Springbokke EYT

[PaarlBok]

Morning Biff!

Scoreline is disappointing but then the real deal with the exercise is to give all the dirt trackers a change to play and obvious the coaches decided to take off the Test reserves like Bekker & Pienaar at half time and gave the full bench a change to showcase. CJ van der Lined was pull off after about ten minutes (dunno if he was injured) and a tough match for Heinke at TH. He did not do that bad but when he got the hit wrong he was on the backfoot. The turning point for us when the 9 Houghaard decide to run against the turn of the scrum and his kick got charge down and Ernst score from that. Also poor defense from Meisiekind & Pienaar to let Barret in for a try. Nevertheless some slick moves in the backline and Bekker, Halgreave & Earl Rose standing out.

Just a pitty we dont play another one next week because it sure look like the combo's working much better.

Rose - had a good game, took the up & unders and attacking was great.
Viljoen - shocking in the last stanza, out of position and still way to big eye for the occation.
Nokwe - scored two great tries , specially the last one.
Twin - not really init and two forward passes when we did not need it.
de Jongh - much better performance, a bit over eager but scored a good try like we know he can.
Meisiekind - Good first half , one big hit on Derrick, just to let him feel some Brute power.
Bosman - Came on and disappear
Pienaar - Good game for a change, one or two kicking mistakes but a solid performance.
Adams - Had a bit of pressure but played well in the first half, getting his line away and breaking when needed.
Hougaard - Schocking and the big reason we end up in the wrong side of the ledger. Still need experiense on this level.
Johnson - Had his baddest game of the season.
Deysel - some power displays by the big man but not outstanding
Potgieter - I'll pick him if Schalk is still injured, very busy and lead from the front.
Bekker - Outstanding game and look like he can start against the Italians to give Matfield a bit of a rest.
Halgreave - the find of the game, lineouts outstanding and steal a lot of pill in 2. I know this kid from U19s and sure a good investment.
Pakslae - His form has me worried.
Heinke - struggle in the scrums but not that bad.
Strauss- Solid performance
du Preez - look strong in the scrum but nothing to get excited about.

All the others like Maku exct played towards the end and I felt we lost our grip with all the replacements in the second half.

Sarries were lucky to win this one, they were hungry for this win and to be honest the scoreline may suggest that Liefling did the most damage, myself say thank fuck he play his rugby up north, 20 dropgoal attemps, standing 30 metres back, can get his backline on the frontfoot, exct. Give me just one man from that Sarries team playing for us, Wikus van Heerden. He do all their hard work, a flippen working horse.

 

[PaarlBok]

Depth, or lack thereof is a serious issue in SA rugby. That much is plain to see.

Yep, one of the reasons a 6th S14 side would have been madness

The fifth SA team was madness enough.

Trust me I am going to file this one and will bring it back when the 2010 S14 ended. Not one of your teams making the semis in 2009?

 

[Blue]

Morning Biff!

Scoreline is disappointing but then the real deal with the exercise is to give all the dirt trackers a change to play and obvious the coaches decided to take off the Test reserves like Bekker & Pienaar at half time and gave the full bench a change to showcase. CJ van der Lined was pull off after about ten minutes (dunno if he was injured) and a tough match for Heinke at TH.

Paarl I expected you'd smooth it over.

It's a disgrace. It's the Springbok brand that's being damaged through poor selections, apparently poor coaching, and bad play.

I do not believe we cannot pick a team from the Currie Cup that can't beat' Saracens and a depleted Leicester.

No big names and we struggle. It was like that in the World Cup when we played our second stringers, and against the Lions.

The coaches should take the blame but they will bullshit their way out of it. If they donlt have their stars they are incompetent. Look at the Lions third test. They rely on five or six players to drag us out of this shit and when these guys are not there we look crap. That can nolonger be denied.

Bekker and CJ are both injured. It's a big worry. Bekker can't seem to stay fir for longer than a few games. Ribs again? This must be the third time in a couple of years?

South Africa lost against two club teams. Fuck me. That's a bloody disgrace.

 

[PaarlBok]

Oh well it is a loss but then I think their clubs is much stronger then the Aus or SA equvalent of a club. You should know the Saffers playing in that Saracens side are all S14 or test experienced players. Maybe underestimate their strength a bit? The most dirt trackers are newbies and young players and you can go back many a year and you'll find international teams struggle in this matches. Remember the way the All Blacks struggled in Upington against NWK in the 1970s. Can you remember a SA province called Nort Western Cape ? Thats why this games is so important for the modern game, we missed it and myself hope they will continue doing it. Thats what the new age rugby supporter dont understand. Dirt tracker matches was and is always tough. The intenational teams players is all new ones and for some reason they put themself under pressure because of the favourate tag, going in a new enviroment against a team that have absolute nothing to lose and only pride for their team and their jersey in a all different enviroment.

