Meantime back at the rugby. I thought it was going to be the same old shit different day when the Boks were well ahead at oranges; not that they were any great shakes, but that we were playing the same as we did against the All Blacks and deserved to be losing.
I shudder to think if we played against the Boks under the conditions NZ and the Pumas had in the earlier game. We would be like rabbits in the headlights because we can't kick, nor do we kick-chase very well when a kick is decent (- well except once, but why spoil a good rant?). Nor do we have decent long kickers, nor a left footed one. The best is Barnes off his wrong foot. It may serve in a 2nd Grade match, but I doubt it.
The Boks kicked well, especially Pineaar and Sideshow Bob; getting involved in kicking contests with them is like pissing in the wind.
And then there were the bonehead plays like Sharpe at the lineout: it would have embarrassed Ali Williams. But there was some good stuff from the Wobs in the 2nd half. Their bootstrap tackling of the Bok big boppers on the charge was thrilling sometimes and the physicality in the collisions lasted longer than just the start of the game as was the case in the Bledisloe matches.
And it's good to see Wobs like Samo making dominant tackles. I believe that Oz made more of these than the Bokke did. And we are beginning to see the worth of Timani. As for turnovers at the tackle: we must have won that contest.
The Wobs still look poorly coached; not by just Deans and Co but by all the coaches they have had in their careers. Our lads get to Super Rugby and test match rugby too soon: full of hope and promise but ill-formed and not rugby wise.
The getting into position during transition after a turnover, maybe even running back to go forward; the configuring of player clusters on either side of the ruck; the spacing of attackers to be where defenders are not, or will not be; the whiff of set-piece execution in phase play - all these were evident in the great Crusaders teams coached by Robbie Deans.
I do not mind so much that our players are not good enough to do these things, but I would like to see the Wobs showing some inkling that they have been exposed to such practices and evidence that they think they are promising elements in a game of rugby.
But, after all, they came back and scored 20-6 in the 2nd half, against a team that has been undefeated this year, shabby though they have been sometimes themselves.
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