Big Joe drives Baa Baas win
29 May 2011
Joe van Niekerk helped the Barbarians to a 38-32 victory over England at Twickenham on Sunday.
Van Niekerk was one of two Springboks in action for the famous club, as Ruan Pienaar started the game at scrumhalf. It was a superlative display by the Toulon-based loose forward, and some powerful ball-carrying contributions eventually culminated in a five-pointer early in the second half.
England started the game well, shooting to a commanding 24-7 lead, but an intercept try by Freddie Michalak marked the start of the Baa Baas’ comeback. They eventually took the lead on the hour when George Smith dived over in the corner.
Tom Johnson scored for England in the 73rd minute to set up a dramatic end to this encounter. Poor defence at the death allowed the Barbarians to counter-attack, and Van Niekerk’s run and offload set up the winning try for Tim Visser.
While England were missing a few key players, the result will concern manager Martin Johnson who has three months to prepare this side for the World Cup. The Boks lost to the Baa Baas last November, but it was a game that featured second- and third-choice players and was staged at the end of a demanding southern hemisphere season.
30 Comments
29 May 2011, 17:20 pm
damn, missed this one.
29 May 2011, 17:37 pm
Nice game and will someone please tell me who is Tim Visser!!!!!!!
29 May 2011, 17:38 pm
JVN also a much better bet than Spies….
How did Ruan play?
29 May 2011, 17:39 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-2: He’s from Holland
29 May 2011, 17:40 pm
@grant10(grant10)-3: And Ruan much better than Grant
29 May 2011, 18:01 pm
He is hot.
Ag nee man scotland man!
At least they lost to Kenya.
29 May 2011, 18:25 pm
gee, thank God there were Safas on the Baabaa team. They would have lost without them……
(for the record, Big Joe scored 1 of the 4 tries. And he had a mixed bag of a game, as BBC Sport report tells us:-
“A strong drive from Marler, bouncing off Springboks flanker Joe van Niekerk, earned England a penalty that Hodgson – to the sound of mild booing from the crowd – kicked to nudge the hosts 10-7 ahead.
Their second try arrived in the 19th minute as Banahan sucked in the Baa-Baas midfield on a dummy run, Hodgson released Simpson-Daniel and he and Mike Brown put Monye into space.
The Harlequins wing chipped inside and when Nicolas Jeanjean failed to secure the ball, Monye stooped over the full-back and dabbed the ball down, Hodgson adding a second conversion for a 17-7 lead.
Simpson-Daniel then profited from Narraway’s good work in collecting a Michalak kick and leaving his opposite number Sergio Parisse for dead with a dummy before feeding his Gloucester team-mate.
Simpson-Daniel, who made his reputation when he embarrassed the great Jonah Lomu in the same fixture nine years ago, stepped inside Ruan Pienaar to finish in dazzling style.
That proved to be the high-point of England’s afternoon, as the Barbarians got on top in the scrum and started to dominate at the breakdown.
The hosts lost Bath-bound flanker Carl Fearns to the sin-bin for killing the ball at a ruck six minutes before half-time and the Barbarians should have immediately capitalised.
With a man advantage at the scrum, they worked a perfect opening only for Van Niekerk to waste the scoring chance with a forward pass to Sackey, released by Toulon and sporting the pink socks of Stade Francais, a sign perhaps of where he will be playing next season.”.)
29 May 2011, 18:25 pm
Tom Visser’s a top try scorer of Magners Leauge this year and will qualify for Scotland soon.
Ruan was very good as usual , good understanding with crazy Freddy Michalak ( a glass of champaigne before the penalty kick it was great!) Later in the game Ruan moved to 10 as Freddy was injured.
29 May 2011, 18:33 pm
in truth, it was a fairly average game watched by a below-average crowd played by 2 below-average teams (no, no indictment on SA, for those concerned). The Engl team was full of miscreants and leftovers given that the premiership Final was played the day before at the same venue.
BaaBaa matches that are not part of EOYT’s are now ‘look away’ car crash moments. They cant give tickets away, very sad indeed.
