Bumbling Boks blow it
9 Oct 2011
RYAN VREDE writes the Springboks’ chronic struggles at the gainline was ultimately terminal to their cause to defend their title.
Lets get the issue of the perceived bias of referee, Bryce Lawrence, out of the way. This is a man who has heavily punished the Wallabies in the three games he has officiated them at the tournament, awarding 33 penalties to their opponents, and just 18 in their favour.
It is foolish to launch the witch hunt against the New Zealander because, in a game of cause and effect, the Springboks must look to their frequent impotence and lack of basic handling errors (11 in total) at the gainline as the root cause of their defeat in Wellington tonight. 76% territory, 56% possession, Australia making almost three times as many tackles (147 to 53). The Springboks should have won emphatically, instead they will watch the remainder of the tournament play out from home.
They produced one particularly infuriating period between the 26th and 35th minute, conceding three ruck turnovers – five, eight and 10m from the Wallabies’ tryline, as well as butchering a try and coughing up possession in the tackle 10m from goal. In the 59th and 67th minutes David Pocock, allowed greater scope thanks to the absence of Heinrich Brussow (off in the 20th minute) pilfered a ball 5m from his chalk, and a minute later Fourie du Preez – for the second time – spilled the ball .
They must reflect on the aforementioned period with deep regret. Australia had earlier capitalised on their inability to protect the ball in contact, the ball being turned over in the build-up to the 12th minute try. Outside of that the Wallabies offered nothing on attack. They soaked up pressure and scrambled desperately. They live on thanks to the generosity of their opponents.
The Springboks looked formidable, unstoppable even, when they were able to build phases. You wondered how any team would stop them. Then they stopped themselves.
It must be noted that coach Peter de Villiers undermined his own cause with his persistence with John Smit ahead of the dog of war, Bismarck du Plessis. Smit was a tortoise in a china shop until the bull was unleashed to remarkable effect in the 50th minute.
De Villiers’ loyalty to Smit was going to cost him dearly at some stage. This moment wasn’t unpredictable. Du Plessis, like Dan Carter of New Zealand, is a player with the ability to be the difference between victory and defeat. Of the plethora of errors De Villiers has made, he should lament is misplaced loyalty to his captain most deeply.
And so the dream ends. There’ll be a string of references to an ugly win for the Wallabies. I disagree. The Springboks lost ugly tonight.
By Ryan Vrede, at the Wellington Regional Stadium
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136 Comments
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9 Oct 2011, 10:04 am
Oh I see, it’s the refs fault.
Perhaps he needs glasses too!!
(…and they say the Pom’s whinge)!!!
9 Oct 2011, 10:04 am
i mean could -couldnt sorry
9 Oct 2011, 10:04 am
Blame the referee all you want, Smit starting was the biggest culprit. Bismark showed how to play when he came on.
PDV and Smit failed SA today
9 Oct 2011, 10:06 am
@carol(carol)-99: Funnily enough Ryan and I always see the games differently (and most of the reaction in the comments suggest Ryan may indeed have been watching a different game).
No way can Smit be singled out, sorry.
9 Oct 2011, 10:06 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-95:
He’s happy to buy them from WP yes. If they play for the Bulls, they go up in value in his eyes.
You only have to look at the way he’s carried on about some Bulls players not being in the Bok squad in the past.
Plus how he carries on with jokers like Deon Stegmann and Werner Kruger I have no idea.
Soon as Deon Stegmann made the side this week, I called the Griquas to win on SharksWorld. It’s between him and Kruger for worst Springbok during PdV’s reign.
9 Oct 2011, 10:07 am
@malcolm(malcolm)-94:
also, if you read all my comments, i have never slated john, he’s been a legend for us and did his job tonight.
9 Oct 2011, 10:07 am
Go Argentina!!!!!
9 Oct 2011, 10:08 am
To blame Smit is wrong, what about Danie giving away the penalty that decided the game????? I don’t blame Danie, I am just saying the Smit bashers should shut up! Argentina 7 NZ 6!
