Boks to fight fire with an inferno
27 Sep 2011
The Springboks intend to outbully the confrontational Samoans in Friday’s Test at North Harbour Stadium.
After a disappointing campaign in the Pacific Nations Cup, Samoa stunned the rugby world when they beat the Wallabies 32-23 in Sydney. Many believed the historic win signalled the beginning of something special, and the massive Samoan contingent in the greater Auckland area moved to buy tickets to the Samoa vs South Africa World Cup pool clash on 30 September.
The North Harbour Stadium will be at full capacity this coming Friday. There is a big South Africa-fan base in that part of New Zealand, but it won’t compare to the number of spectators clad in the blue of Samoa.
Both sets of fans will be expecting a physical romp, and there’s good reason to believe that this Samoa side will be tougher to top than sides of previous years. While they’re as physical as their predecessors, they play with more structure and purpose.
The Boks have taken note of Samoa’s performances at the 2011 tournament. They weren’t quite good enough to beat Wales, although they were competitive for large parts of that match. They steamrolled Namibia and hammered Fiji. They’re unlikely to dominate the Boks upfront, but there’s no doubt that they will try to win the battle at the collisions.
It will be a bruising contest, and there may be casualties if neither side is willing to move away from an attritional approach. Samoa have already spoken about moving the ball around, but the Boks intend to take the islanders on at the coalface no matter the cost.
It’s a strategy that should bring them the desired rewards, but they will be hoping that it doesn’t lead to further injuries to key players a week out from a quarter-final against Australia.
Bok centre Jaque Fourie said that playing two intensely physical matches back-to-back shouldn’t be a problem for this South Africa team. Following last week’s win against Namibia, the Boks enjoyed a couple of days rest, and Fourie believes this has made all the difference. The Boks have used this time to recharge and prepare themselves for an all out war at the point of contact.
‘It’s going to be physical, I’m sure we’re going to be feeling the bruises afterwards,’ said Fourie. That’s why it was important that we had the break. Your body needs to be fresh, but your mind needs to be fresh as well.’
Several players have stood out for Samoa in this tournament. Scrumhalf Kahn Foutali’i, who also plays for the Crusaders in the Super 15, has been one of the more direct No 9s while the 120kg winger Alesana Tuilagi will be an attacking threat if he’s brought into the line. Centre Seilala Mapusua is another who will look to impose himself in the tackle.
Fourie played down the threat of these individuals. While he acknowledged their talents, he believes the collective is more dangerous than before because Samoa are now using their natural talent and inclination for contact to pursue a common goal.
‘They’re a very physical team, and as is the case with the Fijians, if you allow it to get loose, they will punish you. If your kicking game and first-phase is not up to standard, they will punish you.
‘All round they’ve got a good team, so we’re not going to focus on one or two players. They stay in their structures, so we have to look at how we are going to beat the team rather than the individuals. They’re dangerous in broken play, but they seem to be even more dangerous now that they’re structured.
‘I think they’ve modelled their game on how the All Blacks play.’
The Boks have the pack to boss the islanders proving they don’t go into the game with a complacent attitude. They will also need to take the fight to the islanders in midfield, and this is where men like Frans Steyn, Fourie and even Jean de Villiers will need to prove their worth.
‘They’re very direct and physical, there’s no funny business,’ said Fourie. ‘You know what to expect, they just come straight and hard, and there defence is good as well.
‘We need to be clinical in what we want to do; we need to be as direct and physical as we can be.’
In the build up to the Fiji and Namibia matches, the Boks promised to play direct, pragmatic rugby. What transpired against Fiji was a looser albeit profitable approach against a weak defence. The Boks were also too adventurous during the early stages against Namibia, and the loss of structure led to frustration and unnecessary errors.
As Fourie suggests, the clash against Samoa will require a lift in accuracy and intensity. The Boks should beat Samoa, but their success will be determined by their ability to maintain a high standard over the course of 80 minutes. A consistently physical effort will ensure they beat the Samoans by a comfortable margin and take some much needed momentum into the play-offs.
By Jon Cardinelli, in Taupo
537 Comments
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27 Sep 2011, 06:02 am
Bring it On!
27 Sep 2011, 06:04 am
The reward for wining this game a 1/4 final with Australia.
27 Sep 2011, 06:06 am
Samoa is only a tier 2 team, so what’s the hoo-hah about? Boks should cream them by at least 30.
27 Sep 2011, 06:32 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-3:
Shoul I say it now or wait untill it happens?
Four more years…..
Cant wait for your 1 comment on how the all bleghs choked again.
27 Sep 2011, 06:47 am
Going into battle with the Bismarck is a good idea, moer hulle Bissy.
27 Sep 2011, 06:57 am
Don’t you people have editors Keo?
“The Boks have the pack to boss the islanders proving they don’t go into the game with a complacent attitude.”
“They’re very direct and physical, there’s no funny business,’ said Fourie. ‘You know what to expect, they just come straight and hard, and there defence is good as well.”
