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
Follow Ryan’s World Cup coverage on Twitter
136 Comments
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9 Oct 2011, 09:04 am
I don’t care how we won! Wallabies!!
9 Oct 2011, 09:04 am
Oh, sorry Dragon Wallabies!!
9 Oct 2011, 09:08 am
@corms(corms)-1: Immediately admitting that the ref had a whole helluva lot to do with that.
9 Oct 2011, 09:09 am
Ryan, don’t talk s**t. Lawrence’s refereeing was a huge part of the problem. At least twice we were on the Australian line, and Aussies had hands in the ruck to turn it over.
How many times he’s penalized Australia in the past doesn’t matter.
Paddy O’Brien sat his pal Bryce Lawrence down and went over the Australia vs Ireland game with him… then told him that he penalized Australia too heavily.
So of course he came into this game not wanting to do just that.
I suggest you go watch the game on TV. See how many times we lost the ball in the RUCK with Australians using hands etc.
Never seen anything so pathetic in my entire life. Bryce Lawrence is a complete joke. He did it to the Sharks in the S15 somewhat, but this was way worse.
9 Oct 2011, 09:09 am
Whatever the Wallabies paid that ref, it was worth it!
Well done to the Boks to recover from such a **** start. You were the better team.
But shouldve scored more
9 Oct 2011, 09:09 am
Fourie du P cost us the game.Too slow to the breakdown.Sad day.We were robbed.
9 Oct 2011, 09:11 am
That was a farce. You can sweep Lawrences performance under the carpet you want in an attempt to be humility. If I was a biased kiwi ref, I would also prefer to see my All Blacks against Australia rather than South Africa. Just like I would have rather seen Aus lose to Ireland so that they had to play SA in a quarter final.
Well done All Blacks. Your secret weapon was not Dan Carter after all.
Hopefully Div is done too.
9 Oct 2011, 09:11 am
This is the most timid piece of **** article every written by you.
Face it, the REF gave them the game. The exact same though would happen 2 minutes apart and the call would always go to the ref.
Pockock will probably be man of the match, where the reality is (as Ryan pointed out in his turnovers that the boks conceded) he turned over so many balls illegaly that it was a joke. Every turnover 5m from the line was cynical and easily yellow-cardable…
Even the Aussie commentators, notoriously bias, often pointed out how bad the ref was and that he was allowing murder at the breakdowns.
So Ryan, grow a pair or **** off…
9 Oct 2011, 09:12 am
**** man Ryan … the REFEREE was the cause !!!! – You most probably wrote this in your Hotel room before the match … we should have had around 10 plus penalties MORE … NOT 4 … obviously don’t know your Rugby mate !!!
9 Oct 2011, 09:13 am
Pete Divvy will say Aaaagh Yaaa
I’m lus to home to my ma.
My team dey got beat
Gotta boot up de seat
Nyow my loopbaan ees finish en klaar
9 Oct 2011, 09:14 am
@Dummy Runner(Dummy Runner)-6:
Please don’t start with that rubbish. Fourie du Preez was pinpoint with his box-kicks. He distributed well.
Being a scrumhalf doesn’t mean getting there and getting the ball out as quick as possible. You need to control the ball as well. You don’t pass the ball to a backline or forwards that aren’t there yet.
If anything we didn’t finish well enough. We needed more support runners to ball-carriers breaking the line.
And I feel sorry for Schalk Burger the most. What a HUGE game from him. Still the 2nd greatest Springbok of all-time in my book, but it would’ve been easier to say that had the Boks won after that performance.
9 Oct 2011, 09:14 am
@PeaceFrog(PeaceFrog)-9: Ryan wrote this in anticipation that we would stumble and that some people would blame the ref.
Keo writing is pathetic as usual.
9 Oct 2011, 09:15 am
lets blame the ref.. abs blamed the ref too in 2007….
9 Oct 2011, 09:15 am
@lepel(lepel)-8:
He should’ve been yellow carded and then red carded the way he went about using hands in the ruck, not releasing tackled players etc.
Instead, Lawrence let him do whatever he wanted.
How about only 1 penalty inside the first half hour. What does that tell us.
9 Oct 2011, 09:15 am
Fact is this side just wasn’t well coached (and selected). We all knew winning a WC with PDV as head coach was gonna be really hard. Players like Smit have been dropped from their provincial sides ages ago but still somehow captain the boks……
In tight games, you need your best players, RIGHT from the start. Duplessis, Hougaard and Albers should have started in front of Smit, Habana and Spies. Even DuPreez should have been dropped a long time ago. He’s the biggest disappointment of this tournament, the number of errors he made is ridiculous and even worse than Januarie in his prime.
And even if the players put a great effort in tonight (we clearly deserved to win this match), we just don’t play as well coached unit, we’re not well organised. If we had Eddie Jones coaching this side, we would have put 30 on Australia.
