Wayward Boks must kick on
1 Oct 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes of all the opportunities the Springboks have spurned in 2012, the missed goal-kicks have proved most costly. It bodes badly for a close contest with the All Blacks.
There is good reason to feel encouraged and inspired following Saturday’s performance at Loftus. The Springboks were at their fearsome best as far as uncompromising physicality and defence was concerned, and they also added another element to their game. With the introduction of Johan Goosen, they now pose a realistic attacking threat.
I’m not sure what point Heyneke Meyer was trying to make after Saturday’s match when he lamented the missed try-scoring opportunities. The Boks converted five of eight try-scoring chances, and that is a good return in Test rugby, especially in a competition as defensively-oriented as the Rugby Championship.
It was also the first time the Boks had managed to put five tries past top-ranked opposition since they thumped the Wallabies in September 2010. Mission accomplished. Right?
I understand that Meyer wants people to realise that these tries are the product of a game plan that has been in place since the first Test of 2012. What’s changed is that the Boks are starting to execute efficiently.
Meyer is right to say it will be tougher to score tries against the All Blacks, but I cannot understand his lack of concern regarding the goal-kicking.
He has always placed an emphasis on goal-kicking, and that hasn’t changed since he became the Bok coach. It was the reason Morné Steyn was backed for as long as we was, as Meyer believed Steyn had the ability to win matches. If Steyn could come through a bad patch of form, he would be an asset to South Africa once more.
But Steyn has struggled consistently this season, and has left Meyer with no choice but to pick someone else. That someone has proved a revelation, unlocking attacking strengths that most South Africans believed non-existent. But as good as Goosen has been for the Bok attack, the problems in front of goal have continued.
Goosen went into the Pretoria Test with an ankle injury, and this affected his goal-kicking. The responsibility was then passed to Ruan Pienaar, who succeeded with three from seven attempts. In total, the Boks were successful with three from nine attempts. It’s just not good enough.
The Boks aren’t going to score five tries against the world champions. The South Africans are capable of beating the All Blacks, and recently showed in Dunedin that they have the forwards and the defensive structures to match the New Zealanders. With Goosen at 10, they will have a flyhalf who can ask attacking questions, but they won’t run riot as they did in Pretoria.
The simple truth is that these clashes are always close contests. One kick can win the game. The Boks didn’t take their chances in Dunedin, leaving 21 points on the park through wayward goal-kicking. They can’t afford to make the same mistake when they host the All Blacks in Soweto this week. They can’t afford to miss one kick, let alone seven.
The All Blacks arrive in South Africa having already won the Rugby Championship. Will that detract from their motivation, will it make them easier to beat?
They arrived in 2010 for the final game of the then Tri-Nations, and still managed to edge the Boks in front of nearly 100 000 fans at Soccer City. The Boks must take nothing for granted. They must take every opportunity.
Their recent goal-kicking form doesn’t inspire confidence, and Meyer must treat this as a matter of urgency.
Frans Steyn injured the same troublesome ankle in training last week and was forced to miss the Pretoria Test. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ruled out of the Soweto finale, or at least excused from any kicking duties.
Goosen’s own ankle problem stopped him from kicking last Saturday. Will it be that Pienaar is asked to continue this week? If so, he will need to be far more accurate.
Meyer claims that Pienaar ‘stepped up’ at Loftus Versfeld, but the reality is that Pienaar missed four kicks (10 points), while Goosen missed two (six points). That’s a total of 16 points that went begging. That’s more than the total of the three tries that Meyer lamented.
The Boks have been poor in this department over the course of the competition, converting just 19 of their 37 shots on goal (a record of 51.3%). It’s unsurprising that wayward goal-kicking prevented them from edging Argentina in Mendoza, as well as winning the Test in Dunedin.
Morné Steyn has goaled 13 out of 20 (65%), which is a poor return for a first-rate international kicker. Some of the individual penalties that he’s missed have also been crucial ones.
