Nothing soft about Soweto slaughter
8 Oct 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day newspaper, writes for anyone to claim a few soft moments was the difference for the Boks is to claim insanity.
The only thing that can save the Springboks now, said a mate of mine, is another 20 years of sporting isolation. Having just watched the match tape for a second time, for professional and not sadistic reasons, my mate may just have a point.
Damn, the Boks took a beating.
This was the most brutal of reality checks and to deny the obvious is to ask for more pain.
The Boks were second best – and by some distance. They have been for some time and there should be no comfort in being the best of those competing for numbers two to five.
The referee did not favour the All Blacks. The referee did not cheat the Boks. The All Blacks did not have an extra man on the field. Statistically all the advantage was South Africa’s, before the start and in the first quarter of the match.
The Boks were at home, playing in front of 85 000 at altitude, and against an opponent who had already claimed the tournament championship and had reached Johannesburg from New Zealand via Buenos Aires.
The assumption – at least mine – was the greater hunger for success had to be that of the Boks. Similarly, when judging the enthusiasm of the two teams.
I wrote before the match that one team wanted to win and the other had to win. I got it wrong in writing the team who had to were the South Africans.
Our boys wanted to win, but were never good enough. Richie McCaw’s men had to win to make another telling statement to those who refuse to acknowledge their achievements.
Clearly, there isn’t such a thing as a meaningless Test for these All Blacks. They set their own standards and they were done no favours by the referee who awarded the All Blacks their first penalty in the 57th minute, by which time they had already scored four tries.
I’ve seen some very talented All Black teams stumble in South Africa because of a high risk and all out attack approach. I’ve also seem some very good New Zealand teams run out of puff as altitude proved as decisive as any home team attitude.
Not in Soweto.
The All Blacks were intelligent in their approach, calculated in when to play for field position and when to trust their defensive patterns and they were ruthless on attack.
These guys played with no risk in the first 20 minutes, preferring to kick the ball back to the Boks and ask them to think. They hardly played any rugby, with the Boks making two tackles and forcing the New Zealanders to make 28.
Yet on 30 minutes the Boks trailed 12-10 and all theory about home ground advantage was secondary to the reality of an on-field beating.
I’ve seen All Black teams batter the Boks in the professional era. I’ve never seen one that appeared so easy and so emphatic as in the last 40 minutes in Soweto.
To claim a few soft moments was the difference is to claim insanity.
I don’t put much store in what coaches and players say after the game. It really is only when they see a recording of the 80 minutes that you get some sense out of them, even though Bok coach Heyneke Meyer will know that no scoreboard could do justice to the one-sided beating in Soweto.
For those of who you may challenge my view go and watch the tape again. Those last 50 minutes especially were torture and the final 10 minutes looked like the winding down of a training session.
There can be no masking the situation and there is also no gain from playing the blame game. Whether it was Johan Goosen, Elton Jantjies or Patrick Lambie at flyhalf would not have made a difference. It would not have made a difference whether the early kicks went over or not. The All Blacks would have come back just those few minutes earlier.
Each week I hear a coach, a captain and a player say a few moments cost them. If they acknowledge the problem is more complex then those few moments will hopefully decrease considerably in the next 12 months.
Questions rightfully have been asked of player performance this season. Meyer has said the season already has answered which players selected were good enough and which were not, but he needs to ask the same questions of his support staff.
How good are they? How good are the defensive structures because players don’t seem to trust each other or trust the system? What is going on with the kickers?
Hard questions have to be asked from within.
There is no need to panic because of the defeat, but I’d start to panic as a supporter if there is denial about the nature of the defeat.
288 Comments
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8 Oct 2012, 12:34 pm
@blik-80: Should read 67 min mark
8 Oct 2012, 12:35 pm
@skunk-96: very very sad.
that flyhalf and number 8 of yours were awesome.
*** that 8 hurt us plenty lol.
8 Oct 2012, 12:37 pm
@skunk-96: the thing about established clubs like oldboys is that there is a constant feeder of older players to the lower level teams and the social side is really the heart of any club
joke aside, i hope you guys get up and running again and that the NRU actually gives you guys the support this time.
