Samoa bring Boks back to earth
30 Sep 2011
RYAN VREDE watched Samoa give the Springboks a reality check despite going down 13-5 at the North Habour Stadium.
The Springboks’ showings in the last fortnight has seen even some usually astute commentators divorce from their senses to join the unadulterated celebration of the team. Tonight was a jolt of note for the defending champions, who would have been beaten by a more refined opponent, so impotent were they on attack (zero linebreaks) and porous on defence (they missed 27 tackles, in line with their average of 26 per match).
They undoubtedly benefited from Samoa’s early tactical naivety. So much for the structured Samoa that could have beaten the Springboks had they not relied on misplaced enterprise – running from deep in their territory – as much as they did. It was a nonsensical tactic to employ, particularly since they looked more than capable of mixing it in the heavies and establishing a better attacking platform on the rare occasion they chose to.
The islanders were denied despite long passages of play in possession in the first half, then undermined their cause in the second half with a string of handling errors, laboured decision-making and poor discipline, the worst example coming from Paul Williams who was red carded at a crucial juncture for shoving Heinrich Brussow in the face.
The numbers were evened out a minute later when John Smit was binned for what was adjudged to be a deliberate knock down with 10 minutes to play. But Samoa never possessed the killer blow. Their effectiveness rode on hope of defensive lapses, when more certainty and purpose would have served them better. Indeed they played like rave music was pounding in their minds, when they should have tuned in to a station that promoted greater composure.
The Springboks will testify to the ferocity and bone-melting qualities of a Samoan tackle and the islanders were rarely asked any telling questions. The Springboks’ opening try was birthed by multiple phases setting up a centre-field ruck before the ball snapped left to Bryan Habana. Morne Steyn converted, before Frans Steyn reminded of the Springboks’ unique trump card by banking a 58m penalty.
Morne Steyn kicked another just before the break, but the 13-0 scoreline going down the tunnel spoke to attacking impotency against competent and combative defensive units which is deeply concerning. The sterile, uninspiring fare they served up on attack tonight won’t see them progress beyond the quarter-final in Wellington next week.
Samoa burst into life in the second half, dominating possession and territory. The Springboks’ much-vaunted structure capitulated and they were reduced to a bumbling mess in the face of incessant attack. George Stowers, immense on the night, crossed for a try which Tusi Pisi crucially failed to convert.
You sensed the Springboks were on the ropes, and they will speak of their character in denying their opponents, but the reality is so much different. They were tested to their limit by a side they have consistently thumped by an average of 50 points.
This Springboks side is a pretender to the one that captured the title four years ago. Their journey continues, but surely not for much longer.
By Ryan Vrede, at the North Habour Stadium.
Follow Ryan’s World Cup coverage on Twitter
1,781 Comments
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30 Sep 2011, 19:08 pm
” please not “
30 Sep 2011, 19:08 pm
Why not snot?
30 Sep 2011, 19:12 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-1390:
exactly… their are hundreds or possibly a couple of thousand cape-AB supporters in all… 1 or 2 % of the crowd… they get focused on and sensationalised by the media but there are more bull, shark or cheetah supporters who come to new lands…
but if that’s all et has to hang onto… well… he’s welcome to his little delusions…
@optiplay(optiplay)-1393:
thank YOU…
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-1397:
hehehe… now you’re stretching it bud…
to correct you and your (not tew’s) argument…
Tew’s argument is that they are new zealanders… born and bred… period… don’t complicate it now… it’s really very simple…
30 Sep 2011, 19:13 pm
@Slumtown(Slumtown)-1298:
hehehe
no worries hey, you get full marks for trying anyhow…
30 Sep 2011, 19:16 pm
Jock you anti bok anti bigot anti racist skirt-wearing Scot!
30 Sep 2011, 19:17 pm
Fish frikkadels for supper
30 Sep 2011, 19:18 pm
@ufo(ufo)-1403:
His delusions are anything but little.
But he’s been outed today as an AB ‘fan’ and obviously feels a great weight lifted from his shoulders. He can shout it from the roof tops now that he doesn’t have to be cagey anymore.
The new ET crusade(r) has started…
30 Sep 2011, 19:19 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-1405:
hehehe…
30 Sep 2011, 19:24 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-1405:
Thank you.
I’m assuming that was a compliment?