One more goal in Mendoza and the Boks may have avoided an embarrassing draw. More success in Dunedin (Steyn kicked one out of five on that occasion) and the Boks would have recorded a famous victory.
Had Steyn converted these kicks, we may have seen the Boks still competing for the Rugby Championship crown at this late stage, rather than just playing for pride. But then Steyn is not solely to blame for the Boks’ erratic and unreliable goal-kicking, as the other goal-kickers haven’t been any better.
Frans Steyn is viewed as a freak, even in Test rugby circles, due to ability to convert long-range penalty attempts. But his stats in the 2012 Rugby Championship don’t make for impressive reading (two from six) and bring the overall goal-kicking average down.
Goosen has converted one from four attempts, and Pienaar three from seven. Last Saturday was the first time Pienaar kicked in the Rugby Championship. His two from four return in the first half was enough to keep the scoreboard ticking, but in a closer contest perhaps the kicks he missed would have been scrutinised as bad misses.
What sort of form is Pienaar taking into a tight clash with the All Blacks? Meyer claims that kicking coach Louis Koen will address the problems in the build-up to Saturday’s game, but the stats over the course of this tournament, of all four kickers used, don’t inspire any more confidence in Koen than they do in the kickers themselves.
The All Blacks are the benchmark, and history will show that South Africa rarely beats New Zealand by outscoring them in terms of tries. It has so often been the case that goal-kicking edges these massive match-ups, and in that respect Pienaar, or whomever takes on the responsibility, will have a decisive role to play this coming Saturday.
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594 Comments
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1 Oct 2012, 15:13 pm
@Dawn-261:
You are right. The current SA does exist under a stealthy Apartheid-light legal system. And white liberals don’t want to criticize it out of fear of being called a racist and losing social gravitas amongst their other liberal socialite friends.
If for example that Cane dude is not white I can still understand why he is smug about it all. While I don’t like it I can understand it. But if he is white he is the most pathetic of brainwashed people and represents the real danger. The enemy from within that saps a peoples collective will and splinters the core of your demographic. If a people want to exist and are proud of their identity it is virtually impossible to destroy them no matter what hardship they endure; just look at the Jews.
1 Oct 2012, 15:14 pm
@poppa69-299: What is your first language?
1 Oct 2012, 15:14 pm
@katman-300: his problem is that he begins his sentences at the end.
1 Oct 2012, 15:14 pm
@STBUR-293: You was equated aan Hitler when you want to assure the survival of YOUR group, when you justificated Apartheid AND claim Whites have been the only ones who have done good to build SA – check your first post NAAIER! Youse line of reasoning is ezactly the same as HITLER, you cannot deny it. DIT is hoe hy have the following did gain!
QED
Answer me, are whites superior to blacks?
1 Oct 2012, 15:16 pm
@katman-302: I dont see what relevance it has…
tell me again why you think you know what my convictions are and why you feel the need to dispute what you obviously cant know?
1 Oct 2012, 15:16 pm
@PielNeus-304: it must be exhausting pretending to communicate this way.
why do you limit yourself pricknose?
1 Oct 2012, 15:18 pm
@PielNeus-304: black and white are superior to blue hoops if that helps?
1 Oct 2012, 15:19 pm
@STBUR-151: WOW
1 Oct 2012, 15:20 pm
Katman you have nothing to prove on Keo relax mate its not a competition.
1 Oct 2012, 15:20 pm
@PielNeus-304:
simle question:
is south africa the most advanced country in ALL of africa, as well the wealthiest by a long shot and reasonably even the most prosperous place for africans to be considering high number of foreign africans we seem to attract here?
and lets not even start on the number of zimbabweans in south africa…
1 Oct 2012, 15:20 pm
@ryecatcher-308: easy now, you cant come in at the end and start throwing wows and sheeshes around willy nilly ok?
1 Oct 2012, 15:20 pm
@STBUR-151: Not a “WOW “of
admiration.