8 Oct 2012, 12:40 pm
“Richie Mac plays the ball with his hands in the ruck while lying on his back making it appear that Strauss knocked it on.”
If you record the match and press the white button for slow-mo you will see all the cheating going on – not only McCheat lying around pushing the ball back to their side of the ruck – all of them were cheating like that.
8 Oct 2012, 12:41 pm
@Bok fan-70: SA Rugby needs to be changed from the very top. Who is the best businessman in SA? Rupert? Get him to restructure SA Rugby. Rugby is a business now and we are structured like its pre professional era.
8 Oct 2012, 12:43 pm
@Tbozknows-99:
Your forwards did enough to win this Test Tboz.
Something like 67% possession and 57% territory (memory only numbers).
I can only dream of what might have been, had we had those kind of stats in our favour.
8 Oct 2012, 12:50 pm
@cane-106: Thank you Cane, some sanity
Our forwards weren’t the problem on Saturday.
8 Oct 2012, 12:50 pm
@Transformation-60:
Indeed.
While some fools post their ‘preferred’ teams and players week in and week out some scribes out there like Rich actually hits the nail on the head.
Let me re-state a point I made in about April this year…
Meyer might be seen as a much better coach than PDV given his CV or pedigree, but he will fail for exactly the same reasons.
8 Oct 2012, 12:55 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-107:
Some fine tuning maybe Doc.
But I agree.
Goosen not to blame either, he didn’t train at all during the week, (I understand), so why start him in such a pressure cooker situation.
8 Oct 2012, 12:57 pm
@cane-109:
Because our educated rugby public would’ve demanded Meyer’s head on a tray if he ever had to include Morne into a match 22 again…
8 Oct 2012, 13:02 pm
I went to this match and at half time, with the Boks leading , remarked to a friend ” the ABs are going to win this .they are just awaiting their moment to strike .” And immediately after half time they scored. Whenever they ran the ball they seemed to have an extra man or overlap and looked like scoring. The Boks need to do a careful video analysis to see how they do it .
8 Oct 2012, 13:10 pm
@RL-104: I don’t know why more people don’t pick up on it. Bakkies does though.
I think this AB team (with Richie being the master leader) have mastered the art of cheating and not getting caught.
Granted, they are still a good team, but they get away with so much skulldugery.
8 Oct 2012, 13:14 pm
@Blitzbok-97:
wow….sore loser anyone.
You and bakkies should become boyfriend and boyfriend.
LOOOOSSSEEERRRR
8 Oct 2012, 13:15 pm
@PissAnt-108:
Yes, but will our rugby-mad, provincialist supporters have the desire for change?
Province before country.
The Tacitus-way.
8 Oct 2012, 13:16 pm
@blik-112:
And so you guys dont slow the ball down??
Do you not do anything in the rucks??
8 Oct 2012, 13:16 pm
@PissAnt-110:
We’ve just been told by Meyer that Morne’s burnt out so no way he could’ve gone back to him.
If Meyer picked a half fit Goosen then it makes what transpired even worse.
8 Oct 2012, 13:16 pm
@PissAnt-110: I would have thrown my phone away if I read somehwere that Morne was in – in hindsight it would have been better to start with Elton with Lambie as flyhalf cover – just not Morne, never, ever again.
8 Oct 2012, 13:19 pm
@Hurricane-115:
The AB’s have this technique where they drive over a ruck situation and just collapse like a house of cards on the other side, appearing as if they pushed the opposition off the ball when in fact they’re just sealing it off.
NZ have a very good team though, can’t dispute that.
8 Oct 2012, 13:19 pm
@RL-117:
Stem saam. Meyer had enough options not to gamble on Goosen.
8 Oct 2012, 13:20 pm
@Hurricane-115: The Bok players do, but get peanalised a greater percentage of the time than the NZ players do. As for yellow cards, Bob Dwyers stats say it all.
