PdV: Bruising clash a boost
30 Sep 2011
Peter de Villiers says that Friday’s clash served as ideal preparation for the quarter-finals but doubts the Wallabies or All Blacks will be as physical as Samoa.
The Boks controlled the game in the first stanza but barely managed to keep the islanders at bay in the final quarter. They have now won all four of their pool games, but are yet to deliver a performance worthy of title-contenders.
Despite the obvious failings, the Springbok coach was in high spirits following South Africa’s 13-5 win at North Harbour Stadium.
‘We didn’t plan for it, but this kind of preparation will be valuable for us going forward in the tournament. You will never find a more physical game again in the World Cup,’ said De Villiers.
‘We knew they’d be up for it, we knew they’d be confrontational. They beat Australia three months ago and they gave Wales a good game. It was brilliant that we could beat them.
‘I think we played the complete game tonight. We attacked in the first half and then our defence didn’t let us down in the second. We were under more pressure in the second. I thought our decision making was good.’
De Villiers comments are not in synch with the stats. The Boks blew a series of attacking opportunities in the first half, and missed 21 tackles in the second.
Bok captain Victor Matfield also felt the nature of this contest would benefit the side going forward. Unless Italy upset Ireland, the Boks will play the Wallabies in the quarter-final, a team that outmuscled them when the sides last met in Durban.
The Boks will also be hoping that injuries sustained in this clash don’t preclude the first-choice stars from next week’s do-or-die clash.
‘It was very physical and we’re happy we’ve got some preparation in that respect, but then you lose a bit with regards to injuries. We may have to take an extra day to recover,’ said Matfield.
Both the South Africans and the Samoans expressed their disappointment in referee Nigel Owens. The game was an ill-tempered contest, and culminated in a red card for Samoa fullback Paul Williams, and a yellow card for Bok hooker John Smit.
Matfield maintains that the Boks showed good discipline, and stayed out of the off-the-ball ‘crap’. Coach De Villiers said Smit should never have been carded for a deliberate knock down when Samoa were on attack in the 69th minute.
‘It was a stupid, stupid decision to get him off the field there,’ said De Villiers. ‘He didn’t deserve that yellow card. But then again in the heat of the game we aren’t here to judge referees. He will sit and watch the game and he will make up his own mind. He will say he’s justified.’
Some will say that Samoa should view it as a moral victory to have pushed the defending champions so close. Samoa captain Mahonri Schwalger, however, said there was a lot of disappointment in the changing room after the game.
He felt that Owens was inconsistent at the breakdown and never should have sent off Williams for his alleged punch on Heinrich Brussow.
‘The ref was pretty hard on us,’ said Schwalger. ‘A few calls on the field… well we thought if it goes our way we would be able to put more points on the board.
‘A lot of the time they were slowing our ball down. For me, the ref has got to give us a chance as well. I felt it was one-way. Even in the scrum they cheated a little bit. Unfortunately we can’t change the result.
‘As for the sending off, there was a bit of acting there. There was nothing in that. To give him a red card, that was a little bit harsh.’
Samoa assistant coach Aussie MacLean was also in no mood to talk about moral victories. Asked it Samoa had shown the All Blacks how to beat the Boks, he said: ‘I don’t want to go down that track, because now that we’re out, I want the All Blacks to beat them.’
By Jon Cardinelli, at North Harbour Stadium
118 Comments
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30 Sep 2011, 18:45 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-64: This Samoa side would have beaten the ABs by 20 points or more. Be happy they were not in your pool.
30 Sep 2011, 20:05 pm
Naah — the ABs would shred Samoa by 40. Easily.
30 Sep 2011, 20:10 pm
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-16: Aussie whipped the Boks home and away in the 3N. Clearly they’re the better side. SA squeaked past Wales and really didn’t deserve to beat tenth-ranked Samoa (ranked below Argentina and Scotland).
30 Sep 2011, 20:16 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-103: come now yarpie-revver – SA were lucky to beat Wales, we can agree on that, but to say that SA “really didn’t deserve to beat tenth-ranked Samoa”?
That’s an extreme exaggeration. Even for your usual yarpie revving self.
30 Sep 2011, 20:25 pm
@Kiefpant(Kiefpant)-94:
typical smallmindedness from the Carly Simon Brigade
show me WHERE I have been “shooting (my) mouth off” about NZs performance ?
“I too think NZ are favourites”
too ? actually, I made Australia my ‘favourites’ long before the Cup started. Exactly – shows how much i know, huh ?!
How rather hilarious that Chip Nation automatically regards any BALANCE re Samoa-specific comments as somehow equating to being ‘pro-NZ’.
The Boks have an incredible habit of making minnow rugby-nations look decidedly World Class, like Tonga in 2007. Now they have to put up or STFU because theres now way of avoiding Real Teams from here on in.
The Boks went SCORELESS for an entire 2ndH against Samoa. Noone I spoke to yesterday gave the Samoans a chance “within 20pts”. Pat yourselves on the back for proving us all wrong.
30 Sep 2011, 20:26 pm
KIWI TROLL ALERT!
30 Sep 2011, 20:28 pm
Gosh they sound salty about losing like they even had a chance to begin with even against wales they had some gripe.
