New Zealand smash sorry South Africa
Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:59
Victory run: All Black captain Richie McCaw on the charge
New Zealand took a giant leap towards winning yet another Tri-Nations crown when they beat a very sorry looking South African team 19-0 at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday. The All Blacks outscored the Springboks by three tries to none.
Most importantly, the win ensures New Zealand reclaim first place on the International Rugby Board (IRB) standings.
In the Tri-Nations the All Blacks are now on 14 points, after five games and with one game to go. Australia, with three Tri-Nations games left - two against the Boks and one against the All Blacks - are second on nine points. The Boks, who need a miracle to now win the Tri-Nations, are on five points with just two games left.
Basics! Do the simple things well. look after the pence and the pounds will look after themselves. "Perfection consists in attention to trivial things but perfection is not trivial," as Michelangelo said.
All of this was true at Newlands on a pleasant afternoon for rugby before a packed crowd. The crowd had gone up with great expectations to the beat of an hope-filled drum. They came down, they came down with slumped shoulders and quiet drums. Their team had been beaten. In the end it was a thrashing - the first time the Springboks failed to score in a Test at Newlands since 1891, the second biggest losing margin in Cape Town ever.
It was not that the All Blacks were special. It was just that they had a calm attention to detail, to trifles. They caught and passed well. They were patient and maneuvering on attack. They chased kicks - that sort of thing. They kicked penalties into touch but they did not kick to their own destruction.
The Springboks on the other hand lacked calm. They were frantic from the first kick-off which was an error. They tried to force play and regularly kicked too far. They won the scrums all right. That was the only facet of their play that they did win. They lost the tackle and lost the boot and lost the tactics and lost the match, and they found chasing kicks too much.
And the score could have been bigger. Astonishingly Daniel Carter missed a conversion and four penalty kicks at goal - 14 points you would normally expect him to nail. To be fair Percy Montgomery also missed two simple kicks and missed them when the score was 5-0.
It was 5-0 for a long time - for about an hour in fact.
There were 49 653 people at Newlands. Over 37 000 were given drums, the yebo djembe, an African drum - rugby's answer to the vuvuzela and not more musical than that raucous bugle, but when they banged the drums and Carter missed, they banged again and again and again. But it was not enough in a Test when the scoring was all try or conversion. Not a penalty goal was scored.
There were 28 dancers with streamers in green and gold. There were two trios of male singers in suits. Boys from SACS, Percy Montgomery's school in bashers and blazers, brought a huge poster onto the ground with Percy's picture and 100 Test Caps in big letters. The All Blacks came on and huddled long while the Springboks delayed their entrance. Montgomery came on first with his children and the crowd chanted Percy, Percy.
The anthems followed and the Kapa O Pango haka with lots of Ali Williams bravado. At last the Springboks kicked off.
It was a damp squib of a kick-off for Richard Kahui was clever and ensured that it went directly into touch. South Africa got a free kick just inside their half but Fourie du Preez kicked it over the dead-ball line. They won their first line-out by slapping the ball back but the helter-skelter passing which followed cost them another 50 metres. Bryan Habana, player of the year last year but a nightmare this year, knocked on the first up-an-under the All Blacks hoisted. Habana flung a quick line-out into his own in-goal and had to scramble the ball out to yield an excellent attacking position to the All Blacks. All of this happened in the first five minutes. No amount of home-ground advantage can miraculously turn such dross into victorious gold.
The All Blacks now went on calm attack till they went left and Richie McCaw left-footed a grubber into the Springboks in-goal where Conrad Smith beat Butch James to a touchdown which the television match official conformed. 5-0 after 7 minutes.
The Springboks had a good attack when Fourie du Preez went wide from a scrum but he lost the ball in the tackle. They then had a three-man overlap but Bismarck du Plessis, as is his wont, took the tackle. Victor Matfield did the same sort of thing later in the half.
At this stage Carter missed the first of his penalty attempts but James kicked the drop-out into the All Blacks goal to yield a scrum on the Springboks 22.
From a turnover De Villiers grubbered and JP Pietersen won the contest for the ball. The Springboks were at the line but the All Blacks broke back. Habana did well on the counter and the Springboks had two five-metre scrums.
Habana took the ball from a tackle/ruck on the far left and went darting up the touchline. It looked as if he had to score. Surely Habana, try-scorer extraordinaire, had to score. But Williams did just enough to get Habana's foot onto a touch-line.
Half-time came at 5-0.
Early in the half the Springboks again played wide deep inside their own territory and this time De Villiers broke beautifully. It fizzled when De Villiers kicked and the All Blacks recovered. But soon afterwards the Springboks had a penalty, which Montgomery missed.
A chip by James was an excellent one and Pietersen forced Mils Muliaina to concede a five-metre scum. James bashed at the line and the Springboks were close, only to yield another turnover.
The All Blacks came close on the left when John Afoa just failed to score as Montgomery and Pietersen tackled him.
Twice in the half Carter dropped at goal and twice it was charged down, first by Pierre Spies and then by Enrico Januarie. But Carter was dictating play, playing clever diagonals. The Springboks tried diagonals but kicked out on the full, except when Frans Steyn failed to find touch with a penalty,
James kicked and Isaia Toeava caught and kicked back. Nobody chased James's kick but Toeava went after his and caught Januarie who threw a wild pass that Spies dropped.That set the All Blacks on their patterened attacking, probing, challenging, through 12 phases, getting closer as Kahui darted ahead, till going left, Carter sold a dummy and suddenly broke between Juan Smith and Luke Watson and scored under the posts. He converted. 12-0.
Pietersen broke out but the All Blacks scored. Carter kicked into touch. The Springboks were desperate and Steyn took a quick throw-in to an area cluttered with All Blacks and De Villiers followed it up with a wild pass which Keven Mealamu accepted with delight and scored. Carter converted.
The crowd started streaming out of the ground and the last two minutes the All Blacks attacked and somehow the rag-tag Springboks defence did not concede any more points.
Man of the Match: Dan Carter was brilliant in the variation of his play, showing none of the intimidation he claimed had happened in Dunedin but he did miss those kicks. Richie McCaw did not make mistakes. He won some great ball, he tackled, he got awkwardly in the way. He was the master of the field, our Man of the Match.
Moment of the Match: It was not a match of breath-taking moments but the moment which may just have counted more than any other was Ali Williams's pressure on Bryan Habana which prevented the scoring of a try.
Villain of the Match: Nobody.
The scorers:
For South Africa:
None
For New
Zealand:
Tries: Smith, Carter, Mealamu
Cons: Carter 2
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Butch James, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Andries Bekker, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Brian Mujati, 18 Danie Rossouw, 19 Luke Watson, 20 Enrico Januarie, 21 François Steyn, 22 Conrad Jantjes.
New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Richard Kahui, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony
Boric, 19 Adam Thomson, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Isaia Toeava.
Referee: Matt Goddard (Australia)
Touch judges: Wayne Barnes (England), James Leckie (Australia)
TMO: Geoff Warren (England)
By Paul Dobson