1 Oct 2012, 15:21 pm
@poppa69-305: It was one of my shortest posts ever and you still didn’t understand it. You just saw the word “tolerate” and jumped to all sorts of semi-literate conclusions about its meaning in the sentence. Hence my question about your first language. Because this can’t be it.
1 Oct 2012, 15:21 pm
@rangerman-307: vokkof avatar hater
1 Oct 2012, 15:22 pm
@ryecatcher-312: F.Off Rangerman.,My opinion as valuable to me a s yours is to you.
1 Oct 2012, 15:23 pm
Did pooper not claim to have been in sa and visiting soweto before?
1 Oct 2012, 15:24 pm
@PielNeus-314: avatar?
there are some obscure references being made today?
p.s. dont be that way, it was an honest question.
1 Oct 2012, 15:24 pm
@katman-300:
most people scroll past anyway.
1 Oct 2012, 15:24 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-310: aaaah OK so nog n ander poppie wil batter me with her eyelids.
Let me consider your question.
In meantime answer me – is whites superior to blacks – simple yes or no asseblief (please)
1 Oct 2012, 15:25 pm
Ranger how do you see the game going this weekend, your backs have learn’t to catch and pass so things are definitely on the up for the Bokkie?
1 Oct 2012, 15:25 pm
@ryecatcher-315: ?
it was a joke rye, seriously?
you wound up tight today or what?
1 Oct 2012, 15:25 pm
@PielNeus-319:
no
1 Oct 2012, 15:26 pm
@katman-300: hate posts that dont pay attention to grammar and or spelling!
in fact…The amount of people who confuse “to” and “too” is amazing two me
1 Oct 2012, 15:26 pm
@NZINCHINA-320: hmmm…..i see the boks wiping the smug off your dial bud.
1 Oct 2012, 15:28 pm
imagine if the chinese gov listed keo as a unsuitable website and it could not be accessed from china.
gwailo would be crestfallen
1 Oct 2012, 15:29 pm
@ryecatcher-315: btw, i had the same reaction and thats what led to my banter to you.
have a pleasant day to you and the rest of you.
pricknose, wake up
1 Oct 2012, 15:29 pm
@rangerman-317: jammer, tonight as the birds ends the chirp, you will see, pop into your upper brain, you will realize you been little slow then usual..
1 Oct 2012, 15:30 pm
@rangerman-324:
problem is they wont go away even when it happens, nah, they’ll come back saying how lucky we are to get one win at all and so on.
the fun to be had will be when the meyer takes the boks on a 20 game spree…. oh boooyyyyyy!!… i cant wait for that to happen… then we’ll see just how wide these dipswitches dials really are
lets see if they come blogging as freely then….
1 Oct 2012, 15:31 pm
@Skeppie-264:
Once again there is little perspective in that statement of yours.
Whites did not place blacks in poverty. They lived in “poverty” before we got here, from a modern perspective of course. They would’ve been susceptible to mass genocide by neighbouring tribes (read: Zulus), plague, famine etc the same as any other people or race at that level of technological development.
Whites did keep blacks out of the development cycle obviously which slowed down their “catch up”. But as is evident from the rest of Africa Apartheid is not really the culprit. The real culprit is that European and African development was at such vastly different starting points when we met. Technological development is separate from social development. It is that social development that was/is the largest stumbling block for Africa.
Now my point is not to say Apartheid is good, I don’t. I am against any legislation that denies anyone anything. That goes for alcohol, *** marriage, abortion, prostitution, miscegenation etc. I am a libertarian at heart and feel the individual has ultimate responsibility and therefore should have ultimate freedom as long as he does not directly hurt someone else. The problem with modern thinkers is that they try to pretend group dynamics don’t exist. While you are an individual you are still part of a groups; race, nation, religion, family, sporting club etc. Group identity is inextricably linked to individual identity.
