Brutal Boks blunt Scots
17 Nov 2012
RYAN VREDE, in Edinburgh, watched the Springboks deliver an almighty defensive performance in the second half to beat Scotland 21-10 at Murrayfield.
This was not a wholly clinical performance from the Springboks on a number of fronts, but one that will nonetheless please Heyneke Meyer and galvanise his side ahead of the sternest Test of the tour in London next week.
It was undoubtedly a victory built, once again, on brutal, accurate and disciplined defence. This has been the hallmark of all the Springboks’ victories this season, and they will have to sustain this if they are to become the dominant team they envisage being.
At the heart this success has been Francois Louw. Irrepressible and seemingly omnipresent since his installment in the side, Louw is now surely among the world’s pre-eminent opensiders and undoubtedly the most valuable player in the Springboks’ ranks at this stage.
Louw was not alone in his excellence. His back row brothers Willem Alberts and Duane Vermeulen shone on attack and defence. The trio are gradually growing into a triumvirate, formidable in their combination, all possessing power and fearlessness in equal measure. Their form and indeed that of Eben Etzebeth, who surely was created for the sole purpose of playing Test rugby, and others like the industrious Adriaan Strauss and unrelenting Jannie du Plessis, is promising, not only for the showdown with England but beyond that. Meyer has the makings of a truly great Springbok pack, and the addition of Bismarck du Plessis, Andries Bekker and Schalk Burger next year will further amplify their potency.
There was little to excite from an expansive attacking perspective, but this is how it will be until the back division settles and finds cohesion and synergy. Meyer has been criticised for myriad reasons, but today he deserves praise for what was a clear directive to pound Scotland into submission through his heavies. The hosts never looked capable of repelling their surges in the first half, losing the gainline battle which consequently robbed them of contesting the breakdown in a meaningful way. When the momentum swung they looked equally inept at bossing the tackle fight, which undermined their cause.
For the first 40 the Springboks were able to control possession and, more pertinently, territory, from where they relied on the best rolling maul in the game to ravage the Scots. Pat Lambie banked two penalties before converting Strauss’s try after a maul.
So dominant were the Springboks that their hosts’ first entry into their 22m came in the 35th minute and their ambition was duly blunted by the brilliant Louw, who earned a breakdown penalty on his 5m line. It was 14-3 at the break, with the Springboks looking supremely comfortable.
That changed in the second half, with Scotland summoning a spirit that was reminiscent of the one that drove the Springboks to a second-half turnaround at Lansdowne Road last week. Strauss got his brace, anticipating and intercepting a pass, and Lambie added the extras, but that was the sum total of the time the Springboks spent in Scotland’s territory.
The home crowd’s belief was stirred with a well worked try off the lineout, scrumhalf Henry Pyrgos slicing through a hole engineered by intelligent splitting of the Springboks’ lineout formation. Greig Laidlaw converted and Scotland’s siege continued unabated. The composure and unfailingly accuracy the Springboks exhibited under extreme pressure was inspiring. They will take heat for what will be perceived as a struggle. But this Scotland team scored three tries against the world champion All Blacks last week. That is the perspective that should inform any assessment of this match.
The tourists held on, even when Flip van der Merwe was sin binned for cynical play. Are there major improvements needed in the week ahead? Absolutely. England are a far superior side and more capable of exploiting the Springboks’ deficiencies. An attacking edge continues to elude them. They again failed to convert their first-half time in the goal zone into more points, which would have made their passage more comfortable.
But this inexperienced Springbok side has passed another important test, one a superior team failed in 2010. Their education continues. The journey is long.
743 Comments
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18 Nov 2012, 17:31 pm
542 IAAS
correct HM needs to bring in mallett or someone he can work with who will tell him u drill the forwards but let’s attack the gdam gainline ffs.
Ge Mitchell in or louden or even die groot joker hisself, die naka dropkiek – wie weet too attack the gainline flat.
18 Nov 2012, 17:32 pm
@Heavens Game-546: I’m telling you that you know fckall and you pretend to be such a goddamn seer of all things rugby.. you were front of the cue singing the messiah has arrived when your sharkshit blue eyed boys were in the front of the HM bus.. now you singing a completely different tune..