9 Oct 2011, 10:10 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-104: I can;t believe you still make excuses for Smit, the worst kind of liability, thankfook he’s gone, and to play more rugby for no other reason than money lust…
9 Oct 2011, 10:10 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-105:
calm down pal, the bulls didn’t lose this today.
stegman shouldn’t have played yesterday, not first game back from 2 months injury. And he carries on with players like stegman and kruger because they’re only 24 years old and already have 2 supertitles to polish
9 Oct 2011, 10:12 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-105:
Also, Arno Botha is the most talented loose-forward at the Bulls, and probably alongside Pierre Spies the only loose-forward who should be capped as a Springbok during his career.
Yet Botha sits on the bench. I hope it’s a case of trying to ‘condition’ him before the Super 15, because if they’re going to carry on with guys like Stegmann, Kruger etc. who embarrassed us in Australasia, the Bulls won’t get far.
9 Oct 2011, 10:12 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-105:
is there not a historical trend for players leaving WP to have more success with the bulls?
not so with bulls players heading to cape town unfortunately.
9 Oct 2011, 10:13 am
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-109: we know it’s personal with you, so you have no credibility on the subject.
No excuses here.
Smit was off the field sitting down under a blanket when we lost our lead… I guess we all blame him for that too
Perspective, that’s all.
9 Oct 2011, 10:14 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-110:
Meh never were Springbok quality. Just trying to make my point that Heyneke shouldn’t be Springbok coach, but I guess he wasn’t the one who picked them.
I just don’t trust him not to lean towards Bulls players. Sick of it.
9 Oct 2011, 10:16 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-111:
stander and tecklenburg also have a chance at getting capped.
Dewald Potgieter, if he ever clears up his injuries will also get another shot. Stegman has always done well with the bulls because he brings balance to the backrow. not so with the boks.
no doubt you’d be thrilled to have keegan daniels there?
9 Oct 2011, 10:18 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-114:
are you nuts by the way…..the bulls dominated the domestic scene completely for a good 5 years, surely it is only logical to see most of the bulls capped during that time? And it was jake white that selected them all and later pdivy. not anyone at the bulls.
9 Oct 2011, 10:20 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-113: It’s not personal at all, he’s just not good enough.
Blind optimism is obviously more credible than what is right in front of your eyes.
Anyway, he’s gone thank goodness.
Bismark and the boys back to smash the CCup apart! Go Sharks
9 Oct 2011, 10:25 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-115:
Stander and Tecklenburg? Please no, never!
The Springboks should be the best South Africa has to offer. Not the best Pretoria has to offer, and those two aren’t Bok quality. I like Stander as a S15 prospect though, but they need to upgrade from Tecklenburg as well.
Springbok quality loose-forwards in SA, IMO (rated best to worst):
6 Heinrich Brussow – and that’s it.
7 Juan Smith / Willem Alberts / Ashley Johnson / Jean Deysel / Duane Vermeulen (he should play here)
8 Schalk Burger / Nick Koster / Pierre Spies
That’s it.
P.S. I know Koster needs to improve, but ball-in-hand, he’s one of the most dangerous loose-forwards I’ve seen. Could be a devastating Nr. 8
9 Oct 2011, 10:28 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-118:
Forgot about Arno Botha, who I think, if he got a fair go in Pretoria could even be a Springbok next year.
Considering how many juniors the Bulls purchase, very few actually amount to something. They dominate U19 and U21 competitions, but very few of those players I see coming through. Rather they go buy Sadie, Hougaard, Engelbrecht, Dippenaar etc. from Province…. or any talented player coming out of Grey College now (Sharks resources are drying up).
9 Oct 2011, 10:28 am
4 years ago when PDV took over everybody was scared stiff he would destroy the team that Jake built. He didn’t. He did what we all wanted and what turned out to be the right decision because I dont believe there are very many players sitting at home that would have turned out a better performance than the guys did in Wellington today.
We came unstuck because we lack creativity going forward. And that is a traditional weakness of South African sides that has been there consistently since we returned from isolation. The difference now is that defensive patterns and indiviudal tackling skills have improved beyond recognition from 20 (or even 10) years ago.
Scoring tries is becoming difficult for any side but its going to be even more difficult for sides that run at defenders for 15 phases instead of at gaps. With the amount of posession we had today we really should have been able to deliver a ko blow.
Seems noone wants to blame the ref either but it is very strange how during the super 15 the first question on the mind of every ref at every ruck was “Has the tackled player been released and allowed to place the ball”, while come this world cup its like that rule doesn’t exist. It certainly wasnt a thought on Bryce Lawrences mind today but to be fair it seems like none of the refs have given it much focus throughout the tournament.