8 Oct 2012, 13:22 pm
How many times did woodcock put his hands on the ground to steady himself in the scrum on saturday without being peanalised. Jannie and Coenie gave him a good working over. Only illeagal tactics allowed him to save some.
8 Oct 2012, 13:24 pm
@willievz-114:
Said it before, take franchises away from unions.
So much of entitlement in SA Rugby…
8 Oct 2012, 13:25 pm
@willievz-114:
Oh but only really wanted to say;
“And that is why we will continue to fail”
8 Oct 2012, 13:25 pm
@blik-120:
Bob dwyer stats?? lol
What other Ozzie do you want to quote?
I believe when he posted that upi found a flaw, he included an extra game in his great stats.
If those are the ones from about 3 years ago.
8 Oct 2012, 13:26 pm
@blik-121: a blatant spear tackle right in front of the ref goes unpunished – Habana stiff arm tackled to the ground and ignored by their bought ref. Filthy cheats for sure.
8 Oct 2012, 13:28 pm
@Hurricane-124: Care to elaborate on what the flaw with the stats were? Otherwise I would trust a respected rugby expert and ex international coaches analysis before yours I think.
8 Oct 2012, 13:29 pm
Interesting question? Has Richie MCaw ever recieved an international yellow card in his 112 odd tests?
8 Oct 2012, 13:30 pm
@blik-121:
Oh well better go. You guys are on the cheating war path to try and make you feel better.
If it does then good but if you think that all teams cheat when you lose, you will never fix your team.Lets hope your team does not listen to the fans, dont need big 110+ kg men crying like the fans over woodcock putting his hand on the ground.
Later all
8 Oct 2012, 13:31 pm
@blik-112: It irritates me so much that even after the thrashing of Soweto ( part 2) that the Boks supporters still insist that we cheat our way to victory – have you guys no honour or appreciation for the game ?
And when will Saru realise that there is only one stadium /ground in SA that is the Boks House of Pain – Ellis Park ?
8 Oct 2012, 13:32 pm
This is the poit I am making. The aspect of the game where NZ are the furtherest ahead of anyone else is manipulating the ref.
On field:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/richie-mccaw-reveals-how-he-reads-referees-20100729-10x5a.html
Or off field:
Paddy O’ Brain
8 Oct 2012, 13:34 pm
@stew-129: Please don’t refer to SOME Bok supporters as ALL Bok supporters. Not all of us live in cuckooland, where the Boks are always the victims……
Some of us live in the real world, the world in which the Boks are a long way off anything the AB’s do.
8 Oct 2012, 13:36 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-131: Please, the Boks are not far behind everything the ABs do, grow some balls. Just because Keo gets hysterical and changes his mind from day to day does not mean everyone should agree with what he says.
8 Oct 2012, 13:42 pm
You win some, you lose some…..that is the very nature of sport is it not ? We love blaming the coach, his assistants, the ref, the asst. refs, the TMO, SARU, the players and so on and so on ad infinitem…..just take it on the chin for fxxxsakes !! The Boks were beaten by the better team. We are deluding ourselves if we really believe that a different coach or one or two different selections would have changed the result. We got smashed ‘cos we weren’t good enough – finish and klaar !!
8 Oct 2012, 13:42 pm
@blik-132: My opinion has nothing to do with Keo’s. I have been outspoken about the Boks under Meyer since his appointment as Bok coach. I have been just as outspoken about how unprofessional we are in comparison, and how our failings in management, strategy and everything that has to do with the management of the game is FAILING US.
Our record will attest to the above.
I’m sick of the denialists, the ‘ever hopefuls’, the ‘blind sheeple’, who so desperately want to believe the Boks are anywhere CLOSE to what the AB’s are.
We COULD be, but don’t bank on it, if things stay the same.
8 Oct 2012, 13:43 pm
whats the similarity between dean greyling and omo?
ooh eh eh, just one cap, is ENOUGH!
8 Oct 2012, 13:45 pm
@PissAnt-108:
Indeed. You might as well add that “Mallett might be seen as a much better coach than Meyer given his CV or pedigree, but he will fail for exactly the same reasons”.