30 Sep 2011, 19:26 pm
30 Sep 2011, 19:26 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-1407:
you think…?
nah…
The big dreams of a small scorpion are still small dreams… (to misquote spike milligan)
30 Sep 2011, 19:26 pm
Fish frikkadels hmmmm stuff like that will make me go sleep hungry
30 Sep 2011, 19:28 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-1406:
I’ve got Salticrax…
The doctor told me not to worry, it goes with the high humidity here apparently.
But as luck would have it, I found some Scottish cheddar here today so I can combine with my ‘crax and have a light supper with a nice cup of tea.
30 Sep 2011, 19:32 pm
Guru whatthehelliswrongwithyou
Don’t you like frikkadels!!!!
30 Sep 2011, 19:32 pm
I’m having a four seasons pizza with jalapeno tabasco sauce (like the old add on TV)
Come get me you mosquitoes
30 Sep 2011, 19:33 pm
Jock man cannot live by crax and tea alone!
30 Sep 2011, 19:35 pm
Fish frikkadels, I didn’t even know people eat that stuff!
Do you role mince and tuna or what?
30 Sep 2011, 19:36 pm
Uuuuurrggh.
Tomorrow will be a kuk rugby day.
My scotties to be taken out by those ponces and I don’t see WP beating the sharks.
30 Sep 2011, 19:36 pm
@ufo(ufo)-1411:
‘The big thoughts of ET are tiny minded childish drivel in the minds of even a 2 year old’ (to quote Ghandi in his famous ‘why do people from one country support a rugby team from another country they have never even been to?’ speech given to the Grassy Park kindergarten in 1951)
30 Sep 2011, 19:38 pm
No, always use fresh fish with parsley and breadcrumbs. Hake.
Nothing from tins, thank you.
30 Sep 2011, 19:39 pm
can’t wait to play this song (from a ffucking great band) on the 23 october…
These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you’ll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you’ll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms
Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I’ve witnessed your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms
There’s so many different words
So many different songs
We have just one world
But we live in different ones
Now the sun’s gone to hill
And the moon’s riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it’s written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We’re fools to make war
On our brothers in arms
.
.
.
.
.and just reflect in a sweet melancholy moment…(maybe after about a dozen beers)….on the journey and the story that is the springboks….
.
.
.GO BOKKE!
FFUCK YEAH!
30 Sep 2011, 19:40 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-1416:
Don’t forget the cheese.
I had a rather large helping (or 2) of chili con carne at lunchtime so I’m not really hungry.
Salticrax rock anyway. Any time. With cheese. Yeah.
30 Sep 2011, 19:41 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-1419:
exactly…!!
@Dawn(Dawn)-1418:
sadly… wp are gonna look like they went swimming at fish hoek beach… !!!
30 Sep 2011, 19:43 pm
and just say to the world…ffuck you all…we did it anyway…
30 Sep 2011, 19:44 pm
Talking about salti crax…
Luvubakkies, you going to “make some great friends” this weekend?
30 Sep 2011, 19:46 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-1392: I told you in my post. Questions were answered. Not my problem if you find it hard to understand.
30 Sep 2011, 19:47 pm
No cheese please thank you
30 Sep 2011, 19:49 pm
@ufo(ufo)-1403: Are you countering that Tew’s argument is not financial but nationalistic, if so, how does that relate to the sensibilities of the IRB, in other words why would the quota system in SA as an example be relevant to the IRB, it’s a sovereign issue.
30 Sep 2011, 19:49 pm
@optiplay(optiplay)-1394: Yeah. The brains trust got the gameplan wrong… However the Bok defence is looking good despite the “missed tackles”…. I am actually quite chuffed with their game despite the ref having problems actually controlling the match…
30 Sep 2011, 19:50 pm
@Fern is not a stud,he is merely no19(Fern)-1400: Enjoy
30 Sep 2011, 19:51 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-1223:
Cli Che Guevera
“rugby 365 would agree it seems.”
so youre now touting rugby365 – a Sth African website – as your ‘proof’ that the Samoans were dirty ?
youre losing your shine, silver spooner
*cli ch’ortle*
30 Sep 2011, 19:51 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-1426: You fit that maxim of: I know I’m right but I don’t know why……
30 Sep 2011, 19:54 pm
Samoans were sheer filth, wonderful preparation, they must be thanked greatly.
30 Sep 2011, 19:55 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-1407: Ja you got that right… But its all because of “the way they play” or “beautiful rugby”… Farken false fcker… Actually a few of these anti bok bigoted Saffas with their silly “I Luv the All Blacks” slavering on this site today… Toss them all!!!