I fix this Bok team in two ticks and it starts at scrum half and then at fly half.. that is where Boks rugby has to evolve .. NOT at No. 12 you stupid moron imbecilic DUMBASS bullshitter idiot gone up your backside in flip flop round about the merry go round in reverse you fckng idiot
18 Nov 2012, 17:34 pm
@phil72-547: Yes… Send the Soutie and the Darkie far away so they dont embarrass the Herstigte Heynecke supremacist “Way” and totally mindfuck his Blou Koei and Strepie CapeDutch acolytes…
18 Nov 2012, 17:34 pm
@mikeybrass-549:
Hougaard and Groom.. my first choice No.9′s
@Heavens Game-550: now this doos wants Boks to lose against England.. when I was calling that sing song back when he was calling me the worst turncoat cn’t under the sun.. shows how quick a snake can shed its skin when its snakeskin shedding season.
18 Nov 2012, 17:35 pm
@mikeybrass-541: liewe fok Mikey……just take some joy from the fact that we won….we could have lost…..you will feel a loaded lifted just appreciating that, then your burden lol about the way we play will be lighter.
Don’t worry be happy !!!
(am singing to you)
18 Nov 2012, 17:36 pm
@Heavens Game-553: flip flop like the worst f’ng two face flip flopper ever.. go and check your own posts after the first HM squad was announced you two face bullshit artist gone wrong way up your own devolution denial driven derelict bum
18 Nov 2012, 17:37 pm
No u don’t want to come from deep, u want to come in hard from flat, joostie, horan, tge unsurpassable ellah (who took it from 2 yards away from far jones), michelak, larkham, giteau, honiball, fafa fkn knoetze en kie, all flat but bust onto it hard and fast and aware to create.
18 Nov 2012, 17:37 pm
@cab-544: oh dear, these frogs would moer us the way they’re playing now. England has to FRONT up to the bokke first if they wish to get one over us…in PE they did, haskell, waldrom & them gang-tackled with vernom BOOM went meyer’s only go go source of quick ball plus he played Spies, Pottie & Marcell
with Kanko as sub.
18 Nov 2012, 17:38 pm
@Treehugger-555: you call that a win.. more like another fluke from outa heaven.. Boks rugby don’t win.. they either scrape home or beat themselves into a draw or a loss..
Long time since we ever really won with any realm of sheer efficiency and collective dominance.
18 Nov 2012, 17:39 pm
@skopdiekan-552: You are a lying charlatan fantasist… Plain in the light of day… You know about as much about backline play as the average Loftus local… You probably know less than Blou Barend Van Graan, which is farken as scary as it is laughable…
Now swallow that shitt and go watch 20 games of French, Baa Baas and AB classic backplay as penance you farken mad, rasputin monk…
Outtahere for sure
18 Nov 2012, 17:41 pm
Mind u these days ellah would probably get steamrollered by schalk and kie – one of tge reasons bojs used to beat abs cos carter always wondered when burger going to take his head-off if he stepped thru little gap.
Our lot to bang too take it to the line – goosen did it outstandingly, twice nogal, but then got crocked so you wonder if got the robustness to accompany the god-given talent?
18 Nov 2012, 17:42 pm
@cab-551:
Mallett has admitted on air the he and HM talk or at least text each other. And HM has worked for Mallett in the past.
It is now time for the roles to be reversed.
18 Nov 2012, 17:42 pm
@cab-557: Michalak passes behind his dummy runners into space from deep.. its either flat like Honibal where its crash ball up the inside channel which is the game I been advocating since 2008 with Grant at 10.. or its deep like France and NZ are playing behind the dummy runner and making space for the outside backs to find channels to exploit out wide..
But Boks are playing neither.. they are playing stagnant one dimensional 10 man rugby where the first receiver (usually a forward) goes it alone into the gain line and hopes to recycle from a dead start.. or else they kicking it for a hail Mary hope and a prayer kick and chase who is going to collect the tickie when it drops out the sky..
18 Nov 2012, 17:43 pm
@skopdiekan-559: Fact is weather it is one point or a hundred points we won…we did not draw or lose we won.
18 Nov 2012, 17:43 pm
@skopdiekan-554:
Groom is the future… lets just hope AC gives him a chance next year and also encourage him to play his natural attacking game (and not coach him to become a robot like he did to poor Duvenhage)
18 Nov 2012, 17:46 pm
@Treehugger-564:
Ja, we did well… kak rugby or te not…if we win (as is expected) on Saturday it will be the most successful end of year tour in a long time- i wil give HM huge confidence and then he will probably go ahead and pick Spies as the next Bok captain.
