South Africa 18; New Zealand 5
Well; we got that one wrong. The All Blacks played all the rugby, but made too many mistakes. South Africa played a conservative game, and fed from the mistakes through the boot of Morne Steyn.
That's the game summarised in a nutshell; as Barnsley Bill noted on our preview thread, it was all sizzle and no sausage. The All Blacks played like an untested combination, and although they played some electrifying football at times, they were soundly beaten.
We're not going to dwell at length on the result, or even on a dreadful refereeing decision which denied Jimmy Cowan a try when South African TMO Shawn Veldtman offered the referee a piece of advice that he is prevented by law from doing. It happened; move on. Rather, we'll look at some of the pluses and the minuses.
On the plus side, Israel Dagg had a storming game from the back, almost setting up two tries with sublime counter-attacking. There wasn't much else to enthuse on from the backs however. Sonny Bill Williams was strong on defence, and Richard Kahui made some strong runs, but they looked rusty. Isaiah Toeava and Hosea Gear (is that the most Biblical back three in international rugby; two prophets and the Holy Land?) had good moments and bad, and Toeava's hands are still an issue. Corey Jane probably earned a RWC place by not starting. Colin Slade was timid, and the backline's fluency improved with Ellis and Weepu coming on late in the game.
In the forwards Ali Williams and Sam Whitelock were the stand-outs, and Keven Mealamu did some good work in the loose. Doubts linger over Liam Messam's ability to step up to international rugby, and Adam Thompson had a forgettable game, and that reduced Jerome Kaino's effectiveness. Tony Woodcock will be better for the run, and John Afoa was adequate, but may be surplus to requirements on Tuesday.
We hope that some of Graham Henry's selection questions were answered by this match. As we said above, it was a match in which some All Blacks may have played their way out of RWC contention. And looking ahead, it's better that we find out now who can step up.
We awoke and watched the match live. We'll be deleting it from the MySky disc; it's not a performance that one would want to watch again. The selectors might however like to catch a replay of Manawatu's absolute demolition of Waikato last night...
5 comments:
I notice the comments both on here and elsewhere about the "dreadful decision" not to award a try after an illegal forward pass.
What's wrong with getting something right?
The comment that NZ played the rugby while SA scored the points is telling as well, the same could be said of Oz in their Eden Park test a couple of weeks ago.
The badly coached, badly selected and badly led NZ team was outplayed and thrashed.
I can only hope that the inevitable similar result in the QF/SF later this year doesn't change voting behaviour at the polls immediately after the rugby tournament finishes.
The comment was intentional Tinman; at the start of the season, Henry said that the team had to learn to "win ugly". On the basis of this morning, they'll be back in class tomorrow morning on that one.
As for the refereeing decision; astonishing that neither referee nor assistant saw the obvious forward pass. But for the TMO to say to the ref "Do you want to know what happened before the grounding?" is a blatant breach of the rules. If Clancy didn't rule on the forward pass immediately, he is precluded by law from revisiting it. Yes; the correct decision was made, but it was made illegally. If either Clancy or the TMO are on RWC panels, their tickets should be shredded.
I2, I made no comment on refereeing standard, which is poor world wide, but only that the the talking point seems to be the "dreadful decision" rather than the fact that the end result, both of the refereeing decision and the match was correct.
NZ were thrashed.
NZ certainly "won ugly" against Oz.
Not much to argue with your summary Iv2 except I would echo Barnsley Bills comment at No Minister that Sonney Bill Bobs effort would have probably satisfied his sponsers and agree with you re Crudens's effort under the challenge posed by Waikato , he was very close to awesome in my book.
Once again we see a poor performance when a key position is filled by a `stop gap'. Messem has to go and preferably Todd comes in to cover for a McCaw broken leg aghainst Tonga.
Dare I say it - Guilford would have scored after Dagg's first break - they are almost joined at the hip when in the same team. Toeava - goodbye, two penalties, three turnovers at least and a dropped ball from a kick through by SA must surely see the end of his AB days.
I thought Kahui was very strong and SBW played a large part in the try Cowan did score as well as being strong on defence and a very good positional player. I hope they line up again against the Aussies next week.
Finally SA showed how the AB's are likely to beaten by teams like England and France in one off games. Henry and co have a lot of work to do and once again rotation leads to possible disaster.
Post a Comment