But the West is in the throes of a ideology where I am suppose to forego my group identity in a world that is very much still driven by group politics, and like forever will be. If one group (in this case the whites) foregoes group loyalty while everyone else does not, they give up a very important and strategic tool to ensure their children’s future. The other groups will take advantage of it to the benefit of their children.
The ANC/blacks in SA are merely taking advantage of what is an internal crises in the Western world in the sense that the West places no expectation on them to have a true equality in its constitution. Obviously whites still have historical power due to relative wealth but that is not the reason for the poverty of blacks. That as I said is doing to the 10k of years before our arrival here in SA and later the 20 years of mal-management by the ANC – made worse by its clearly racist constitution that only enforce black power rather than the upliftment of individuals.
1 Oct 2012, 15:33 pm
Hi Fern, that was me was there in 1996 an interesting place. I’m sure its changed alot and is now fit for humans to live there.
1 Oct 2012, 15:33 pm
@rangerman-321: Sorry Pal.Will try to lighten up.
1 Oct 2012, 15:34 pm
stbur please stfu
you are not as lily white as you think…
go trace your family
brown sugar are sweet aswell so relax
1 Oct 2012, 15:34 pm
@PielNeus-327: not uncommon actually.
1 Oct 2012, 15:35 pm
@ryecatcher-331: bygones, i am out bud cheers.
1 Oct 2012, 15:35 pm
Bakkies you should put some money on that, the Bokke to go 20 straight, Gunther will know the odds.
1 Oct 2012, 15:35 pm
my bad,yes it was you.
sadly the crime has gotten worse and the standard of healthcare and education has dropped.
1 Oct 2012, 15:36 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-322: dankie. Surprised.
So now why is SA success in Africa…. u ask me? Sheesh.
Bcause, perhaps, whitey saw alotta cheap blacky labour down the barrel of a gun.
Simple heh?
have i missed a lot?
1 Oct 2012, 15:36 pm
@rangerman-326: Indeed. For a moment there you guys were exchanging Wows.
1 Oct 2012, 15:37 pm
piel neus sa is succesfull because of its harbours and location in africa.
1 Oct 2012, 15:37 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-263: Your second paragraph Dear God in heaven.NO..
1 Oct 2012, 15:39 pm
@papaown-323: Grammar: The difference between knowing your sht and knowing you’re sht.
1 Oct 2012, 15:41 pm
thanks china, i will.
will you still be here when i cash in so i can rub it in your face?
that would make it so much sweeter.
thank you in advance.
1 Oct 2012, 15:41 pm
Fern how can it have got worse, I wouldn’t have wanted my dog to live there very sad environment for anybody to have to live in.We got out of the mini van and had some terribke tasting local brew in a shabeen (spelling)
1 Oct 2012, 15:41 pm
@poppa69-268:
If you are completely unaware of what BEE is then I can excuse you for not understanding what I am talking about. But that also completely disqualifies you from commenting on my stance. Do yourself a favour and read up on what BEE is because our constituation specificially allows discrimination to take place if you are white. You should be outraged.
1 Oct 2012, 15:41 pm
@Fern-339: dankie fern, sure there are so many good reasons
1 Oct 2012, 15:41 pm
@PielNeus-337:
yes, you have missed an awful lot
but you’re not man enough to admit it.
1 Oct 2012, 15:42 pm
Fern how can it have got worse, I wouldn’t have wanted my dog to live there very sad environment for anybody to have to live in.We got out of the mini van and had some terrible tasting local brew in a shabeen (spelling)
1 Oct 2012, 15:42 pm
Tough luck Black Caps. Two super overs. Wow.
1 Oct 2012, 15:42 pm
@katman-338: Brilliantt.
1 Oct 2012, 15:43 pm
@STBUR-281: But you have no idea who my people are. Just because I share a skin colour with someone, does not make him/her MY people.
My people are those who share my ideals, values, fears and hopes – and as hard as this might be for you to believe: my people just happen to be white, black, yellow, brown, pink, beige and off white. Go figure.
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