Your welcome to be negative about this two losses but trust me this experiense for youngsters like du Jongh, Johnson and Hougaard will put them in good stead for the future.

Long may this dirt track matches continue!

Wish the NH will send us their full stretch teams with mid week matches.

 

[Sully]

It's not surprising to lose to a team that plays that much rugby togather and at such a high standard.

 

[Lindommer]

Thats why this games is so important for the modern game, we missed it and myself hope they will continue doing it. Thats what the new age rugby supporter dont understand. Dirt tracker matches was and is always tough.

Long may this dirt track matches continue!

Hear, hear! The three midweek tour matches to date have been excellent spectacles and a wonderful occasion for all players involved. More please.

JON has asked the NH (well, England in particular) to send a full strength touring squad down under next year with the lure of some midweek matches. I don't know if NZ have promised any midweek games against the Pom dirt-trackers but this is a promising development.

 

[PaarlBok]

In the IRB rankings South Africa has just ceded top place to New Zealand.

So what?, we still beat them 3-0 this year.

 

[Scorz]

In the IRB rankings South Africa has just ceded top place to New Zealand.

So what?, we still beat them 3-0 this year.

It's cost you though, now you've lost to club sides and to France!

 

[Blue]

Oh well it is a loss but then I think their clubs is much stronger then the Aus or SA equvalent of a club. You should know the Saffers playing in that Saracens side are all S14 or test experienced players. Maybe underestimate their strength a bit? The most dirt trackers are newbies and young players and you can go back many a year and you'll find international teams struggle in this matches. Remember the way the All Blacks struggled in Upington against NWK in the 1970s. Can you remember a SA province called Nort Western Cape ? Thats why this games is so important for the modern game, we missed it and myself hope they will continue doing it. Thats what the new age rugby supporter dont understand. Dirt tracker matches was and is always tough. The intenational teams players is all new ones and for some reason they put themself under pressure because of the favourate tag, going in a new enviroment against a team that have absolute nothing to lose and only pride for their team and their jersey in a all different enviroment.

Your welcome to be negative about this two losses but trust me this experiense for youngsters like du Jongh, Johnson and Hougaard will put them in good stead for the future.

Long may this dirt track matches continue!

Wish the NH will send us their full stretch teams with mid week matches.

Don't care.

The Bok brand should be about no compromise. None.

How are you supposed to maintain a CULTURE of winning if you lose?

Forget about the 70's Paarl. That was the non pro era.

It doesn't count today.

Paarl you can't seriously tell me you compare UK clubs to SA clubs (amateur clubs). You should compare them to SA provinces. It's like to ABs and Wallabies bringing a mid-week team to SA and getting beaten by the Free State and WP Currie Cup teams. Will they be pissed off? YOU BET. THEY WILL BE LIVID.

Long live mid week games. Death to mediocrity. We accept it all too easily.

 

[PaarlBok]

In the IRB rankings South Africa has just ceded top place to New Zealand.

So what?, we still beat them 3-0 this year.

It's cost you though, now you've lost to club sides and to France!

You still have to play France Never been to much worried about the ranking thing, but will take a drubbing to the All Blacks anyday. :thumb

 

[PaarlBok]

BJ Botha has been flown over (on holiday in SA) to Italy as backup for CJ van der Linde for the remaining of the tour.

 

[PaarlBok]

Springboks - 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Adi Jacobs, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Wian du Preez.
Subs: 16 Beast Mtawarira , 17 BJ Botha, 18 Victor Matfield, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Ruan Pienaar, Wynand Olivier.

 

[PaarlBok]

Meaning Schalk, Bismarck & CJ out with injuries and Smit acting as backup hooker..

 

[Thomond78]

Thats why this games is so important for the modern game, we missed it and myself hope they will continue doing it. Thats what the new age rugby supporter dont understand. Dirt tracker matches was and is always tough.

Long may this dirt track matches continue!

Hear, hear! The three midweek tour matches to date have been excellent spectacles and a wonderful occasion for all players involved. More please.

JON has asked the NH (well, England in particular) to send a full strength touring squad down under next year with the lure of some midweek matches. I don't know if NZ have promised any midweek games against the Pom dirt-trackers but this is a promising development.

