badly coached. The defense is pathetic. The defense line does not even come up they just stand on the game line. Then every now and again one player comes flying out the defensive line and leaves a huge gap.
The most creative thing are backs do is a scissor. We keep on attacking channel one were there are tons of defenders and dont even try and hit the gaps. We look like the bulls in there worst days when they could not win a game.
The coaches must go!!!!
21 Nov 2010, 14:40 pm
Looking at the amount of disrespect the Scots showed our back 3, we need a radical approach to our next match. The current back line just not doing the trick. We will be playing heavy condition again this weekend and will have to learn to adjust. The Poms will try to bash us around with their bigger players.
With what we have available (no back line), why not try something new?
1 Beast
2 Bismark
3 Jannie
4 Bakkies
5 Victor
6 Flip
7 Juan
8 Albets
9 Hougaardt
10 Steyn
11 Spies
12 De Villiers
13 Kankovski
14 Aplon
15 Steyn
16 Strauss
17 CJ
18 Coenie
19 Keegan
20 Ruaan
21 Lamb….ie
22 Mvovo
21 Nov 2010, 14:41 pm
Interesting how a lot of folks were blaming the Bokks poor performance on JS.
The truth is we have fantastic players in SA, had a very good S14 run and the CC final was played with a good mix of speed in the backs and strong forward play.
So, what’s going on now? No easy answer but my feeling is that there is a serious issue with the coaching staff and just maybe the players are revolting in the only way they know how.
Yesterday was simply appalling. No excuses can be justified.
TheTackler(TheTackler) Still here with your invidious comments I see. Missed the happy meal today, did you?
21 Nov 2010, 14:41 pm
and when we kick the ball we are not even giving ourselves a chance to win the ball back because the kick is to deep.
21 Nov 2010, 14:42 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game) :
Yep, that nasal spray is good shiit…
21 Nov 2010, 14:44 pm
I am actually not too pissed off we lost because the only chance we have of winning the WC is by getting new coaches.
21 Nov 2010, 14:50 pm
@JockBok(JockBok) : 25 lol. We can only laugh but that is another example of incompetence in the Bok setup – The team doctor!
21 Nov 2010, 15:00 pm
Really don’t know if we can believe everything we read, but that was no expansive game at all.
21 Nov 2010, 15:03 pm
Why didn’t Vic get Frans Steyn to kick for posts – id he can slot them over from 55m he can do it better from 25m – surely this is obvious? His big-match temperament is beyond dispute – see the conversion for the winning points against the All Blacks at Carisbrook – I prefer (on current form) Vic to John Smit as captain – but he had a shocking leadership game on Saturday – and all this business of ‘expansive play’ is beyond comprehension as an excuse because as #7 STIFF-ARM quite correctly points the Boks kicked all their possession away; even with a free kick to hand, trailing and olnly 3 minutes left on the clock … in short, it was the players as much as their forever-in-denial coach whose performance was MIND-NUMBINGLY, NIGHTMARE-BAD-DREAM UNACCEPTABLE.
21 Nov 2010, 15:06 pm
@toddke(toddke) : i said ‘if’…
21 Nov 2010, 15:07 pm
I think the games against wales and Ireland also caught up with the boks this week. They looked like they had rubber legs.
21 Nov 2010, 15:08 pm
So Lambie missed a kick, but so did Morne and Fransie. That never lost us the game. It was all the damn kicking and not keeping possession. Rain or no rain we have to start keeping our ball more. We gonna play in those conditions in NZ and no team will be kicking everything away like we are doing.
21 Nov 2010, 15:09 pm
@OhYeah(OhYeah) : 23. Good post!
21 Nov 2010, 15:09 pm
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper) : A good point about Frans Steyn.
21 Nov 2010, 15:11 pm
@Puma(Puma) :
The worst part is it was nothing kicking, We did not give ourselves a chance to even win the ball back off the kicks. The guys could not even kick the ball out. It was shocking skill, I don’t understand how the players skills can go backward so quickly.
21 Nov 2010, 15:13 pm
@Sonito(Sonito) : 35. But “The Boks tried to run the ball”
21 Nov 2010, 15:15 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game) :
O yeah I forgot.
21 Nov 2010, 15:18 pm
@Sonito(Sonito) : 35 – Sonito, Exactly our kicking was even terrible. We done the same in the Tri-Nations. If we need to kick it up field get the damn thing way out or make sure we can chase after the ball. We just kept kicking it back to them the same as we done in the Tri-Nations just giving our ball away time of time after time. Terrible to watch that kind of rugby really. We were just awful to watch.
21 Nov 2010, 15:18 pm
Head Coach: A.Coetzee
Backs: Eddie Jones
Forwards: Gert Smal
Defence & Analysis: Jake White
This coaching team meets all criteria, including political. Start Now. PLEASE!!!!
21 Nov 2010, 15:18 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game) :
21 Nov 2010, 15:20 pm
@Mistral(Mistral) : 39 – Would be good but that is just wishful thinking.
We keep playing like this we wont even make it out of our pool in next years world cup. Maybe just start thinking of wc 2015. Time seems far too short to turn it around for us. Well it seems that way right now.
21 Nov 2010, 15:21 pm
@Puma(Puma) : Missing that kick was crucial and from there unforgiveable.
Having slotted it would given the boys a chance, missing it sewed up the game.
A bad mistook.
21 Nov 2010, 15:21 pm
Will the powers that be have the balls to get rid of Div and the coaches, when England destroy the Boks? Surely its obvious now, that with him at the helm there is no chance of retaining the world cup. The 2 best provincial teams by some distance in the Super 14 and re-invented Sharks. The Boks have an embarrassment of riches, but all they are achieving at the moment is the embarrassment!
21 Nov 2010, 15:21 pm
@Puma(Puma) :
It actually shows how much we miss FDP because our whole kick and chase game plan was based on his kicking skill now that he is gone we have been exposed as not having a plan B.
21 Nov 2010, 15:23 pm
@Puma(Puma) :
Yip it going to be tuff to turn it around. It will need an experienced set of coaches.
21 Nov 2010, 15:28 pm
@Bhloo(redj) : no more crucial than any kick that is missed, including Morne and Frans’ miss. unless you are trying to imply that Lambie lost us the game?
21 Nov 2010, 15:32 pm
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong) : I doubt they will, Hoksins has shown his sack is either empty or so far inside he’s been mistaken for Castor Semenya on airport scanners
21 Nov 2010, 15:33 pm
@Puma(Puma) : hey puma, lambie’s kicking is not up to snuff…i know u adore him mate but he still needs to work on it…
21 Nov 2010, 15:33 pm
his quotes are taken out of context as far as i know. in other articles form more reputable sources he refers to the boks wanting to play an expansive game untill the weather turned 3 hours before KO.
i mean come on who would believe we were playing an expansive game?
21 Nov 2010, 15:34 pm
There was so much wrong with yesterdays game it’s almost to numerous to mention. Just abysmal. No excuses.
I’m actually amazed that anyone in the Bok camp can say anything other than just one of the worst Springbok performances in recent memory. Nothing positive to take out of it at all.
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