18 Nov 2012, 17:47 pm
I am still very positive.. Beating England next week would mean an unbeaten tour up north, something that does not happen to often these days? Go Bokke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How to go about this is a different story all together… To beat England, Steyn starting at FH probably a must, even if it is only to kick for territory. Against Scotland we just could net get out of our own half?
18 Nov 2012, 17:49 pm
@Heavens Game-560: I was playing and watching Springbok rugby before you were born.. and I played 9 and 10.. those are the positions I played.. I know how to fix this Bok team its easy as f’ng pie.. only HM don’t know squat he better get himself a guru to ask the right questions to.. Mallet or one of the Antipodean NZ or Aussie back line fundies… same way White had to turn to Jones and HM to Louden and Muir to Campese
I would pick Campese again… failing which Carel Dup would be as good a place as any to get some back line coaching acumen into this dead end Bok team
18 Nov 2012, 17:49 pm
@Treehugger-555: It’s a relief not having lost to Ireland and Scotland again. Relief, not joy. Joy is seeing a gameplan which doesn’t end with 9 waiting 20 seconds looking left and right, taking a step and then passing. Joy is not seeing the flyhalf playing according to the strictest instructions. Joy is seeing 13 receive the ball more than 1… Joy is winning with a game plan that bears no relationship to traditional Bok rugby. And joy is not relief at beating bloody Ireland and Scotland; if that is joy for you, keep it.
18 Nov 2012, 17:51 pm
@skopdiekan-554: Hougaard needs to be with a provincial team that uses him like Joost was used, not like FdP was used. He is being screwed up big time and not allowed to progress.
Groom is an immense talent. I hope he is the starting 9 for the Stormers.
18 Nov 2012, 17:51 pm
Michalak got an amazing distributing game and quickness about his hands / yep auusies also like those decoy runners from deep and they pastmasters at planning an attack but IMO tge best attacks are not planned – they are spontaneous and instictive as u go on about.
The thing is at present the boks are ONLY playing planned stuff and worse it’s only planned defense. Meyer honestly thinks he’s got tge blueprint – these guys don’t get it, they become too controlling, the coaches job is 3-fold:
select right
analyse right
and motivate
instead they try control every action to tge point where players natural abilities ge overriden – that’s never going to get the best out of anyone.
18 Nov 2012, 17:51 pm
@Robzim-566:
HM’s leadership group next year will be Adriaan Strauss, Bissie and Schalk. I don’t think JDV will be the long term captain.
Spies can stay at the Bulls. They deserve him.
18 Nov 2012, 17:52 pm
@I am a stormer-562: Mallett needs to give Meyer the hairdryer treatment and get on board asap.
18 Nov 2012, 17:53 pm
@skopdiekan-568: Second both!
18 Nov 2012, 17:54 pm
imo….bok problems
9….10…..12….15….
18 Nov 2012, 17:54 pm
@grant10-575: YES
18 Nov 2012, 17:55 pm
@grant10-575:
In my opinion 5..8..9..10..12..13..15
18 Nov 2012, 17:56 pm
@Robzim-566: I didn’t know that….as for bringing back Spies
I really don’t think he will, the guy has never been Bok material in my eyes and Meyer mUst surely see it. Will be verbal warfare if he brings him back and I will also be one of the nasties.
18 Nov 2012, 17:56 pm
@skopdiekan-532: thats the biggets load of rubbish ive ever heard. Houghaard at scrumhalf and we would have won the WC. Please man. There are a multitude of reasons why we lost at the WC Bryce Lawrence being one of the primary reasons. You have some insightful things to say and then you go and mess it all up with stupid assumptions like that – scrumhalf is not the be all and end all of rugby. A flyhalf is much more influential on a game behind an average scrummie. Its only when your scrumhalf is absolutely rubbish that it affects the game even more than the flyhalf can. And thats not even the beginning of the reason we lost.
18 Nov 2012, 17:57 pm
@Heavens Game-527:
well we disagree then.
its clear his coach did not rate him highly enough to play at 10 for the sharks as first choice.
@mikeybrass-535:
oh, of course… how convenient
18 Nov 2012, 17:59 pm
@grant10-575:
The thing is and I’ve said it before. If WP can win without JDV, then so can the Boks.
18 Nov 2012, 18:02 pm
@I am a stormer-581: id go further and say the Stormers win percisely because Jean doesnt play and ditto the Boks. AS soon as JDV shifted to 13 we saw an improvement in play with Steyn at 12.
