South Africa 28 – All Blacks 19
Under Pressure was the David Bowie song in the 80’s and that’s what this game was all about, Springbok pressure. The first 50 minutes were dominated by the Bokke as they squeezed the life out of the All Blacks and led 17-3 early into the 2nd half.
Similar to the Eden Park test where they peaked in the 2nd half, the All Blacks fought back gamely and came to within striking distance until a 76th minute try by Jacque Fourie terminated their effort. The advantage for the Wallabies with this result was sans bonus point for both teams.
Watching the coverage on the box, the good news was that Murray Mexted and Grant Nisbett weren’t part of the commentary team. The bad news was that the commentary team was all Kiwi. Foxy the one eyed ferret was in cahoots with Tony Johnson and jug ears Jones. Ian ‘the elderly boy’ Jones spent most of the time waffling on about some pissup he’d attended at Grey College, which is the Joey’s and/or Nudgee equivalent in Bloem. At least we were spared the likes of Hugh Bladen, the Blofeld of the veld. Well, Blowers Bladen did sneak in for 30 seconds or so while their microphones went bosbefok, describing the scenic highlights of the Karoo and other choice Orange Free State destinations. I’ve been to the OFS, and…..don’t get me wrong……there are positives in most places you visit; however, Bloemfontein isn’t one of them. The name means ‘fountain of flowers’ but I reckon you’d be hard pressed pushing up daisy’s in that kak hole.
The All Blacks didn’t like it much either. Too many big Bokke’s smashing into them at every breakdown and screwing their lineout again. Following on from the defeat of the Lions in the first two tests the same squad put the All Blacks to the sword in the first half. The Springbok tight five were impressive and operated as an effective unit in all phases of play. However, the loose forward trio of Heinie Brussow, Juan Smith and Pierre ‘why have I got a Frog name’ Spies were immense.
Heinie out richied Richie. He was like the silent assassin, a black mamba at every ruck. Schalla the skulk, you’re history! And as for Juan, he shaded Kaino who actually had a half reasonable game.
As for the Poedel Faker (PdV), well…he got it right again. He may be a fruit loop and if he lived in Australia he’d probably be reading the news on SBS, but you’ve got to give him a tiny bit of credit. This week, he be mainly substituting the right people at the right time. I think that like ‘Sweet az’, the now iconic bro’ (I assume) blogger on G&GR, he’s been on the dagga too much. PdV’s nickname in South Africa is Snor, which apparently in Afrikaans means ‘moustache’. Snore’s the word if you ask me.
The game itself was punctuated with lots of penalties, too many I’d say for the fringe rugby fan with mungo tendencies……’yawnion’ I think is the terminology. However, it would have only been the aficionado’s in Oz who were up at that time of night watching this arm wrestle.
Foxy was referring to his late, great fellow commentator John Drake when he suggested his knowledge of front row play was limited and that his ‘old mate’ would know about that stuff if he were here. As it happens, the front row battle ended up about even. The Bokke scrum was stronger in the early exchanges but it sorted itself out and, despite changes later on including a cameo by the ‘scrum doctor’ Dr Jannie du Plessis, it was honours even. The Myth v Barney Smit contest was a bit of a non-event.
I was disappointed that Buck Shelford wasn’t there making the ultimate sacrifice of his ballas, but hey, you can’t have everything in one night. At least they came back strongly in the 2nd half although you had a sense that the home team was always in some sort of control. Another highlight was the haka, which the crowd completely drowned out with the Bokke chant….it’s quite catchy I reckon.
The game got off to an early start with successful penalties by Donald and F. Steyn in the 3rd and 5th minute respectively. Pienaar had a couple of shots but both unluckily bounced off the posts. Leonard kept getting pinged for illegal scrum feeds, although du Preez didn’t when he did the same thing later in the game. Good to see the ref’s actually policing the laws of the game.
After a Pienaar penalty went over in the 17th minute, he scored a try in the corner from a strong attacking movement, kick unsuccessful. The All Blacks weren’t getting much possession and their scrum was under pressure. F. Steyn got another goal in the 32nd minute and went into halftime at 14-3. The All Blacks were under pressure the whole of the first half which forced mistakes and turnovers.
Halftime stats showed that the Bokke’s had possession 57% to 43%, dominated territory 60% to 40% and the breakdown at 41 to 24.
After the break a Morné Steyn penalty stretched the lead to 17-3. Against the run of play the All Blacks attacked in the Springbok red zone and Conrad Smith stepped and dummied four players to score the try of the day to make it 17-10 after Donald converted. Another penalty for an offside and it was 17-13, the All Blacks were back in the game. With further penalties M. Steyn took it to 20-13, and then Donald responded in the 62nd minute 20-16.
The game was decided by a Jacque Fourie try out wide, after the All Blacks had made mistakes on attack. 25-19. Eaton had come on and become a liability, knocking on a couple of times and being penalised. Final score 28-19. Despite the corpulent coloured being overweight and out of form, Januarie came on for du Preez in the dying stage of the game. He kicked the ball into touch to end the All Black’s misery.
For the Bokke, the loose forward’s Brussow, Smith and Spies were without peer and Smit and du Plessis the younger were into everything. Du Preez and de Villiers were the pick of the backs. Steyn also had a busy day at No 15 as the ball was in the air for much of the game.
For the All Blacks, Donald had his kicking boots on today and Conrad Smith and Joe Rockokoko were penetrating. In the forwards Andrew Hore, Isaac Ross and Richie McCaw stood out. McCaw was responsible for a number of turnovers but was overshadowed on the day by Brussow.
This was the best result for the Wallabies. Doff, can’t wait to do it all again next week!
