Boks fall flat against rampant All Blacks
Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:22
Try time: Kieran Read scores for the All Blacks
The All Blacks were full value for their 32-12 win over a laboured and ill-disciplined Springbok outfit at Eden Park on Saturday, with a well-controlled and physically dominant performance in front of their own crowd.
"It's all yours, New Zealand." Danie Craven said that at Eden Park in 1956 when the All Blacks beat the Springboks. Then each side scored just one try. In 2010 the match at Eden Park was all New Zealand, and this time they scored four tries to nil - and in fact the difference between the two teams was even bigger than that.
The All Blacks beat the Springboks at every phase of rugby - outscrummed them, outtackled them, outpressured them, outran them, outpassed them, outkicked them, outmauled them, beat them at the tackle and the line-out, were more confident, more determined, more cohesive and more physical - hungrier if you like. They simply flung would-be fetchers out of the way. The only score the Springboks won was the penalty count - 12-5 in their favour, not that it mattered. It was fascinating to see how players, absent or mediocre in the Super 14, looked so invincible in a Test match while players who bestrode the fields like colossusses in the Super 114 looked so puny.
The All Blacks were simply much better and it is an understatement to say that they deserved to win. In the long history of matches between the two teams the All Blacks have seldom deserved to win more - this against an ambitious team that beat them three times last year and had hopes on winning the 2011 World Cup.
The Springboks looked like a team that had simply pitched up to win - a done deal. In no time confidence vanished and they looked bemused and then frantic. But when your best tacklers are Victor Matfield, Gurthrö Steenkamp and Ricky Januarie you know you are in trouble. When you miss nearly 30 tackles against a team focused on beating you, you are in serious trouble. When all falls apart as it did on this evening in Auckland, you will get a hiding. The Springboks got a hiding.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all South Africa probably feels fonder of Fourie du Preez than ever before - his skill, his calm, his judgement.
The hiding started right at the start. Bakkies Botha charged down a kick by Cowan and set off after it. Cowan held him back and got to the ball first. Botha tackled him and then found the temptation irresistible as he moved forward over him and butted him from behind - forehead to the back of his head. That will have repercussions.
Then, the Springboks leading 3-0, Botha was yellow-carded at a tackle near the Springbok line. The repeated replays of the headbutt may have had something to do with the yellow card. Be that as it may, when Botha came back, the All Blacks led 10-3.
South Africa scored first when they attacked and Richie McCaw went a long way offside at a scrum. Morné Steyn goaled. 3-0 after 6 minutes. When Botha infringed Daniel Carter made it 3-3 after 13 minutes.
During the intervening seven minutes South Africa had gone through promising phases but when New Zealand broke out there was a different level of speed, intensity and sharpness. For the first time in the match Jean de Villiers was foiled in attempting an intercept and Richie McCaw raced many metres before Januarie pulled him down. New Zealand were on the rampage and Corey Jane was close.
Januarie, whose kicking was usually vague, lobbed a kick down his right - a harmless kick which nobody could chase. Joe Rokocoko caught and gave to Mils Muliaina in his 22. The fullback scythed through straggling Springboks, McCaw took it on and Conrad Smith scored in the right corner as Matfield tackled him. Carter converted. 10-3 after 18 minutes.
Back came the sharper, harder, faster All Blacks and Ma'a Nonu, Jimmy Cowan and Jerome Kaino were close. That produced a five-metre scrum which was collapsed twice before Jannie du Plessis was penalised. 13-3.
South Africa attacked but the All Blacks came racing back. Rokocoko seemed about to score till Matfield felled him but Nonu was on hand to power through De Villiers and score in the left corner. Carter converted. 20-3 after 35 minutes.
The Springboks had a better second half, losing it just 12-9, but by then the game was done and it always seemed that it could be a lot more than 12, but no more than 9.
When first Tom Donnelly and then Owen Franks were offside, Steyn kicked penalties to make the score 20-9 after 46 minutes. South Africa seemed to have more plan and purpose about their game now without really looking like getting a try. They actually had more possession than New Zealand up till then but there was a vast difference in the use of possession.
The All Blacks went through phases. Nonu was close and then Kieran Read charged onto the ball and burst past Pierre Spies and Januarie to score. 27-9 after 57 minutes.
Kaino was penalised at a tackle. 27-12 after 59 minutes.
Apart from the try, the most interesting event of the last 20 minutes was an All Black maul from a line-out which they shunted many metres down the field in the way the Springboks were supposed to have done and didn't do.
Right at the end the All Blacks attacked again and had a five-metre scrum. It was reset three times and then BJ Botha was penalised. Piri Weepu tapped and gave to Read who drove at the line till somehow, in a tangle of bodies, Tony Woodcock scored.
That was the bonus-point try for the All Blacks, which could prove decisive in the Tri-Nations, which New Zealand must now be favourites to win.
It's good for rugby when the team that runs and passes wins.
Man of the Match: Picking a combined side from this match is easy. It would be just the New Zealand side. Picking a Man of the Match from that side is so difficult. From 1 to 15 and beyond they were all candidates, but the forward who stood out was imperious Richie McCaw and the back was commanding Dan Carter and then our choice of Man of the Match - Mils Muliaina, back to incisive form. He was the man who set the All Blacks running to victory.
Moment of the Match: It has to be Mils Muliaina's break that ended in the first try of the match.
Villain of the Match: There were spiteful moments but nothing to compare with the destructive behaviour of Bakkies Botha.
The scorers:
For New Zealand:
Tries: Smith, Nonu, Read, Woodcock
Pens: Carter 2
Cons: Carter 3
For South Africa:
Pens: Steyn 4
The teams:
New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Josevata Rokocoko, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan,
8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Corey Flynn, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Samuel Whitelock, 19 Liam Messam, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Aaron Cruden, 22 Richard Kahui.
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Jean de Villiers, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 BJ Botha, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Ruan Pienaar, 21 Butch James, 22 Gio Aplon.
Date: Saturday, 10 July 2010
Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Alain Rolland (Ireland), Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Advertising