18 Nov 2012, 18:05 pm
@I am a stormer-572:
You are probably right but i wont be surprised if Spies features very much in HM’s plans. If I must pick a bok captain to take us forward i would go for Flo.
Bissy is a hothead, Strauss wont make the starting team and we will have to wait and see whether Schalk wll ever be again the player he used to be.
18 Nov 2012, 18:06 pm
Are myself and Heavensgame the only Sharks still posting here ?
18 Nov 2012, 18:08 pm
@Treehugger-578:
just wait for Spies to be back and do his 500 kg bench presses and 20 meter vertical jumps carrying Gio Aplon in his left hand and Juan de Jong in the right- HM loves that stuff.
18 Nov 2012, 18:10 pm
@Slumtown-582: we did?
18 Nov 2012, 18:12 pm
@Slumtown-582:
Frans, I think, will remain HM’s first choice 12.
And Brache and de Allende (in the final) did well at 12 in the CC.
@Robzim-583:
He mentioned Strauss and Bissie – then smiled. Because, HM knows Bissie will never accept being the second choice hooker again.
18 Nov 2012, 18:12 pm
@Robzim-583: how would he justify Spies being selected? He does nothing better than anyone that has played in his position on the Bok, in fact I think he is a handicap with a great body, he doesn’t even seem to the grunt or bit of natural aggression required for playing rugby.
18 Nov 2012, 18:13 pm
howzit Rob. Little ride out your side this morning. Very pleasant.
18 Nov 2012, 18:16 pm
Bakkies, Meyer will learn eventually but fok it will be a painfully unnecessary journey.
18 Nov 2012, 18:17 pm
@Robzim-585: @Robzim-585:
18 Nov 2012, 18:21 pm
@Treehugger-591: lo ..so there a place for small players on the team after all.
18 Nov 2012, 18:27 pm
@TASSIES-589:
That’s great… where did you go? I am doing some road cycling at the moment, preparing for the Sanlam/Burger ride in 2 weeks time- its a seeding event for the Argus so i need a decent time to get a good starting slot at the argus to escape the possible heat in march.I saw the other day u are planning to spend some time overseas?
18 Nov 2012, 18:43 pm
@Robzim-593: Good luck. I was a C group rider back when I was 19.
18 Nov 2012, 18:49 pm
@mikeybrass-594:
Ja, those were the days..Caffeine and Reactivan, lol… did you break the magical 3 hours?
18 Nov 2012, 18:51 pm
Now I understand what happened to M Steyn. He also used to be a running fh.
3 weeks under HM and Lambie only takes the ball to the line twice the whole game. Something he is renowned for. Forced to kick everything.
1000 Rand says M Steyn starts against the poms this weekend.
Come back to the Sharks Pat and get ready to play for a coach who understands what is required of a modern fly half.
18 Nov 2012, 18:54 pm
Displeased by the effort, Defensively fantastic, but offensively dull and lacking any idea how to break the line. Dissapointed, but then we have to turn back the clock and remember that Jake followed a similar structure – his philosophy was defense first, offense after. The Boks did well to build a game built on defense, and use counter attacking off opposition mistakes.
I think HM will do well to bring a guy like Mallet in to assist him as a consultant.
Mallet understands not only where the problems lie, but how to fix them.
It cant be easy to win, but still be criticized, but such is the nature of the beast.
Boks need to up their game to beat England. On this 50 minute performance its not going to be enough
18 Nov 2012, 18:55 pm
@Robzim-595: 3 hrs 5 mins over the old 105km course. I’d have broken the 3 hrs except that there was a breakaway down at the start of the Blue Route. My group was too slow. I had no choice but to chase down the breakaway. No one helped. The ******** sat on my back wheel. There was a howling south-easter and the chase took its toll by the time I reached Suiks.
This was back in ’97. I haven’t done the Argus since. One day I’ll fly back and do it.
18 Nov 2012, 19:01 pm
great to see the kenners are still debating rugby at this time of the day
18 Nov 2012, 19:03 pm
@mikeybrass-598:
Lol, that is terrible to miss it by such a small margin. A mate of mine once missed it by 14 seconds… he is still struggling to accept it – he has also never been the same again and struggled in at 3 : 57 last year blaming the wind, a flat, wheelsuckers, the heat etc
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