Samoa let the the public’s perception (to be more specific New Zealand public) delude them about their abilities. They were fooled into thinking they could actually beat the boks and pull an upset if they “bullied” the boks – it nearly worked but like wales it wasn’t good enough.
some of the Samoan players reverted to dirty tactics and they think the ref was hard on them ? if anything nigel was very lenient. there were at least two red card offenses and even more yellow ones
that’s exactly why they lost. They decided to live up to their reputation rather than play rugby
30 Sep 2011, 20:58 pm
From the little I saw boks had a good first half but **** second. Too close for comfort & will have to do much better to progress. 150 odd tackles gotta hurt. Skop & charge sucks & won’t get us there imo
30 Sep 2011, 21:09 pm
mmmmmmmm, time for breakfast
Ive had enough goat to last me a lifetime, the furry bits give me hairballs.
~~~~burrrrrp~~~~~
30 Sep 2011, 21:16 pm
The Boks even had to resort to playacting to get Williams sent off. An open-hand to brussows face seemed to trigger a Ronaldo-esque fall to the ground in order to milk the RC. The first time we had to endure such theatrics was also from a Bok player, Joost v.d.Westhuizen in 1996 when he was handed off by J.Marshall and fell to the ground like he’d been shot. I suppose desperate times require desperate measures. Dont they have a word for that ?
30 Sep 2011, 21:57 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-110: As has been pointed out already on the udder thread, tell that to your own Adam Thompson:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kockslapper?blend=1&ob=5
A little scrumhalf made him “tumble” to the ground like a soccer player BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
CONTORTIONISTA!
30 Sep 2011, 22:00 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-111:
14 years after the Original
30 Sep 2011, 22:38 pm
New Zealand would have lost today. Only Keo and his utterly thick clan of gutter rats would expect the Boks to nail a quality side for 80 minutes. Rugby has it’s ebs and flow, we controlled that first half, but equally were impressive in keeping the Samoans, a highly quality side, to one try in that second half. Particulary as the Samoans had many penalties which they used as a platform to attack from. Very poor show by the ref in that second half. Numerous ruck infringements went unnoticed while the Boks were pinged, forward passes and knock ons that were never called, yet the Boks were constantly called on everything. It made it hard to compete and allowed Samoa to get into the game and really test us. yet we held firm. What more could you possibly want? New Zealand’s leaky defence would not have held up, but then again, they would have had all the calls go their way, plus their illegal tactics at the collisions and rucks would have been allowed. But in a straight up fair fight, they would not have beaten Samoa. Too little respect by our thick south african supporters who would rather attack the boks than give credit to the best Samoan side in history! Without Rassie and Nienaber? We would have been savaged!! Credit to them for completely reconstructing our game.
30 Sep 2011, 22:41 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-110: You are a worthless rat. Attacking a players face is a red card. Those are the rules you retarded gimp. Stick to what you know, whatever that may be, and keep your mouth shut about rugby. But then you support NZ, so you are accustomed to spear tackles, shoulder charges, and all kinds of illegal play being deemed acceptable. Gutter rats wouldn’t know any better I suppose.
30 Sep 2011, 23:37 pm
Samoan thugs got the better of the refs decisions. Just look at the game again and you will see how he overlooked several indiscretions (offside, not releasing, off the ball nigles, dangerous tackles, shoulder charges). Quite honestly Samoa were not nearly good enough today – and spent too much time trying to upset the Bokke and the game. Happy to see the back of these miserable whingers! I do not like the way that they play. Perhaps they can blame their loss on Apartheid! There is a bitterness about these Samoans that is unlikeable. Look at Fiji and you will see a major attitude difference.
1 Oct 2011, 00:10 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-110: NZ would know that very well wouldn’t they. I’m sure that I posted about it earlier.
Rugby’s most famous dive
In 1978 Wales were leading New Zealand’s 12-10 and looked like they were heading for what would be only their fourth ever victory over the mighty All Blacks. But New Zealand won a penalty for a push in the line-out, and subsequently kicked the winning points. Twenty years later the All Blacks’ lock forward Andy Haden admitted he had dived to win the penalty, although the referee insisted he had whistled for another offence.
1 Oct 2011, 02:42 am
Well atleast Bok fans are whingeing about the ref after a win this time, makes a refreshing change.
But OH the mirth about the opposition being “physical”….and “dirty”……. from BOK fans ?!?
………………….~~~~~~~~~~~~@@@@@@@@
1 Oct 2011, 10:30 am
@Esoteric(Esoteric)-116: Esoteric – that was 23 years ago. Don’t you think your argument is just a little lame.
As for the game and the refereeing, Owens did have a bit of a shocker, but you could not say that he was favouring the Samoans with all his decisions. There were plenty of poor decisions that saved the Boks from time to time as well. It just depends whether you were watching the game with one eye or both eyes. I was a neutral observer and saw Owens make bad decisions both ways, with some of the bad calls against Samoa coming at times where they were in strong try scoring positions. I think this is why the Samoans have been feeling hard done by. At the end of the day the right team won, and deserved to do so, but trying to argue that the Samoans benefited from Owens poor performance doesn’t stand up to a non-biased revue.
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