Victorious Boks fail to convince
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:56
Try time: Springbok Francois Steyn
South Africa recorded a comfortable 26-0 victory over Italy in their one-off Test at a wet Newlands on Saturday, but the Springboks failed to live up to their pre-match billing.
There were things to talk about and take an interest in at gloomy Newlands.
There was a Mexican wave, a fairly desultory one. Some people did a slow clap. Every now and again a trumpet would sound the paso doble which was popular at the World Cup and that would give them something to cheer about.
Oh and Odwa Ndungane got a pass. And every now and then Tendai Mtawarira got a run and the crowd could growl BEAST. And then the drizzle abated and there was a gradual unveiling of the mountains as the cloud lifted.
Otherwise there was not much that was interesting or entertaining or worth talking about for the crowd of 36,623.
The Italian sitting next to me said: "It's not a funny game." He probably meant a fun game but it was not funny amusing, funny bizarre maybe.
Afterwards some old men tried to work out if this was the worst Test ever in South Africa and it evoked comparisons with Springs in 1964.
Otherwise there was not much to talk about even afterwards.
It was not just that South Africa had scored its lowest number of points ever against this much-weakened Italian side - 26 points where the average had been 65 before then. It was not just that. It was the way that they played that was grim.
It was not a great game. There was drizzle but no sign of standing water on the excellent surface. But passes were rare. In South Africa's first three tries there was one pass. One pass - in total that is. Enrico Januarie passed to François Steyn. That was it. The next two tries came from mauls and required no passes.
The fourth try required passing and that was such a shock as it was nearly botched by poor passing till Mtawarira picked up the ball and flicked to Victor Matfield who gave to Bryan Habana on an arc. Habana played inside to Mtawarira and the burly prop plodded over for a try.
The crowd growled BEAST in delight. Loftus Versfeld has operatic Liefling. All the other grounds in South Africa have BEAST.
The match was made up mainly of kicking interspersed with mauls, long mauls by South Africa, static mauls by Italy who had even slower tackles when they had the ball and the scrumhalf was in no hurry to get the ball out as he fanned his backside to get forwards in position to set up another one of these slow things.
To Italy's credit their organisation was good. Their scrums were good, their line-outs were good and they protected the ball well on pick-'n-drive. Coaches have troubled days and troubled nights. After this match Nick Mallett would sleep much more restfully than Peter de Villiers.
If the Springboks had a game plan it was not obvious, other than to keep on kicking downfield. That does not take much planning. Any alternative was well hidden, its authors anonymous. Any thought of counterattack was obviously beyond suggestion.
Italy also had a moment or two when they could have scored. In fact the first scoring opportunity was theirs as the early territory was theirs, too.
Young flyhalf Luke McLean kicked a high diagonal to his left where young Matteo Pratichetti outjumped Odwa Ndungane and Conrad Jantjes to set off with the ball, but the cover saved. McLean tried a second diagonal but Habana marked easily.
Counterattack did happen and it led to South Africa's first try. Simon Picone kicked - yet again - and Habana came darting back, beating man after man. Tackled the ball came back to South Africa and Januarie passed to Steyn who immediately grubbered into the empty acres behind the Italian backs. Steyn scooped up the ball brilliantly to score near the posts. He converted. 7-0 after 6 minutes.
Two penalties in quick succession produced a line-out five-metres from the Italian line. The Springboks split the line-out, threw deep and hurried the maul over the line for Bismarck du Plessis to register the try. 14-0 after 17 minutes.
The Springbok forwards went on a long maul from the kick-off, all the way into Italian territory. If ever a pack of forwards had put their backs on the front foot, this was it. Quick ball went to Gcobani Bobo. It was the first time he had got the ball and he was not going to pass. He forged ahead, was tackled and was penalised.
This led to a spate of kicking in front of the Grand Stand. Back and forth it went. Ten kicks in succession, me-to-you stuff, till Januarie kicked the ball out and the corwd applauded, not because Januarie's kick was a good one but because it ended the increasing agony.
Steyn had a clearing kick charged down but the ball went dead. In the second half he again had a clearing kick go dead.
There was an anxious moment when two Italians tackled Ryan Kankowski who went down badly injured. It took a long time for the medics to stabilise his neck and have him taken off on the stretcher car. For his part in the tackle Carlo Dal Fava was sent to the sin bin. When Kankowski was wheeled off past him he gave him a sympathetic pat.
The tackle may in fact not have been all that illegal even though it hurt the player badly. Joe van Niekerk took Kankowski's place.
Kankowski's father, Tino, once a great Eastern Province wing, received an immediate phonevcall from his wife as he sat in the stand. Down he went to see his son and came back with the message that he was fine but could not remember running onto the field.
Half-time came and the man on the other side of me asked: "Was that the worst 40 minutes of rugby you have seen this year?"
The Springboks scored early in the second half, the same recipe as their second try - two penalties plus a moving maul and a try for Du Plessis. Steyn missed the conversion this time.
The last try was sparked by a long, sharp break by Januarie down the left. It came right and eventually Mtawarira scored. 26-0 There was no further scoring.
Pablo Canavosio intercepted but Januarie grabbed his ankles. De Villiers broke out in magnificent fashion and directed a grubber to his right where the ball hopped out at the corner just ahead of Ndungane. Andries Bekker looked certain to score off a pass from Peter Grant but lost the ball and the Italians broke out brilliantly. Kane Robertson kicked downfield. Steyn, now a fullback, saved, the Springboks bungled and Italy earned a five-metre scrum. This led to a long period, nearly eight minutes, in which play barely moved off an area of about five square metres but all they had to show for this long siege was a drop attempt missed by McLean.
South Africa broke out. De Villiers took a quick tap at a drop-out and started running. Habana had a characteristically sweeping run and a try looked certain as Pienaar ran with the ball, till inexplicably after eight strides the ball shot forward from his hands as he tried to sell some sort of dummy.
Man of the Match: One must resist the temptation to say a churlish No-one. After all Bismarck du Plessis was better than most, Jean de Villiers had two great runs and Beast Mtawarira was the one man who excited the crowd, but our award goes to Victor Matfield, who was the best player on the field.
Moment of the Match: Pienaar's knock-on at the end, the best example of a blunder in a blunder-filled match. But the best moment happened when, running at full speed, François Steyn bent and scooped up the wet ball off the wet surface and scored. (Steyn's game oscillated between the brilliant and the tawdry, giving those outside of him little opportunity to pla.)
Villain of the Match: Carlo Dal Fava is the obvious choice but his action seemed more accidental than malicious. Perhaps we should forget about that and remember the players milling bout together on the field swapping jerseys.
The scorers:
For South Africa:
Tries: Steyn, Du Plessis 2, Mtawarira
Cons: Steyn 3
For Italy:
None
Yellow card: Carlo del Fava (Italy, 37 - foul play, dangerous tackle)
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Gcobani Bobo, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 François Steyn, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Luke Watson, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Brian Mujati, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Joe van Niekerk, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Peter Grant, 22 Ruan Pienaar.
Italy:
15 Andrea Marcato, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Andrea Masi, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Matteo Pratichetti, 10 Luke McLean, 9 Simon Picone, 8 Josh Sole, 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 4 Santiago Dellapè, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain), 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Ignacio Rouyet, 18 Jaco Erasmus, 19 Tommaso Reato, 20 Pablo Canavosio, 21 Enrico Patrizio, 22 Riccardo Pavan.
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Touch judges: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand), David Changleng (Scotland)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
By Paul Dobson