More generally, as far as I can see, there are quite a few pernicious myths that prevent SA rugby from understanding its own problems … e.g. the myth that SA has more talented players than anyone else; the myth that SA would easily beat anyone if only player A and coach C was replaced by player B and coach D; the myth that one can make the necessary changes from one Saturday to the next. Absurd stuff.
8 Oct 2012, 13:46 pm
@stew-129: well FNB stadium in Soweto will host part 3, 4 and 5 all the way up until 2015. That is right SARU the greedy pricks surrended home ground to the All Blacks for the next 3 years.
Now they are not all to blame for this horrible situation. They were aided by the incompetent KDK who surrended the GLRU right to host test matches in Lions country and because of this fools yellow back SARU will be hosting all test matches in future – no more test match match earnings for the unions. Newlands and the Guppy tank will be test match no go zones soon.
It is true!
8 Oct 2012, 13:46 pm
@stew-129:
Yep,no respect and so sour after every loss. Every one elses fault but there own.
@blik-130:
Paddy o brian,surely you are not blaming him now?
He left his head referee job. A frenchmen is now head ref.
We were told thats it now, we are not protected and we will start to lose. Funny how that did not happen.
8 Oct 2012, 13:47 pm
@rangerman-135:
Ok, lag vir die dag.
8 Oct 2012, 13:49 pm
@Thucydides-136:
At times I actually hope Mallet gets appointed.
After all, it was Mallet that called Bok supporters stupid.
As for our so-called rugby dominance…
Boks enjoyed a 64% win record pre-1990, currently it is around 63% – I don’t know where this perception comes from either.
8 Oct 2012, 13:54 pm
@Hurricane-138: I am not blaming it on Paddy on saturday, but I do believe there was an underhanded affect on the 16 match winning streak. The RWC officiating was very one sided. Usually the home team does get a few extra decisions their way, which is the norm, but the final v France was too disproportionate.
8 Oct 2012, 13:56 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-134: I am not saying the Boks deserved to win on Saturday. The ABs are clearly the best team. But the gap is not as big as Keo makes out imo.
8 Oct 2012, 13:57 pm
@stew-129: Oh, you are so right there about Ellis Park.
No better place for the Boks to play.
8 Oct 2012, 13:59 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-131: Sorry for my generalisation but i think you are the exception to the rule not the majority … Get so tired of hearing that one of the greatest players ever to play the game is constantly reffered to as a cheat … I know national pride is important but rugby , in my mind, should be followed by people who admire the game and not idiots who bring our game down to the level of soccer or even cricket
8 Oct 2012, 14:01 pm
@BrumbiesBoy-143: The only stadium that every nation fears …. Scares the willies out of any touring side .
8 Oct 2012, 14:01 pm
@PissAnt-140:
If one could fire Bok supporters (which would be a fairly good first step), Mallett would probably be the right guy for the job;-)
As for our pre-1990 record, it looks even less impressive if one adds that home-town refs probably boosted it considerably.
8 Oct 2012, 14:03 pm
Although late, blogging time is few
lol
Congrats to the AB’s and their supporters, they took what we threw at them and then klapped us,
As for the player debate??? HM is proving to be out of his depth yes but so is his coaching team, and this includes the lights man.
8 Oct 2012, 14:03 pm
@blik-141:
Lets not Fcck about here blik.
You are full of shiit.
Like Paddy runs the IRB. (he is now in charge of 7′s ref’s).
Like there is now a conspiracy for the AB’s to leap frog Lithuania’s record.
As for France in the WC final……….we nailed them.
This is a SA Website for rugby fans. Not girls.
8 Oct 2012, 14:04 pm
@stew-144: Richie MCaw has perfected the art of getting away with illegal tactics. He is a serial offender, but never gets peanalised. My question again is, has he ever had a yellow card in a Test match?
8 Oct 2012, 14:05 pm
@Thucydides-146: Exactly
We just aren’t as good and as feared as what we think we are. Those isolation years really gave us a false sense of superiority that we have YET to get over…….
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