9 Oct 2011, 09:16 am
A more unworthy side of the title ‘World Champion’ than Australia you couldn’t name, don’t even have a lineout or proper forwards that can stand up and match it … and a more destructive coach than Peter de Villiers you couldn’t name either.
Villain of the piece for me is John Smit for the utter selfishness of carrying on playing ahead of Bismarck. As his parting signature to a general 2/10 perfortmance for the last two years he missed the tackle that gave them the winning try. Smit lost us the World Cup and so did the coach who selected him. He needs to be fired with immediate effect. Pocock won it for them – the injury to Brussouw (along with Bakkies and Frans Steyn) cost us also when we we needed them most – luck was very cruel to us?
9 Oct 2011, 09:16 am
Just one thing to consider, how dejected did Horwill look after the game? He realised exactly what had happened. No man with any integrity wants to win like that and I think he might’ve realised it… Cooper and Beale are probably delighted, cause they’re d icks.
9 Oct 2011, 09:17 am
And you are so happy hey,
9 Oct 2011, 09:17 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-14: 1 penalty and about 6 turnovers on the line at the breakdown? Nobody is that bad at protecting their ball or that acurate at stealing it.
9 Oct 2011, 09:18 am
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper)-16:
Please be quiet. John Smit had a decent game. We all agreed he was no Bismarck, but to say he lost us the game is rubbish.
Look at management maybe, but not the players who gave it their best.
9 Oct 2011, 09:18 am
That ref allowed daylight robbery time and time again. The aussie players caould oput hands on and never let go, ever, awithout any kind of punishemnt.
I would be FU@KING surprised if he has not been paid. It was freaking ridiculous!!
That is for the supposedly “illegal” turnovers that th eaussies won.
As to teh dropped balls:
I also want to say that if that clown of a coach of ours had any coaching instincts, we would have been playing like this for the last year, and our handling skills might have developed a bit. Havigthem play a high skill, hgh tempo game for the first time (mayebe second, but firts against good opposition) in a RWC is just dumb. But maybe our coach (and especially backline coach) had no clue before then.
If ANY heads must roll now, it mutss be **** Muir’s. He has been a lead weight around teh neck of the Boks for the last four years.
Even Pdivvy ears his stripes as a good man manager. He is a rubbish coach without Rassie though.
Muir does sweet F- ALL.
9 Oct 2011, 09:18 am
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper)-16: Yes, JS needs to take a hard look at himself in the mirror.
9 Oct 2011, 09:19 am
gold watch for the ref perhaps?
9 Oct 2011, 09:19 am
I agree that Schalk was massive.But too many times Fourie Du P was too slow at getting to the ball.Seemed laboured. But in truth,we lost it,Wallabies didnt play well. And dont get me started on the ref.
9 Oct 2011, 09:19 am
I just cant believe that the “journalists” on this blog have the sheer ******* audacity to tell their reader base that what they witnessed today was more a bad bok performance than biased reffing. Every single point Aus scored came from ridiculous penalties while the ref allowed Aus to spoil the game to the point where no one would have broken through. When he blew the forward pass, I knew we were done, and that was the point where the game became an absolute farce.
To the wallaby supporters who read this. You dont deserve to go through, and you will get hammered in the semis. Savour this hollow win, and be thankful that the journalists on this site have more respect for your average team than most Bok fans will for you after todays performance.
What a sham.
9 Oct 2011, 09:20 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-20: stop kidding yourself, Smit was pathetic. A passenger. A tackle-misser.
9 Oct 2011, 09:20 am
@lepel(lepel)-19:
I don’t even know what to say or do. Bryce Lawrence not refereeing another game of rugby for the rest of his life wouldn’t make up for this loss.
End of the day the Boks didn’t deserve to go home, and if it had been one call that decided it, it would’ve been bad… but he refused to penalize the Wallabies for the majority of their infringements, and that’s unforgivable.
9 Oct 2011, 09:20 am
@SjamBok(SjamBok)-21: Muir has been the biggest problem for a while..
9 Oct 2011, 09:21 am
ask samoa about bad refereing
9 Oct 2011, 09:21 am
…the question that needs to be asked by south africans is…”should we have played that game any differently and would we change anything”
..the answer, in my opinion …is NO and No.
change the ref and any other one would have awarded us at least a half dozen penalties in the oz strike zone. Those could have been converted to points and turned into momentum.
These ozzies defended well but anyone who watched this game will tell you there was only one team on the field.
The issue is not that pockock pushed the envelope but Lawrence blatently reffed to a new set of laws contrary to how he had reffed previous games.
Personally, for me….all our creative go forward in the backline left with Frans steyn. Jean DeVilliers is a donkey, that the author would mention john smit..a player who actually did his job on the day and helped set the platform for set piece dominance…is laughable. Bryan habana was also a dissappointment.
unfortunately, none will remember the losers….but big vic turned in a worldclass performance today. As a supporter, I was very proud of that.