We usually do send full strength teams, injury permitting. But I won't re-open that can of worms.

Because, I agree, mid-week games being back is bloody wonderful. Believe it or not, Stephen Jones is giving you a lot of credit for it in his latest Rolling Maul.

Dear IRB Gimps; we bloody told you to bring back tours. See how easy that was? See...?

 

[Ash]

Meaning Schalk, Bismarck & CJ out with injuries and Smit acting as backup hooker..

Think Smit should've been moved to hooker, but can't seem to see an in-favour TH to replace him, especially with BJ Botha just called up.

 

[Lee Grant]

Both the Bok mid-week games were crackers and geez - 46K at Wembley to watch one is impressive. It just underlines the pity that the Oz mid week game wasn't televised and all we saw were highlights from the stadium camera. As I indicated after the Oz game against Gloucester: all of the 3N teams would benefit by having 3 midweek games on every EOYT.


And if JON can pull another rabbit out of the hat and get touring teams to play a couple of midweek games in Oz in our season he will get another tick from me. Love him or hate him, he is an action man. The argument against it is probably that the Churchill Cup is on in June, but not all Euro teams play in it.


I wouldn't feel too bad about the Boks loss though we here in Oz don't have the same expectations of our dirt trackers as they do in the RSA or NZ. Come to think of it though: the Boks should have lost by more as both of Nokwe's tries should not have been allowed. Blind Freddie could have seen the knock on by the excellent Ashley Johnson before the first, and the pass to Nokwe for the second was palpably forward.


One of the corollaries of having a successful test team is that it is hard to crack it unless there are injuries. Therefore a lot of the Bok dirt trackers hadn't played a lot at the international level and certainly not together. Have that team playing together as much as Sarries have and you would have seen a different result. Some of the "unknown" Bok players looked bloody good to me and I wish we had a few of them in our cupboard.


Nevertheless, it's a bit hard to reconcile the likelihood that the RSA has the best domestic comp in the world now (having overtaken the ANZC in the last few years IMO) with the fact that their A team has lost 2 midweek games to GP clubs who were not at full strength - especially Leicester. And this takes into account the undeniable merit of the winning teams. In particular: the Sarries defence was terrific in the game and one of my favourite Bok players, Wikus van Heerden, one of 10 Sarries players born in the RSA, had a storming game against former team mates.


As South Africans would say: it is not a train crash; not for these days. These days Bok fans have to realise that the effects of the Kolpak decision are kicking in.

 

[Lee Grant]

PS

For those who don't know: for some time workers from EU countries have been allowed to work in other EU countries without having to hold a passport for the 2nd country.


But Maros Kolpak was a Slovak handball player who wanted to play in Germany, and Slovakia was not a member of the EU at the time. It was decided that because Slovakia had a trading relationship with the EU, then Slovakians could get the same benefits of working in EU countries as the passport holders of EU member countries had.


The decision included a broadening to any other country with an an associate agreement with the EU and in particular to 80 so-called ACP countries (where A stands for Africa, C for Caribbean and P for Pacific). Since South Africa happens to be in Africa their rugby players have been playing in Europe on their passports, as have Pacific Islanders, and as have West Indian cricketers.


There was talk about this Kolpak decision being revisited, and I am not sure if it has happened, or not, but in the meantime I am glad that Oz doesn't have an official trading relationship with the EU.

 

[PaarlBok]

Things happen in threes and teusday was our last one. Expecting nothing less then a good win for the Bokke tomorrow and ending their tour with a good revenge on the Iere. Now with all the Paddy critics on the Italian scrumming it will be interest to see the amount of pressure mounting on saturday's ref. I saw Stephen Jones mountain in on our scrum but I am sure we have this time the best available options scrumming wise. Thats the battle we have to win to get a victory and I am sure Smit will play nice handball with the ref as soon as he gets his arse handle on a plate. Our backline have to fire on all cylinders and I love the look of our bench. Impact dont come better then a Beast, Deysel & Pienaar. Surprise to see Hougaard on the bench after the kak he displayed on teusday.

 

[PaarlBok]

Alan Rolland is the man. :nta:

 

[rustycruiser]

32 - 10 to the Boks was the final score. The Italians had three South African born player on the pitch for them. Del Fava, Geldenhuis, and a new cap Adi Jacobs. Jacobs showed his worth to the Italians, playing a crucial role in both of their tries! A good showing for him on debut for the Azzurri.

:thumb