Dizzy
First XV
So South Africa start with the TRF Shield and they finish with it too
Boring game but a win's a win, congrats to the Boks
That's right a wins a win... Whats the TRF Shield?And who competes for it?
So South Africa start with the TRF Shield and they finish with it too
Boring game but a win's a win, congrats to the Boks
The All Blacks created so many opportunities, that they should have scored at least another four or five tries, and it wasn't really the Springbok defence that stopped them so much as their own unforced errors.
The Springboks created absolutely nothing, no penetration with ball in hand and while they will be happy to take the win, it will be of concern to them that they have been unable to score a try in 160 minutes of rugby, at home. That is the first time they have failed to score a try at home in the 3N since it began in 1996.
This was an opportunity to really stick to them, lost through their own mistakes. This the one that got away.
The referee, George Clancy, was rubbish; tacklers allowed to hold on, players allowed to go off their feet at the tackle, players coming in the side, offsides not called all over the park. He was, as they say in the Republic... KAK!
Everybody!That's right a wins a win... Whats the TRF Shield?And who competes for it?
Bro, PDV is a complete idiot for taking Bismark off, and you could tell by the look on his face that he didnt want to come off at all. You don't take off one of your prime go-forward men, that's just stupid.Israel Dagg showed why I regard him as the best 15 in world rugby currently.
We were lucky the AB's were too inexperienced to finish off their chances. We didn't look like threatening the line throughout the entire match. Not good enough. Fourie du Preez is crippling our backline, and Francois Hougaard is one amazingly talented player, easily good enough to be our starting 9. Absolutely amazing chase and tackle on Dagg to stop that try. Pity it won't happen though.
Brussouw has to start every game for us. Definitely in the same league, if not better than McCaw and Pocock at stealing the ball.
We needed this win though, but I am not liking the fact that we kicked almost every ball away that we got. Every break the All Blacks made came from useless aimless du Preez or Steyn kicks. Our poor backs can't do anything because they never get the ball. Bismark du Plessis needs to start. If Smith has to play, let him come off the bench.
Other than that, ask yourself why our B-Team gets hammered by 40 points, whereas the AB's gave us a solid run. Puts things in perspective doesn't it? A lot of work needs to be done if we are to have any hope of winning the WC.
Bro, my honest opinion, Dagg surpasses Mils in so many areas it's just not funny. I think because he is a safe player and has been around since the Jurrassic age [and the fact he is the dual leading capped test player] Henry keeps him as his number 1, and I guess it's also because he has done the Black Jersey alot of good over the yearsBring back Aaron Cruden...
What to do with Israel Dagg he's too good not to have in the starting XV but do you play him ahead of Mils or do you play him on the wing with Mils at fullback.
There are going to be some outside backs pretty nervous right about now.
Brussouw has to start every game for us. Definitely in the same league, if not better than McCaw and Pocock at stealing the ball. Other than that, ask yourself why our B-Team gets hammered by 40 points, whereas the AB's gave us a solid run. Puts things in perspective doesn't it? A lot of work needs to be done if we are to have any hope of winning the WC.
Well I think there will be a lot fewer people complaining about having older heads in the ABs side. You can see what having less experience can do, the young guys look plenty dangerous on attack, but they don't finish well and aren't adept at building pressure. Slade was very disappointing it almost looked like he gave up on several occasions.
The backline movements often looked disjointed with players overrunning and awful passing - particularly by Slade.
I am hoping this game will finally convince the selectors that Messam is a waste of time at test level. How many kick-able penalties did Thompson give away? His performance underscored why you don't want to go to a World Cup without a specialist openside backup. It was also pretty apparent just how much extra oomph Thorn provides in a scrum.
I think Kahui and Dagg definitely did enough so along with Jane and Sivi will get the callup. SBW was ****, arguably worse than Nonu on defense going high all the time and allowing his mark to make a lot of meters as a result or on some occasions bouncing off tackles. He looked slow and vulnerable and his passing speed is very lethargic. Nonu will have happily sewn up the starting berth.
All in all it's important to keep in mind most of these guys are coming back from injury had stuff all game time. If Henry is serious about winning the World Cup he needs to put the 3N title on the line and play some of these backup players again. As we saw with the Boks it takes a t least 2 games for combinations to start gelling.
Question - was that illegal what the ref did with disallowing the Cowan try (no doubt about it being forward though). I thought the video ref can only rule on the grounding and once you go to him the only question you can ask is Try or no try? Many New Zealanders may be asking where this Ref was during the last WC against France
Hopefully it gets him ejected as a WC ref as he doesn't look like he's up to it.
Probably the boks biggest concern is the public show of discontent by Bismark. That sort of thing can eat away at a team. Just look at what Mat Giteau did for the Brumbies.
Isn't that why we didn't win the last world cup?.. I'm not entirely 100 percent completely and utterly certain but I think they called it "Rotation Policy" I say NOOOO!