The Springboks have reeled in then overtaken the All Blacks’ lead to win 31-27.
Excuses
This write-up is a bit rushed/brief/late on account of a swarm of bees needing to be dealt with for most of the morning (really). Thankfully they were just a swarm of worker bees on reconnaissance for a new nest location in one of the walls of the Yowie house. With no queen bee yet, the swarm will be lured into a newly-placed hive box over the next week or so. The nearest beekeeper to our place is a dead-set legend.
First Half
The white collar criminals (thanks Hambone) got off to a strong start At about two minutes in, hammering the Bok defence with fourteen phases before Damian McKenzie sent the ball to Ardie Savea (8) loitering a bit too close to sideline and tackled out.
Five minutes in, the ABs were hammering the Boks’ red zone again before a Sam Kane knock-on brought an end to that passage of play (with a yellow card to Bok 15 Aphelele Fassi for entering from the wrong side and preventing the pass from being made).
At 6:45 an AB lineout had Codie Taylor throw to Ardie Savea, then score himself off the resulting maul. Grinning eejit converted to make the score 0-7 to the nuns.
Not to be outdone in the hooker one-man-show bragging comp, at 16 minutes Bongi Mbonambi threw the Bok lineout and (off the maul) scored himself according to the game-day officials, albeit with suspect grounding and some New Zealand chagrin. Conversion unsuccessful. Boks 5-7 NZ.
At 28 mins the biltong-munchers added some extras with a long penalty shot at goal. 8-7.
At about 31 mins AB 11 Caleb Clarke scored off turnover ball that went through the hands to get to Clarke. McKenzie missed the conversion. Boks 8-12 AB.
At 36 mins the Boks stayed in touch with a 3-pointer. 11-12.
A 39th minute Saffa drop-goal attempt (“Boks’ kick”?) missed. Score remained 11-12 at half time.
Second Half
In the first minute of the second half, a short Springbok lineout then through-the-hands got turned against them when Jordie Barret took an intercept to score next to the posts. McKenzie converted to make it 11-19 to the fleece-fanciers.
By 44 minutes Rassie surprised nobody by rotating on the so-called bomb squad. After a bit of red-zone hammering the Green Machine added another 3 points to make it 14-19.
The Kiwis repaid the favour at 46 mins with 3 points of their own courtesy of some Boks off their feet. 14-22.
Not to be out-done, at 48 mins Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked three for the NZ tacklers not rolling away. 17-22.
All these penalties were a bit unbecoming of Southern Hemisphere running rugby, so NZ secured the ball from their lineout, sent it wide and put Caleb Clarke over thanks to an overlap. McKenzie’s conversion attempt was wide. 17-27.
From 67 minutes the momentum was back with the green and white with a maul, penalty and yellow card to AB17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi. A Bok lineout and a few pick-and-goes (or “picks and go” like governors general?) later and Mr Handsome himself, Kwagga Smith, scored under the cross-bar. After a successful conversion, the Saffas were closing in at 25-27.
At 73 minutes a SA lineout five metres out produced a diving try to little-bloke Grant Williams to give the home team the lead. 31-27 after the conversion. The score didn’t move by full time.
Officiating
Among the G&GR writing team, the officiating was not universally applauded. Eloise considered that at least half of South Africa’s points came from the ref and assistants, even shocking the local commentators.
Brisneyland Local considered the officiating of this game to be a sharp reversal of the general Rugby Championship good standard.