29 May 2011, 18:44 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-2:
The son of Div Visser
he is actually a genuine ********
@grant10(grant10)-3:
JvN is by far the best 8th man and did nothing to undermind the prception
29 May 2011, 18:52 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-9:
These Babas teams put together ad hoc with no real time to build any team cohesion
Also they picked mostly 3rd graders except Pienaar, JvN, Paries, Babie and Michalak,
It was a non event in rugby terms
29 May 2011, 19:15 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-7:
While you’ve posted that report, maybe you can help me out with a bit of English language tutelage, as there’s something that’s been bothering me for some time.
Why are reporters always referring to “the England flanker”or “the South Africa lock” or the ”Australia” wing or even the “Springboks” or All Blacks”(plural) prop? To me – as a non-native English speaker – that sounds wrong.
Surely it should be the “English” flanker, the “South African” lock, the ”Australian” scrumhalf or the “Springbok or All Black (singular) wing.
Is it a recent thing or did they always refer to it in this manner? It just sounds strange on the ear.
29 May 2011, 19:15 pm
Scottish d u t c h m a n
What a combo
It was a good game to watch
29 May 2011, 19:22 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-12:
to say the ‘England prop’ means he’s played for the team ‘England’. To be, merely, ‘English’ refers only to his nationality but does not mean he has, in fact, played for ‘England’. So they are grammatically correct, if not technically.
29 May 2011, 19:24 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-14:
How about referring to someone as the All Blacks wing versus the All Black wing?
To me the All Black wing sounds much more appropriate.
29 May 2011, 19:24 pm
What’s with all the doomsaying.
Non-event it might have been but I can think of worse ways to pass a sunday afternoon
29 May 2011, 19:29 pm
And they play wales next week so more baabaas
And I have seen enough eye candy and good rugby to see me through the blasted coming week
29 May 2011, 19:30 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-14:
Also, if the Australian army invades Sumatra, is a Sumatran going to say: “There’s an Australia infantryman”, or “Jeepers, there’s a bloody Australian infantryman?”
29 May 2011, 20:12 pm
Big Joe still got it, but he needs to play S15 first. Ruan did well, but he is no 10…. although he could be useful for the Stormers at 10.
29 May 2011, 20:21 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-18: Australian in your example on post 18.
As much as it pains me to say so, BP is correct with his explanation.
29 May 2011, 20:50 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-7: BP…you are a **** of note…..from the same report…
“Fijian Tekori outstripped the England midfield before releasing the charging Van Niekerk.
The powerful South African was stopped just short, but still conjured an off-load off the floor for Visser to finish, Pienaar converting with the last kick of the match.”
Take thelittle chip off your shoulder and give credit where it is due.
29 May 2011, 20:51 pm
BP….the word astericked is K_N_O_B
29 May 2011, 20:55 pm
@XV(XV)-21: That is just another thing he is not capable of doing.
29 May 2011, 21:17 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-18: Meneer I just say there is the ou with the ball tackle him ne ?
29 May 2011, 22:52 pm
@XV(XV)-21:
K-n-o-b is being complimentary……………..biscuits anyone?
30 May 2011, 01:33 am
@XV(XV)-21:
?!?
I didnt write that report.
Im on record here as being a huge fan of Joe van Niekerk, an awesome player.
Grow a spine – the BBC report was more detailed and balanced than this one, thats the only ‘point’, if there was one.
What is it with you girls – is there a need for all SA players to be acknowledged as Supermen before your delicate dispositions arent damaged ?
30 May 2011, 01:36 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-15:
but ‘England’ are not known by anything other than ‘England’. Noone talks about ‘New Zealand’ in rugby team terms, its always the ‘All Blacks’, no ? If theyre a non-AB, it will be ‘New Zealander’, which is consistent with what I was saying.
You asked, i answered. Not passing an opinion because thats a crime around here, even when you cut’n'paste others (aye, Transie).
30 May 2011, 01:43 am
@Michael(mikeybrass)-20:
whats with the ‘pain’ Mikey Boy ?
really, girls, time to grow up a little innit.
30 May 2011, 01:46 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-18:
Youve gone from rugby players to infrantrymen ?!
do men now ‘play’ for their country at war too ?
30 May 2011, 01:50 am
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-23:
In order to prove your ‘point’, whatever that may be, youve chosen to ignore anything positive and focus, solely, on the negative. Ive been glowing here about Big Joe, I made him my MoM from Carisbrook, 2008.
Silly bunch of teenage girls.
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