Anti Bok bigot tossing… I will toss one further than you… Struth.
30 Sep 2011, 19:55 pm
Magtag gunther is onto his third Chardonnay already!
Just us left.
30 Sep 2011, 19:56 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-1432: Nope, I know I am right because you are an anti-Bok bigot for the sake of it. Nothing to do with the way the AB’s play, its because like a Barca or Man U supporter you think you are supporting the best team… A true farken any way the wind blows “supporter”… A quisling.
30 Sep 2011, 19:56 pm
@NoRugbyGuru_0_(RugbyGuru_0_)-1425:
hahaha
ja…but i really mean no, if ‘thats’ what you mean…i’m not such an idiot not to have learnt to be careful when some guys get really, really friendly with me. i make sure to ask other men straight out these days if they’re backyard rangers or not…its the best policy really. this way i can explain to them that i’m not but have no problems if they are, just that they respect the fact that i’m not.
my love for bakkies is straight guy love…because he’s just such a harde ffokken man…and deep down in every mans heart thats really what we want to be… a harde ffokken man, no bullsshit just straight talk and action…its primal…you know what i mean…
30 Sep 2011, 19:57 pm
This tiff is really a marvel to watch!
30 Sep 2011, 19:58 pm
There were quite a few SaffaSamoan supporters here today, like Extra Toss and Mpundaguava… Farken quislings.
30 Sep 2011, 19:58 pm
@ufo(ufo)-1423:
farkit, we will probably not even make the play-offs.
The difference between wp and the swimmer is that the swimmer had the option not to swim but stupidly chose to ignore the advice of the spotters while wp have no option but to enter the tank.
massacre of note ahead for sure.
30 Sep 2011, 20:00 pm
@reechie maak so lank die pan warm, bakkies bring die wors…(i_love_u_bakkiesbotha)-1421: The Knopfler… Good stuff… The Brothers in Arms in bottle green made us proud today
30 Sep 2011, 20:00 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-1264:
and spot on he was too
how about the ‘not held’ decision on Lemi, with Samoa metres from the line ?
or the Samoan lock penalised (resulting in 3pts) for not going thru middle of ruck, when he clearly did ?
all this Bok whinging about the “physicality” of Samoans makes Bok supporters look like a bunch of girls. FFS – isnt that your rugby currency ?!
must be the embarrassment that does it.
30 Sep 2011, 20:01 pm
Reechie my man.
“I love you” is normally meant man to woman or vice versa, not man to Bakkies.
Geddit
30 Sep 2011, 20:01 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-1431:
come on blackie, be honest…the samoans played a dirty game today and you know it, we all know it.
dont be so one-eyed man…
30 Sep 2011, 20:02 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-1428:
nice try bud… but i’m not fishing for any red herrings…
tew says they are new zealanders… period… that’s my point… simple…
whether you want to believe it’s nationalistic, financialistic or fancifulistic… doesn’t make them any less than the full blown new zealanders they are.. their birth certificates still state ‘new zealand’ under country of birth…
now put away your tap-dancing shoes…
30 Sep 2011, 20:03 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-1442: Nope, you aint funny… No matter how hard you try… No matter how hard you pretend to be Gunteresque… Not funny.
Understand?
Just be yourself and you will be laughable… But still not funny.
Carly farken Black Pants…
30 Sep 2011, 20:03 pm
whose moaning about the samour filth? it was just what the doctor ordered.
they think they helping the ABs, but they’ve given the Boks a tremendous boost with that sort of game, the Bokke will absolutely plough into the Oz.
30 Sep 2011, 20:03 pm
@wpstormerbok(wpstormerbok)-1275: yes I agree – i was just saying that with that attitude in games the Boks may well get knocked out sooner rather than later. But all of it is ifs and buts. Anyone can take anyone down on the given day when it comes to finals. But in essence the Boks were lacking a killer edge today. They lacked the passion and agression and thats what they have to address before the quarters. Also the inaccuracies. We were seeing nice touches from them in the last 2 games and now were back to skop and hope which against the Samoans made no sense. Constantly giving possession away and putting pressure on themselves. It is just senseless play. On a good day the Boks can beat anyone but I was alarmed to see them slip so drastically in the 2nd half.
30 Sep 2011, 20:04 pm
Goodness katman is well into quality family time already!
Just us here.
30 Sep 2011, 20:05 pm
i would just ask Keo one thing, whatever you do during the week, please do NOT change your mind and write about a Bok win. asb.
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