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, 14:51 pm
@Kaizan-189: Agree with much of what ur saying.
8 Oct 2012, 14:51 pm
Willie who cares which one it was, same result.
8 Oct 2012, 14:52 pm
@Kaizan-189: Well said, agree
8 Oct 2012, 14:52 pm
@Kaizan-189: I agree with point 6 the most. This is by country mile why AB are so good, for this and only this reason. This is the CORE concept of good running rugby. Yes, its a contact sport but you only move forward avoiding contact. Otherwise you will never score tries!!! Look at the Aussie game. If 3 of those offloads didnt happen, NO TRY.
8 Oct 2012, 14:54 pm
@Hurricane-185:
no, of course not… duh…?…
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-186:
you mean like a video similar to the one pointing out nz cheating in the 2012 trinations? ok, will consider.
8 Oct 2012, 14:55 pm
@Kaizan-189: POint 6 is basically the way the Sharks now play the game, but in saying that they still have a way to go to get it to the kiwi styles etc, but it seems even the Sharks players in the team are losing that under HM
8 Oct 2012, 14:56 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-205: Yes Bakkies, just like that one that Aussie fellow put up. I just think yours would be far more entertaining and informative
Give it a bash, c’mon.
8 Oct 2012, 14:56 pm
@husky-198: agree, too much hystirics from keo
8 Oct 2012, 14:59 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-205: Yep Bakkies, if you watch from about min 65-67, it’s a good example of how they cheat and get away with it.
8 Oct 2012, 15:01 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-200:
Well, you’ll be one of a few who thinks that. The rest of the rugby playing world, who can appreciate a good rugby player, will give him his dues.
Ps: Remember that Ritchie and Big Joe captained their respective countries in the Junior World Cup at the same tournament. Big Joe was named player of the tournament despite SA ending 7th or 8th.
Now tell me, who will be remembered as a rugby great? Ritchie or Joe?
8 Oct 2012, 15:04 pm
Blik give it up son, you can bleat with Bakkies until the cows come home, nothing is going to change in the rugby world we are just too good at the moment, your best bet is to try and overtake the worst Australian side in decades and reclaim the number two spot.
8 Oct 2012, 15:05 pm
@Blitzbok-97: Blitzie – while I love your attitude (there is NO reason that the Boks should EVER lose to the ABs) and I agree that the RWC11 was a farce (bryce lawrence’s performances, then awarded NZ ref of the year. The reffing in the final etc), for Saturday’s game we must acknowledge the ABs were much better and they are the #1 team on the planet.
RWC11 is the past, and we cant carry on complaining about it (like Kiwis did about 07). Boks must move forward and beat the ABS every time they play in SA, and 50% of the time they play them in NZ (or anywhere else).
8 Oct 2012, 15:05 pm
@Kaizan-189:
Re point 6:
Won’t happen as long as we have a coach who calls points of contact, “collision points” and believes that you should be able to “dominate” your collision points if you want to win a test.
8 Oct 2012, 15:06 pm
@NZINCHINA-211: I agree NZ are no 1 at the moment, but I will still object when I see bias or cheating.
8 Oct 2012, 15:08 pm
@willievz-187: Agree with you 100%
8 Oct 2012, 15:08 pm
@nama1-210: which player had a series of career threatening injuries?
8 Oct 2012, 15:09 pm
50% of the time you play in NZ you can’t beat us 50% at home start setting some realistic goals
8 Oct 2012, 15:10 pm
Big tiitie you ready for your annual beating?
8 Oct 2012, 15:14 pm
@NZINCHINA-218:
Biggles lives for his annul beating.
it’s a British thing.
8 Oct 2012, 15:18 pm
Caner must be, would be nice to hand out a hiding but not quite the same now with all the Kiwi’s and island boys wearing white.
8 Oct 2012, 15:20 pm
@Zandberg Jansen-204:
To get the perception right, the Boks forwards were not bad, they put on a fight until the 60st minute.
The ABs were awarded their first penalty at the 52 minute, and then the sending off Dagg when the ball was clearly out.
It was a demolition job, although nothing in the scale of what we experienced in 1996 because then the Boks team was much better than the current one.
8 Oct 2012, 15:23 pm
Honda if you know so much about these corrupt refs why are you still punting?surely one bet is all it takes when you already know the results?
8 Oct 2012, 15:23 pm
@NZINCHINA-220:
Did you know NZC,
that England has more Registered Rugby Players,
than NZ has in it’s total male population.
8 Oct 2012, 15:24 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-207:
i have a lot of work as it is and should neve be on here, so no promises.
@blik-209:
thats all they know, blik.
take away the cheating and blow them under the same laws and thats all they are JAKRN (just another kak rugby nation).
@nama1-210:
you’re a dreamer boet, and too easily enarmoured with the kiwi’s.
have a spine, grow a backbone, be your own man.
rugby great..?. blegh..?..
like i said, the day i ever have anything remotely complimentary to say about that scumbag is the day you’ll find me in a greenpoint nightclub with no pants singing ‘its raining men’ or ‘ymca’….
in short…
it aint gonna happen
8 Oct 2012, 15:26 pm
Our forwards always man up (well, usually). With our backs, it always looks like men against boys, as the AB run rings around us, even from set pieces. And our backline
attack is clueless & rudderless. The whole coaching structure needs to be examined – what are Ricardo Loubser’s credentials to be coaching a national side?
Why is it the ABs are always looking for the offload & ways to keep play going? Our mindset is personified in one play I think back on – Marcel Coetzee takes the ball, lowers his head & charges headfirst at the opposition, is isolated & turned over – no idea where his support is. ABs always go in aware of where they are , where their support is & how they are going to keep the ball alive.
We are light years behind & I think a lot of “Bok supporters like me are waking up to that fact.