9 Oct 2011, 09:22 am
@Dummy Runner(Dummy Runner)-24: DuPreez was utterly RUBBISH. Has been all year. Just as big a quota as Smit. At least we won’t be seeing them again. (even if Dupreez did have a great career, and WAS a great player)
9 Oct 2011, 09:22 am
@Pirlet BEL(Pirlet BEL)-26:
How many tackles did he miss?
Don’t let your preconceived ideas cloud your judgement.
9 Oct 2011, 09:23 am
the ref was kak no doubt about it . how many times did the wallabies collape our mauls and never once a penalty .
9 Oct 2011, 09:23 am
Fourie Du Preez was extremely slow to the breakdown. No Brussouw, with Bismarck on too late – Habana thinking about his Wife instead of the Game (Totally off Form) – and then not too mention Fucknut Bryce Lawrence – Time for Snor to go too. Done and dusted!! Mistakes – squandered opportunities – Let’s move on Boys – GO WALES!!!
9 Oct 2011, 09:24 am
@hendrikp(hendrikp)-27: World Rugby is in serious trouble. Revenues are down, people are shifting codes and I seriously believe that refereeing is the biggest factor.
A number of my friends have stopped watching rugby because all that happens after every game is we talk about the inconsistencies of the ref. It’s been the hallmark of the WC and rugby is dying because that.
9 Oct 2011, 09:24 am
Ryan Vrede – Major ******* in the Works – Get ride of him Keohane!!
9 Oct 2011, 09:25 am
I’m an All Black supporter, and I take issue with Ryan’s take on the game. The Bok’s did not deserve to lose this game. For large parts they were simply superb. The senior players, Habana, Matfield, Burger and indeed the whole pack executed a brilliant plan to snuff out any attempt by the Aussies to break out from long range. The pressure they applied was immense. Credit due, this young Wallabies team withstood tremendous brutal punishment just to stay in the game. Unlike England, the Springboks have contributed magnificently to this tournament. It will be sad to see you guys go, as I was hoping for my dream final…SA versus NZ. Maybe another time and another place.
9 Oct 2011, 09:25 am
F.u.c.k you Vrede!
9 Oct 2011, 09:26 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-30:
You were right until you started your assessment on players.
Bryan Habana had his best game for a long time. Ran the ball hard, looked dangerous, chased hard. I don’t know how they took him off to be honest.
@Pirlet BEL(Pirlet BEL)-31:
du Preez made mistakes, but his control was excellent. He was far better then Genia on the night.
9 Oct 2011, 09:28 am
wallabies had better defence our attack was kak but still that ref was kak kak kak
9 Oct 2011, 09:29 am
@horiman(horiman)-37:
It’s yours to win now.
9 Oct 2011, 09:30 am
@Pirlet BEL(Pirlet BEL)-26:
How many did he miss?
9 Oct 2011, 09:30 am
Y’all gotta stop listening to Bobby. And Mat Pierce not much better. If we want unashamedly biased commentary let’s go back to Keo and Christian Stewart! And I don’t remember them unfairly shredding a ref.
Pockock pushed the limits. Never went over them so badly that ANY ref would need to caution the Oz captain. And Wobblies defended in their own 22 for 1/2 of the game. That is accuracy. Yes we missed Heinrich but main problem was lack of any ambition on attack. Coupla line breaks from JdV with no-one to offload to and that’s about it.
9 Oct 2011, 09:31 am
@horiman(horiman)-37:
Don’t take Ryan too seriously. He likes pretending he knows better then the rest of us. Tries to be the voice of reason, but really he’s just clueless.
Had an opportunity here to say it like it is. Question why Lawrence was put in charge of this game, when the Northern Hemisphere games both had Southern Hemisphere referees.
But instead he tries the “I told you so” which is BS.
9 Oct 2011, 09:31 am
Vrede, what is this rubbish? Your writing has become more one dimensional than Morne Steyn’s play. And at least Steyn can kick well.
9 Oct 2011, 09:31 am
Vickerman dropping his knee on Brussow’s head was a pre-planned attack. I hope Vickerman and his family get a nice house invasion/rap-ing.
9 Oct 2011, 09:32 am
ironically….I’d say this was the best bok performaance since we dismantled the poms 36-0.
a similar score today would not even have gotten a second thought.
thanks bryce you fckwit.
9 Oct 2011, 09:33 am
Geez Ryan. You write cra p. Boks were immense. Time you stop bashing Smit. He did nothing wrong. Did his job. And Bismark came on and make an impact, as he was expected to do. One try adjudged forward. One miss drop by Lambie by a ball hairs breadth. And questionable reffing. We lost, we should have won. Your biased reporting really wrankles. Ars e hole.
9 Oct 2011, 09:34 am
Bryce is the same cheat that penalized the Sharks for “dangerous scrumming” when they didn’t even move. Anzac connection.
9 Oct 2011, 09:34 am
At least JC admits the referee adopted a “anything goes” policy at the rucks. He doesn’t just ignore it like this Vrede fool.
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