One last thing… with all the time we spent in their 22, why not a couple more drop goals????
9 Oct 2011, 10:29 am
@garthgoofy(garthgoofy)-51: Ja, maybe a hockey player
9 Oct 2011, 10:34 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-118:
oh please, now you show your hand….koster is the most overrated player.
tecklenburg was playing varsity cup as was arno botha. stander played sa rugby all age levels.
meyer has said as much lately about all the junior talent….unless it translates to senior success the union is prepared to make the hard decisions. this is exactly how it happens at football clubs, they take you on board as an 11/12 year old apprentice and tell you 4-5 years later if they believe you’ll go pro.
very tough for the kids
9 Oct 2011, 10:34 am
Once again … this is such a USELESS article … dunno how he go the job with KEO …and KEO paying for his trip to NZ … RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH … Lawrence cost us the GAME !!!
9 Oct 2011, 11:26 am
I concur with you, Ryan, regarding Bissies absense, especially considering Pocock’s influence. Bissy would have neutralised pocock for longer. Is this not obvious to all except our coaching dunces!
9 Oct 2011, 13:19 pm
This article is disgusting in the sense of a pygmy throwing pins at giants …. but he’s right about Smit. The obsession to keep him on as a skipper – way below the playing form of his peak years – cost us the World Cup.
In fairness he played pretty well – but kept our most potent explosive world-class force on the bench – the good is the enemy of the best; Bismarck would have won more turnovers and should have come on the moment Brussouw went off; no, he should have started and played the whole game.
9 Oct 2011, 14:23 pm
@PeaceFrog(PeaceFrog)-123:
I am going to table the idea that the psyche that referees are what cause you to lose cost you the game. Do you teach your kids this stuff?
9 Oct 2011, 15:27 pm
“Lets get the issue of the perceived bias of referee, Bryce Lawrence, out of the way. This is a man who has heavily punished the Wallabies in the three games he has officiated them at the tournament, awarding 33 penalties to their opponents, and just 18 in their favour.”
Translation: “Who are you going to believe: My cool stats or your own lying eyes?”
Non sequitur much, Mr Vrede?
9 Oct 2011, 15:30 pm
@stickman(stickman)-127: Blew a forward pass when it wasn’t and should’ve been a try that would’ve won us the game.
9 Oct 2011, 15:32 pm
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper)-125: Smit is a disgusting fat cnut! How can you be a professional rugby and be so fat and slow?! I hate the guy. Used to love him. Hope he gets pelted eggs when he gets back to OR Tambo.
Jealous, egotistical, deluded cnut who kept our best player out of the team. Along with Spies and Habana. Hougaard should’ve been starting. PdV is a low IQ idiot. You pick your best team for a knockout match not a sentimental one!
9 Oct 2011, 15:41 pm
@GreenFan(GreenFan)-120: How is it that NZ can score tries at will?! Open your eyes man you think we picked the best players? So you think fat slow wobbling Smit is better than the dynamic, explosive ball of dynamite that Bismarck?! Good god man!!
How about the cancer of our backline – JdV and Habana?! De Jongh and Hougaard should’ve started. PdV is an idiot who knows nothing about rugby. HE DID DESTROY THIS TEAM! Our ball skills are worse than that of a school boy team. Our fitness has gone down. General standard of play has decreased. The players have turned into mindless robots – skop en jag skop en jag.
We relinquished a 10 year record of victory against Aus at home. Now Aus love playing in SA! We LOST TO SCOTLAND!!!!!!!! When has NZ ever lost to Scotland?!
We have become a disgrace under PdV. He has made SA a laughing stock with his idiotic metaphors. He thinks coaching is just a big joke. PdV was the chief clown running an absolute circus. Good riddance to that pr.1ck! Now please let us pick someone who actually understands rugby and can string two sentences together in English.
I just pray that Coetzee isn’t chosen because for me he is not the answer. The Stormers have no attacking platform. The same thing will happen to the Boks again.
9 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
What SA rugby needs is a fundamental cultural shift from the bottom up. Saru needs to start demanding that schools and academies coach expansive rugby and coach players from the very beginning to think on their feet and look to vary their game plan if their plan A isn’t working. This is what the ABs do and that is why they are so bloody hard to beat. They adapt to the changing conditions and their players think and invent new ways to get through the defence not to mention having an extremely high standard of ball skills.