8 Oct 2012, 15:27 pm
@Hondo-221:
Hey Hondo……………………………remember this one:
Hondo:
6 Oct 2012, 17:24 pm
Such a Kiwi arrogance
Coming to J’burg to play a test with two hopeless PI scrumhalves
A mind boggling
8 Oct 2012, 15:28 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-224: Bakkies, you owe it to your fans.
8 Oct 2012, 15:29 pm
@cane-226: I don’t think Hondo remembers when her menstrual cycle was last regular….never mind something she said last week.
8 Oct 2012, 15:30 pm
Keo is spot on. We were PUMPED , no excuses . About time us Saffers cut the cr@p and get of rid of the mentality that we only lose when we play badly or if the ref makes a few calls against us. The AB’s think quicker, execute quicker, do the basics (ie kicking the ball out) better and at least in the backs are physically superior to us. It doesnt help the players one bit either that we get a complete clean out when a new coach arrives. We have to many hidden agenda’s in our rugby where coaches can’t work with each other. Henry goes and Hansen slips into the job. Are we surprised they stay so good? and believe me the next AB coach willbe identified and slipped into the national setup to work under Hansen… That will never happen here…. Div goes and straight away Meyer starts making the changes. Fat lot of good Koen has done our kickers? We played a dreadful AUS team and if we think we took anything out of that game then we really have our heads up the proverbial.
8 Oct 2012, 15:33 pm
@cane-223: Chaps as much as it pains me to say…well done on Saturday. My beloved boks were simply outclassed by a brilliant AB team.
8 Oct 2012, 15:34 pm
Caner I didn’t know that, they should be a lot better then.
8 Oct 2012, 15:35 pm
@foxpox-229: Well put. We have all the talent in the world in terms of playing resources but our set-ups and approach to professionalism is no where near as good as NZ’s.
8 Oct 2012, 15:39 pm
Cheers Skeppie just a massive performance to go to your house and win, but do do it with style was special.
8 Oct 2012, 15:40 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-228:
Is Hondo a Lady?
8 Oct 2012, 15:44 pm
@Skeppie-230:
Not as outclassed as you losers think Skeppie.
Your forwards did their job.
All things clicked for us. Sometimes thats the way of the world.
8 Oct 2012, 15:53 pm
‘the way of the world’….
what a larf
more like the dirthy filthy underworld
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-227:
hehehe
i’ll see what i can do
8 Oct 2012, 15:53 pm
@NZINCHINA-233: Yup it was pretty I must say that. Bearing travel in mind and the fact that you were under the pump in the first 20mins it ended up being a great performance. Putting those crazy AB backs in tandem with a no8 like Kieran Reid is seriously hard to defend against.
8 Oct 2012, 15:55 pm
@cane-235: Yup our pack has been performing well but your backs are just in another class. It’s scary to think that someone like Nonu is possibly a “weak” link in that backline and even he is world class….scary stuff!
8 Oct 2012, 15:56 pm
Skeppie Read is sensational no other word for him, the next AB captain in waiting and he’ll do a fine job, where next for your boys?
8 Oct 2012, 15:58 pm
Give it up Bakkies nobodies listening dance of the desperates stuff
8 Oct 2012, 15:59 pm
@cane-235: Yup our forwards were good but its not as simple as things just clicking for the ABs. If thats the case then it happens far to much for my liking. McCaws win/played stats will probably never be beaten (another Bradman) and is another indication of just how good the ABs are
8 Oct 2012, 15:59 pm
@NZINCHINA-239: Read is class, all over the park. SA wish we had a no 8 like him.
8 Oct 2012, 16:02 pm
@NZINCHINA-239: Yeah he is special but I suppose playing behind a very good pack and being the link man to a simply brilliant backline makes his job a lot easier. I reckon we are fine in terms of personell but we need to work out how we are going to play the game…right now we are stuck between an ugly kick chase game plan but also trying to run the pill where we can. We need to embrace a more refined game plan. Once we have this in place and with our youngsters getting a bit more experience we will be back with a bang.
8 Oct 2012, 16:03 pm
Blik he runs beautifull lines, has silky hands, loves the tight stuff and has better skills than most backs, have I covered everything?
8 Oct 2012, 16:06 pm
Skeppie, your forwards are there but need to play for the full 80 without being rude your backs are just farken awful they need a complete overhaul and a coach like Wayne Smith to teach them real back play.
8 Oct 2012, 16:13 pm
@Big Hit-216:
Ritchie had his fair share of injuries as well.
8 Oct 2012, 16:19 pm
November 2012, after the Rugby World Cup exit and many insults to Peter dd Villiers, everyone was singing the following song pressurise SARU to appoint Heyneke Meyer;
Heyneke, Heyneke sal jy die Bokke kom lei?
Heyneke, Heyneke
Generaal, generaal soos een man, sal ons om jou val.
Generaal Heyneke. Heyneke,
(English Version)
Heyneke can you come and lead the Boks?
Heyneke, Heyneke
General, General we will fall around you as one.
General Heyneke.
Are you all still singing the song now !!!! You all getting what you deserve
8 Oct 2012, 16:23 pm
@NZINCHINA-245: Well the AB’s have had Wayne Smith and we have Ricardo Laubser….Heyneke is by trade a forwards coach and he already has a specialist forward coach on staff so I guess it indicates a lack of empahsis on back play within our structures. That lack of emphasis shows in the way the AB backline carved us up.
8 Oct 2012, 16:28 pm
@bokfan1-212: RWC11 may be in the past but no need to stop anyone bringing it up all the time. Us kiwis quite enjoy being reminded of it on a daily basis
I hope we’ll be having the same conversations in July 2015
8 Oct 2012, 16:32 pm
@rugbinho-247: drugs?
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