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From: AFP August 21, 2011 10:49AM
New Zealand's Richard Kahui scores the only try of the match in New Zealand's 18-5 loss to the Springboks. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
SATURDAY'S clash between the Wallabies and All Blacks in Brisbane will decide the Tri-Nations title after a second-string New Zealand team lost 18-5 to the Springboks.
South Africa's resolute defence was hailed as the difference between the teams in this morning's Test in Port Elizabeth.
In their final match before next month's World Cup, the defending champions' forwards, in particular, turned in a powerful performance against a weakened All Blacks.
“South Africa played with a lot of physicality and passion,” said New Zealand coach Graham Henry.
“They scrambled in defence very well. We created probably six opportunities to score and only converted one of them. That was frustrating.”
“I'll go to war with these guys,” said Springbok coach Peter de Villiers, adding that South Africa's victory was a just reward despite the fact that all their points came from the boot of fly-half Morne Steyn, who landed all five penalty goal attempts as well as a drop goal.
New Zealand scored the only try of the match, through centre Richard Kahui, but several times were stopped almost within touching distance of the try-line as South Africa tackled ferociously.
In making his statement about going to war, De Villiers singled out stand-in captain Victor Matfield, who he said had played the last half hour of the match with an unspecified injury and flank Heinrich Brussow, who had to leave the field with blood pouring from his face but returned 14 minutes later to turn in a man-of-the-match performance.
De Villiers also praised Steyn, who landed three long-range penalties to give South Africa a 9-0 lead after 18 minutes. They were killer blows at a time when the All Blacks were playing most of the attacking rugby and had three times threatened to score tries.
Steyn's place had seemed under threat after a mediocre season but, reunited with scrum-half Fourie du Preez for the first time in a Test match since 2009, he turned in a commanding performance.
With South Africa leading 15-5 at half-time, he effectively shut the All Blacks out of the game with his tactical kicking in the second half.
De Villiers said he had never questioned Steyn's ability, despite playing Patrick Lambie and Butch James ahead of him in earlier Tri-Nations matches.
“Morne is a very good rugby player. He's still our number one. He knows now that he's very important to the team and he can take the team through the World Cup if he's on song.”
Lambie, who started at full-back, was an injury concern for the Springboks, leaving the field with a shoulder injury after 20 minutes. De Villiers said he would wait for a report from his medical team before commenting on the injury.
Matfield started the game ahead of regular captain John Smit, who came on as a second-half replacement, and he said the Springboks had needed the win after losing their first three matches in the tournament.
“We felt the pressure and it wasn't easy. A lot of people were doubting us. This is great for the confidence.”
But Matfield said his team still needed to work hard before the World Cup.
“There is still (room for) a lot of improvement. We want to get even better. We'll look at the video session and work on the detail.”
New Zealand coach Graham Henry admitted the Springboks had outplayed his team but said he had no regrets about leaving nine of New Zealand's leading players at home to rest ahead of the World Cup.
“We made some big decisions some time ago and I'm happy with that. It gave some players the opportunity to play today. We had a look at the big picture and the future.”
Henry said a lack of maturity and the patience to build attacking moves had hurt the All Blacks' chances, but fielding some fringe players had been a useful exercise ahead of the announcement of the World Cup squad on Tuesday.
Henry said the defeat would not shake New Zealand's belief in their attacking style of play.
“We created a lot of opportunities to do the business. The game that we are playing has got distinct possibilities.”
New Zealand and Australia now each have nine points in the Tri-Nations series.
In World Cup warm-up games overnight Ireland slumped to their third defeat in three games when they were outplayed in a 26-22 defeat by France.
Scotland fared better, defeating Italy 23-12 at Murrayfield.
And coach Warren Gatland insists Wales will enter the World Cup in New Zealand better placed than ever before after recording a 28-13 victory over Argentina at the Millennium Stadium.
AFP
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226118923405
Apparently, if you listened to the Kiwi commentators and some of their players, they actually won this game. It was just that some of the things they tried didn't come off. The stonewall defense of the Bokke plus their sustained pressure in possession saw Steyne keep the scoreboard ticking. The end result had the score inexplicably in Za's favour after 80mins. Maybe Suzie was running the scoreboard.
The Bokke looked decidedly stronger at the set piece, particularly the scrum with Bismarck starting. Du Preez and M. Steyne still look a little rusty but will improve and we might see a bit more of De Villiers and Fourie then, despite the seeming reversion to the conservative game plan. Habana also seems to be getting on song.
In the end I thought the AB's reserves were lucky to get one try. The number of forward passes missed was a joke. That blind Italian touchie is a deaf mute. The indecisive referee and hometown TMO have probably put their jobs in jeopardy to save a further travesty.
Game on next week with the real AB's in the TN "final".
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
A blind, deaf, mute Ref!?
Lucky he is Italian and can talk with his hands!!!
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
I thought from the replay Cowan dropped the ball over the line and the forward pass would have been irrelevant anyway.
I didn't think Cowan lost possession, but really liked the South African TMO covering his arse by asking the ref whether he really wanted a call on something that happened in the field of play.
I think the law sucks anyway, how many times do we see tries referred to see if the scorer went into touch, technically, if he's not in touch in goal, then the call can't be made. It needs to be restated to include the act of scoring the try, or something like that.
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Maybe. But even Mungo TMOs, who've still been getting it wrong for decades, can't rule on a forward pass - even as blatant as that one. Camera angles, etc. Strangely, just to keep refereeing consistently inconsistent, they are able to rise above technical problems to rule on a knock-on.
In a case like that they might use the ploy of saying something like " I've an opinion. Can you give me a reason not to give it". That gives the TMO and the ref the opportunity to view the footage and come up with a "Ref's Call". But then you get cases where an opinionated TMO will still take the wrong decision into his own hands. George Ayoub would be perfect.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
All Blacks loss to South Africa sets up title decider in Brisbane - and it looks like it will not be shown live in Perth (again) but delayed until 11.30pm.
Given that CH 9 are televising the RWC, wouldn't it be a good idea to encourage some viewing interest by showing the national team playing live in the lead up???
FFS!
GEM are showing the game live into Adelaide on Saturday night from 7pm CST and just checked for Perth and coverage starts on GEM at 5:30pm WST
In summation, the Springboks resorted to their game plan of 2007 - kick and pray. It was a uninspiring performance by the Boks..yes, even their defense was nothing to crow about given the number of line breaks made.
The eye-opener was the impotency of the Bok backline..good luck to them if that is their starting 6 (bar Lambie who was filling in at fullback) for the World Cup. Morne was a dud - except for his points kicking - and if I were De Villiers I'd be praying Lambie is fit in time.
For the All Blacks, lots of question marks around SBW. Not even sure he should be on the bench. Israel Dagg was superb and I would hope that he's in the starting XV on one of the wings (other being Sivivatu) rather than on the bench as cover for Muliaina. Richard Kahui and Isaia Toeava are competent covers for Nonu/Smith so not such a bad idea dropping SBW out of the team altogether and instead have a Hosea Gear or Zac Guildford in his place.