Once we have dynamic players coming through with top class ball skills and who favour playing an expansive game will we then begin to see the Boks become a real powerhouse in rugby.
We’ve been playing NZ/Aus for donkeys years yet we still have failed to adapt to their style of play. Its unbelievable. We still play neanderthal rugby and we still 9 out 10 times get beaten by Aus and NZ.
The ABs should be nervous every time they go and play in SA but they are guaranteed most times to come back with a win. I mean good god man they beat us at our biggest stadium in front of an 80,000 strong home crowd. That would never happen in NZ!
3Ns should always be tight affairs where there is little difference between NZ, SA and Aus. Yet every time we end up at the bottom. Its shocking how Springbok fans have accept mediocrity for so slow. Its about time we actually adapted our style of rugby to the style favoured in the SH. That goes for our provincial sides as well. At least 3 of our Super 15 sides should be highly competitive and very difficult to beat at home. Until Saru are prepared to bring about a cultural shift in SA rugby I do not see much changing in time to come.
9 Oct 2011, 17:31 pm
Poor assessment by Ryan Vrede. Because Bryce Lawrence ‘heavily punished’ the Wallabies in 3 previous games, that makes it all ok and excuses him for his dismal performance (bias aside)? Yes, the Boks coughed-up at least 20 points, but they lost by 2 points, and those 2 points can easily be contributed to Mr Lawrence’s incompetence. Had he even had a mediocre game we all wouldn’t even be writing all this cr*p as the Boks would be in the semi’s. There is no doubt that the ref determined the result of the game, any half-wit can see that. Should the Boks have won in spite of that? Yes, but why should they have had to? The ref should have done his job. As for John Smit, once he was off where was the leadership? All that territory – where was the drop goal?
9 Oct 2011, 20:08 pm
I find Keohane too critical of South African rugby, more critical than any journalist should be. Keo seems to be incredibly bitter about SA Rugby for some reason. I also find that overly negative attitude has been fed down into Ryan & Jon. You have some SA journalists too biased in favour of SA, but this set up is far too much against and is therefore equally, if not more annoying.
9 Oct 2011, 21:29 pm
Logic re Bryce’s awarding penalties to Wallabies opposition in the previous 3 games is flawed. All it says is that when Aus play SA he stops awarding penalties when he should have done. This highlights the issue rather than undermines it. Boks strategy though was poor. If the game was to be determined in the loose then why play Smit and Spies? Sure changing tactics and bringing on Bismark and Louw to “flood” to tackle area would have been more prudent?
10 Oct 2011, 01:12 am
I can’t agree more. You can read those stats and apply them to the way you want people to think. IMO the previous games stats show that Australia are frequent trangressors at the breakdown, which begs the question why in todays match they were allowed to get away with what they did. Not a good day for Ref. if you are a Bok supporter, and I do believe that had the decisions been made differently the outcome would have been different. There is no doubt that we should have won this game, just look at the game stats. The Boks were the better team on the park. That aside these are exactly the issues that have to be overcome to be winners and we certainly had/created many more chances then the Wallabies to seal the win which we failed to finish off.
Also I am sick and tired of hearing the insulting comments about John Smit. Like he was the cause of this loss!! Please man. Smit is one our greatest Springboks ever and has been a great player, ambasador and captain for SA rugby. The lack of respect from the media and contributers here disgusts me. IMO he has not had a bad game in this WC campain. Yes he is not Bismark, but does not mean he is a bad player and he certainly does not deserve the kind of comment he has recieved here.
10 Oct 2011, 07:55 am
The whining about the reffing on this blog is unbelievable.
I thought it was ordinary for BOTH teams during the game.
(Shalk pulling Pocock’s head out of the ruck, rucking from the side, the hit on Digby after he kicked it…all should have been penalties…and there was plenty more..so quit acting like sore losers)
The fact is – Boks had 76% of territory and 56% of possession and couldn’t make one try.
Australia made 147 tackles to Sth Africa’s 53 (!)…and people are trying to say Australia didn’t deserve to win?! One of the greatest defensive efforts in a World Cup ever.
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