27 Sep 2011, 07:12 am
@Esoteric(Esoteric)-6: nope, they’re in kiwiland posting articles with typos & kak grammar
27 Sep 2011, 07:20 am
This will be a good warm up game for the Boks before the Australian game. The Boks are one of those teams that improve the more they play and I believe that they should win this one easily, 25 – 30 points.
27 Sep 2011, 07:20 am
The key here will be to escape injury-from this encounter with the head hunters.
27 Sep 2011, 07:27 am
And of course Butch James should’ve started due to his amazing defensive ability right JC?
Spose he’s got a little hip injury right now, so I can’t see him coming near the match 22 for the rest of the tournament…
27 Sep 2011, 07:39 am
The Western Samoosas in for a hiding.
I wonder if Derick Hougaard will miss playing in this game?
27 Sep 2011, 07:44 am
Yep Gunther… the Islanders are gonna have their bonus cheques from the NZRFU at the back of their minds…
Beat us and there’s a general team bonus… Send someone off injured and another team bonus with a personal bonus thrown in for the individual who sends him off…
Also bonuses for goading the Boks into retaliatory strikes and having them sin-binned and banned…
Boks must play well but keep their discipline… especially Energiser Bunny Bismarck… he WILL be targeted for special attention…!
27 Sep 2011, 07:52 am
i dont like this…i dont like this one bit.
somebody’s gonna get hurt i fear.
27 Sep 2011, 07:54 am
@ufo(ufo)-12:
Indeed.
Who can forget the dude at the last world cup who pretended that frankie steyn bit him?
Very embraboer.
The boys just need to keep their calm and do their normal wrecking job on the moans.
27 Sep 2011, 07:58 am
@Gunther(gunther)-14:
hundreds
27 Sep 2011, 07:58 am
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-2:
and the reward for winning that game…a semifinal with new zeeland.
.
.
who’s crying now?….
27 Sep 2011, 08:01 am
In the past teams just had to keep it tight until the Samoans tired, and the it was game over. Not quite that easy any more. Hopefully no serious injuries out of this match, but unlikely.
27 Sep 2011, 08:03 am
anyone know who our ref is…?
bryce lawrence per chance…?
27 Sep 2011, 08:06 am
eeerrrh makwedini, ezithembileyo mayhize nganeno.
27 Sep 2011, 08:09 am
Yep, better watch out, Steve Tew has emtied the NZRU wallet to have the Samoans cause havoc to the health of the Bokke.
Dear me, and the sad thing is some of you actually believe it.
27 Sep 2011, 08:12 am
fights = guns & stuff….
just play rugby and that will be enough… imo
27 Sep 2011, 08:13 am
or in some instances,
fight = swinging handbags
27 Sep 2011, 08:14 am
@Brads(Brads)-20:
saddest of all brads… is that some of you actually believe that some of us actually believe it…
27 Sep 2011, 08:16 am
Strong team indeed.
27 Sep 2011, 08:19 am
@ufo(ufo)-23:
27 Sep 2011, 08:20 am
Spies is best 8 in WC
27 Sep 2011, 08:22 am
Smit’s captaincy, linouts, scrumming and general leadership is vital to our defense of the cup.
Bissy is a better blind side flank and should be given a run there…. just like Mark Andrews beefed up our back row in ’95 and Russouw did the same in ’07, we should let Bissy come of the bench and replace Burger after 50mins.
27 Sep 2011, 08:35 am
@capebull(capebull)-26:
Maybe the best looking 8th man, but his play is still 40% rumour, 60% substance
27 Sep 2011, 08:37 am
@capebull(capebull)-26:
daai sardien is al droog man!. 
27 Sep 2011, 08:37 am
@capebull(capebull)-26: He has been good this WC. Making lots of metres and breaking tackles.
27 Sep 2011, 08:38 am
@Helen(Helen)-27: Don’t agree , Alberts is much better, Bizzy has , strength but no skill , he does not/can not pass the ball.
Bit like Beast he cost us 2 tries with not passing , I hope he sort this out.
We need Beast / Danie to hit rucks not stand in backline to run the ball
27 Sep 2011, 08:41 am
@Staal(Staal)-29: Ek dog, ek kyk net wie’s wakker
27 Sep 2011, 08:41 am
@ufo(ufo)-23:
No I don’t believe it, but it did get you to admit that most of the digs at NZ here on Keo are based on fantasy.
27 Sep 2011, 08:42 am
@capebull(capebull)-31: Agreed Bismarck trumps Smit in a lot of categories but Smit’s ball skills are great.
27 Sep 2011, 08:43 am
he’s had a few storming runs so far.
27 Sep 2011, 08:46 am
Almal praat van n8 van Italie , hy het sopas 2 passes in stands in gepass
27 Sep 2011, 08:48 am
@capebull(capebull)-26: The best 8 at this World Cup, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, has just been ruled out of the rest of the tournament. Huge blow to Argentina’s prospects of progressing.
