RWC: SAF v JAP (Brighton Stadium) Pool B

[Forcefield]

More Rebels I think you'll find 3 to be exact

Which three?

 

[chasmac]

Japan played so smart - credit to them.

How effective were they at feeding their own scrums. They were clearly dominated but managed to get it out of the scrum in a flash. Australia can learn something from them if our scrum starts going backwards.

The accuracy in everything they did whether it was clear the rucks, make low hard hitting tackles on much bigger men, re-aligning in defence was superb. Technically and skill-fully they were clearly the better side.

This is a great reminder that size and strength is only secondary to accuracy, discipline and heart!

The best thing about this is they 100% deserved this win. It wasn't won off some poor referee decisions or some uncharacteristic mistakes by a Bok player - it was won by effort and skill.

This is why I love rugby!

Seb please don't think i am being personal in saying that there is absolutely nothing we should try and learn from Eddy at scrumtime.

 

[the plastic paddy]

Indeed a famous victory and test rugby produces so few of these upsets. Without overstating things, it seems that in this RWC the 2nd tier nations have made a general improvement and are tactically and skillfully much better than they have been in the past. Let's hope they can sustain it beyond the first round.

Scotland should be very worried - I'm not sure that they have the game to stop Japan if they play another match like that.

I think Scotland or Samoa could knock the Saffers out altogether. SA rugby looks like it is in crisis. They do play some fecking dumb rugby at times, as well. I sometimes wonder whether they deliberately try and make things hard for themselves.

 

[swingpass]

Which three?

Horie, Sa'u and Inagaki have all played or play withe the Rebels

 

[aeneas]

On the plus side SA did come away with 2 pts. Will be important I suspect.

 

[Viking]

I think Scotland or Samoa could knock the Saffers out altogether. SA rugby looks like it is in crisis. They do play some fecking dumb rugby at times, as well. I sometimes wonder whether they deliberately try and make things hard for themselves.

Tactically they are have been very poor. But gee their team looks good on paper.

I can never ride off a team with players like Bismark, Etzebeth, Burger.
And De Allende and Kriel look like such a damaging centre pairing. They will come good with a little more direction.

 

[aeneas]

Tactically they are have been very poor. But gee their team looks good on paper.

I can never ride off a team with players like Bismark, Etzebeth, Burger.
And De Allende and Kriel look like such a damaging centre pairing. They will come good with a little more direction.

Tend to agree though Bismarck has a poor discipline record in big matches. Though how anyone can be picking Matfield at this point is beyond me.

 

[swingpass]

^^^^^^^ i agree, far too soon the write off Sth Africa. they are more likely than not to win their remaining three games and easily. obviously, a lot will be gleaned from the Sco V Jap and the SA v Sam games later this week. If both Sam and Jpn go 2 and 0, then its a long way back for both SA and Scotland, all big iff's though.

 

[Viking]

Yeah Bismark needs to work on his discipline but that is an easy fix. Don't forget he was pretty damn good against us not long ago.

Matfield and JdV unfortunately are past it.

 

[swingpass]

Yeah Bismark needs to work on his discipline but that is an easy fix. Don't forget he was pretty damn good against us not long ago.

Matfield and JdV unfortunately are past it.

hard to drop them though, which is good for the rest of the teams. only the AB's have had the balls to drop an underperforming captain during a RWC

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Fair post, except for the tries. 2 tries = a truckload? Since when?

Perhaps a little bit of litery licence taken there

 

[Rugbynutter39]

What is interesting with Japan's win was there was nothing in the lead up to this game to suggest they would even come close to the Boks...

As they lost to the United States two months ago, only just beat Georgia 13-10 in their final warm-up game, and had won once in 24 matches spanning seven World Cups....

 

[BDA]

It'll be really interesting to see Japan try to qualify for the Quarters from here. Based on what we've seen to date, Japan should beat the US. That means they'll need a win against either Scotland or Samoa. That's still a fairly big mountain to climb. There is every chance that they'll still fail to finish top 2, which makes things all the more interesting for the fans.

It remains to be seen whether they'll be able to replicate Saturday's form. Although at the moment you'd have to at least rate Japan a chance of beating Samoa.

I think most neutral fans will now be on the Japan bandwagon. I certainly am.

 

[Highlander35]

Strategy for Wednesday will be interesting. Do they go very hard with a similar team again, looking for the 2 wins to start, then go for top with the US and Samoa games to come? Or do they put forward a fresher "B" side looking to grab anythinb from the next one, then going very hard at the final 2 games, against more familiar opponents, grabbing 2nd with 3 wins and a slim chance at top.

I'm a bit more worried than I was before, but nothing has changed from the beginning of the Tournament. Need to win 4 games to guarantee Quarters, 3 wins probably gets you there.

Was thinking maybe a slightly compromised side would take the field against Japan, but now I'm pretty sure it'll be nearly best 23.

 

[Quick Hands]

Japan would be mad not to pick the best available team for their next match. They need to keep momentum.

 

[Viking]

hard to drop them though, which is good for the rest of the teams. only the AB's have had the balls to drop an underperforming captain during a RWC

To be fair the plan was probably to play JdV into form, they would have expected Japan to be a suitable game to do this - no-one expected them to be so competitive.

I'd imagine if their first game was against us or the AB's they probably would have started De Allende. At least I hope that is the case.

 

[Viking]

Japan would be mad not to pick the best available team for their next match. They need to keep momentum.

Comments from Jones suggested he only expected to be challenging against the Boks and they were actually targeting the other games for wins.

Which suggests to me they always planned on putting out a strong or stronger side against Scotland and Samoa.

Certainly fills me with a lot of confidence in Japan.

 

[BDA]

Am I the only one that thinks JDV is all of a sudden starting to look like his age is catching up with him. He looked almost gaunt on the weekend.

The Boks could do with some young blood in their team.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Am I the only one that thinks JDV is all of a sudden starting to look like his age is catching up with him. He looked almost gaunt on the weekend.

The Boks could do with some young blood in their team.

Not the only one at all. I had exactly the same thought about JdV looking gaunt when I watched yesterday. I think he's a super player but I also think that Meyer has made a mistake by selecting him and then making him captain.

 

[Viking]

^^Especially when you got De Allende as an option. If he played anything like he did against the Brumbies in the finals of super rugby then I doubt Japan would have been able to stop him - and then having Kriel running off him is a scary thought.