The next best 8 is Sergio Parisse. Or Willem Alberts, if you regard him as an 8.
27 Sep 2011, 08:49 am
@capebull(capebull)-36:
Voor of na hy sy drie gedruk het?
27 Sep 2011, 08:50 am
@Brads(Brads)-33: Fantasy? Like the abuse of Aussie supporters – spitting and swearing – by “welcoming” Kiwis? Like a video made of Mike Tindall by a very creepy, and quite crazy, Kiwi bouncer. Mmmm, fantastical.
27 Sep 2011, 08:51 am
Sergio Parisse is the best all-round 8th man in the world.
27 Sep 2011, 08:51 am
@Mr Black(Mr Black)-38: lol
@>^..^< katman(katman)-37: That is a very big blow!
27 Sep 2011, 08:53 am
oh, i thought you were talking about spies.
27 Sep 2011, 08:53 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-39:
Oh, so you say none of it is fantasy then?
27 Sep 2011, 08:55 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-39: @Brads(Brads)-33:
“A BLACK MARK ON TAUPO
Kevin McCallum
“Tik! Tik! Get your fresh tik here! Special price today! While stocks last! Coke to make you joke! Crack that will put you on your back! Mandrax! Cat! Dagga to make you lagga! Heroin to make you spot trains! E’s to make the bunnies funny!”
Vata Ngobeni, the rugby writer for the Pretoria News will be greeted by those words, or something very similar, for the next month of this Rugby World Cup after he was detained on suspicion of dealing in drugs by the police in Taupo on Saturday night.
We, his mates, will rag him for the rest of the tournament, and there is over a month to go. That’s four weeks of mocking, ragging and taking the p***. We will not stop. That’s because we are kids and being on a sports tour is a big school jol with the same sort of rules and behaviour.
Yet, what happened to Vata pierced that cocoon. In his column he describes how he was detained, searched, released and, with profuse apologies, let go.
Vata was the only black man in The Shed in Taupo on Saturday night. I had been there earlier with Mike Greenaway for the All Black-France match. Not a jot of bother for us, though – a few drunks, a few desperate New Zealand women, also drunk, a few Poms singing and swinging a chariot. “One of the officers approached me and told me that I fit the description of a man they were looking for who offered one of the patrons narcotics but I denied the allegation,” wrote Vata.
On Monday, he told me the police told him he was detained under Section 29 and that they would be searching him. He offered to let them search him there and then, and identified himself as a South African journalist. They insisted he go with them to the station. Vata was furious.
The only black man in the bar and they zeroed in on him. Believe me, there are a few honkies in the SA contingent who look dodgier than Vata. It’s not the first time black South African sports journalists have been treated differently on tour.
In 2003 I was in a place in downtown Brisbane with Greenaway. Liam Del Carme called me. The bouncer outside wouldn’t let himself, Echbert Boesak (then with SABC), Simnikiwe Xabanisa (then of the Sunday Times) and Owen Nkumane (former Bok, then of SABC) in. I walked out and confronted the bouncer. Not my brightest move, but I was three vodkas down and brave. I asked him why they couldn’t come in. He pointed to their shoes and said they were not “clubby or funky enough”. I pointed to the shoes of the very white boys behind me in the bar and said they were exactly the same. He got stroppy. So did I. “Call your boss.”
The boss came. He towered over me. “Problem, sir?” Ah no. I’m going to die in Brisbane. “Come stand over here and let’s chat, sir.” Ah no. He doesn’t want to kill me in front of the customers. Deep breath. “Your bouncer here won’t let my mates in. We’re South African journalists on tour. They’re wearing the exact same clothes as people inside. Mate, is it because they are four black guys in a crowd?” He looked at my mates, at me, then spoke to his bouncer: “You’re absolutely right, sir. Let them in.”
Vata is one of my closest friends and colleagues. We speak often about rugby and of how one day it may become the first black, Afrikaans-speaking sport in South Africa. Taupo has been good to the South Africans, but Saturday night will be a stain on the town for us from now on, which is a pity.
Vata is black. He can’t dance, though, but he’s black and he was picked out of a crowd because of that. It’s sad that it happened in the land of the All Blacks. – The Star “
27 Sep 2011, 08:57 am
@Brads(Brads)-43: Awesome World Cup, but some very silly Kiwis. As evidenced by a couple who “grace” this rather Bok aligned site with their presence…
27 Sep 2011, 08:58 am
@WP Till I Die(WP-Forever)-44: ” a few desperate New Zealand women”….?
Only a few?
27 Sep 2011, 08:59 am
got to agree WPTID
if that man was in SA, hed have been beaten, lynched and killed for being black, the drug dealing part would have been used in the cover up afterwards..
27 Sep 2011, 09:00 am
This blog should be hosted under the South African Race Relations Institute.
27 Sep 2011, 09:01 am
My post 45 Validated by post 47.
27 Sep 2011, 09:01 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-47:
Poppa69, could you please refrain from these racists comments and generalisations. I am asking nicely, from one human to another.
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