All Blacks very good: Springboks good …
Columnist By Spiro Zavos, 16 Jun 2008 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, Daniel Carter, David Campese, George Smith, New Zealand, Richie McCaw, rugby, Rugby Union, Shane Williams, South Africa, Springboks, The Springboks
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New Zealand fans got a taste of the appalling refereeing endured by the All Blacks at Cardiff in the RWC quarter-final with Nigel Owens, the Welsh referee, saving England at Auckland from a monster defeat with a series of bewildering decisions and non-decisions.
As it was NZ 37 – England 20 (which included two runaway tries against the run of play) represented a thrashing that was acknowledged even by the most biased of the UK rugby writers.
And examples of Owens’ woeful refereeing? England were awarded a penalty, for instance, right in front of the NZ posts when Richie McCaw was penalised for being on the wrong side of a ruck while playing the ball. ‘I made the tackle,’ a bewildered McCaw told Owens. ‘No you didn’t,’ was the reply.
The television replay clearly showed McCaw making the first tackle, getting to his feet and facing his own tryline legally winning the ball. Daniel Carter made the second tackle on the English player. And this was the only tackle Owens saw, even though it was only a few metres away from him.
It’s time NH hemisphere referees start to referee what is in front of them, instead of what they think they see. McCaw, along with George Smith who is also unfairly treated by NH referees, has an exceptional skill in making a tackle, getting to his feet and winning the ball. There is not one player in Europe who can do this. NH referees tend to think that because their players can’t do it, it can’t be done.
Owens was dreadful also at scrum time where the All Blacks monstered England to the extent that England in the last 20 minutes just collapsed scrum, and scrum, and bizarrely gained short arm penalties doing so.
Then there was Owens’ tolerance of England’s forwards coming in from the side, a no-no refereed very strictly (and rightly so) every ruck and maul by SH referees.
The All Blacks have not been beaten in NZ for the past five years. On the evidence of the first two Tests this year, the All Blacks are going to remain the team to beat at home and abroad, at least for this season and probably up to 2011.
There is a physical edge and abrasiveness to the forwards that was lacking last year. The lineout, however, creaked against England mainly due to Owens allowing England to come across the line with impunity before the ball was thrown in.
The NZ scrum is becoming a monster wrecking machine. McCaw and Daniel Carter are back to their best (which is as good as any player in their position in the history of rugby). And a centre pairing of power with Ma’a Nonu and high skills with Conrad Smith (something absent last year, too), is being created.
The South Africa 37 – Wales 21 Test at Pretoria was expertly refereed by NZer Lyndon Bray. This allowed both sides to play rugby, rather than the football the NH whistle-blowers seem to prefer. And both did so splendidly, with Wales, in particular, showing flair and grit that was a credit to the players and their coach.
So freely did the South Africans throw the ball around in the first half that at half-time the experts begged the Springboks to go back to basics and use their 63 per cent possession to play ‘less rugby.’ The Springboks had a slight 17 – 15 edge, even though they had opened up the Welsh defence time after time.
It was quite remarkable that despite the fact that they were defending most of the match, and doing the job splendidly, Wales was actually in the lead three times in the Test. The reason for this was two unbelievable tries scored by the genius, Shane Williams.
The highest praise that can be given to Williams is to say that he is rugby players can be reincarnated like Dalai Lamas, then Williams is the new David Campese, just as Campese reincarnated the great Dally Messenger, Australian rugby’s first super-star.
At times the Springboks looked to be an exceptional side. The loose forward trio are terrific. The second row is great in the loose and in the lineouts. But at other times, especially at scrum time and in the mauls, they looked vulnerable. They do not play the ad lib game as well as Australians and NZers. But the athleticism of the loose forwards is very impressive.
If I were rating the two teams on the their first two Tests, I’d say the Springboks look like a good side and the All Blacks look like a very good side.
But whether this is the way it pans out in the Tri Nations tournament we’ll have to wait and see …
Recommend this story.
June 16th 2008 @ 10:23am
Justin said | June 16th 2008 @ 10:23am | Report comment
Re U20s I thought the English played well and capitalised on the AUS mistakes (of which there were plenty). Cooper, Haylett-Petty and others had very poor games that kept giving the ball either directly (an intercept try) to England or releasing the pressure on the English. If they had been able to hold on to the ball they would have won by 10 but they couldnt and credit to the English boys for playing a consistent game and shutting down our backs which never got going as a unit.
There was also some bemusing refereeing in the match both way. Neither yellow card was deserved and the player were allowed very little time to release at the tackle. Also when will touch judges learn to only come on for “real” foul play? The penalty on the AUS replacement for no arms in the tackle was a joke!
June 16th 2008 @ 10:46am
Spiro Zavos said | June 16th 2008 @ 10:46am | Report comment
The Australian Under-20 coach Brian Melrose is a good coach so it was disappointing to note that his side did not seem to have a plan to play to their monster winger, who came on as a reserve and made several compelling Jonah-like runs and a run-in try which he made look easier it was. Quade Cooper was most disappointing hopping around to little effect, too much like a touch-rugby player than a 15s player. The Australian scrum, too, was shaky.
There didn’t seem to be much penetration in the Australian backline, despite the fact that Rob Horne was in the centres. This was not a vintage side which seemed to lack the zip, speed, class, nous and enterprise of a typical junior Australian XV.
Not a good foundation for the future.
June 16th 2008 @ 10:47am
Jameswm said | June 16th 2008 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Guys I’m glad I found somewhere to vent about the U20s game.
Firstly, the French ref was awful. The English did what thjey do at senior level, which is lie all over the ball and play it off their feet. Surely we knew they were going to do that though?
Secondly, our set pieve struggled but Pocock and others killed them at ruck time, winning turnover after turnover. Pocock has learnt from McCaw, Waugh and Smith (playing against them regularly), and it backs up Spiro’s point about the SH players being better at this aspect of the game.
Most importantly, I couldn’t believe the fundamental errors made by the Aussies.
Any Qlder saying Cooper’s a better or more all-round player than Beale should look for a beach towel to wipe the egg off their face. Beale steered the 2nd best provincial team around the park this season, with surprising maturity for a 19yo. Cooper self-destructed time and time again against england – missing tackles, throwing intercept passes, kicking out on the full, failing to find touch… All in all, a perfect all round exhibition of how to butcher a game from at 5/8.
Next – how on earth did Will Genia get MoM? I thought he was ordinary too, but nowhere near Cooper’s level.
Next – does Dale Haylett-Petty have any natural rugby instincts? He dropped high balls, butchered kicks, took wrong options and would take a high ball waiting to be smashed, rather than trying to dodge the guy who was obviously fast approaching.
Blair Connor perpetuated our young backs’ penchant for hogging the ball, esp on one occasion when Naciganyavi had space.
Naciganyavi unfortunately made two poor decisions the first two times he got the ball and these probably cost us the match. On both occasions he shrugged off the first defender, but first time he went himself when he should have passed, then next time passed when he should have gone himself (realising his error from the first time). But he again showed huge potential and will be the better for the outing, including monstering several unsuspecting english backs.
The biggest question mark with him, though – was why the hell didn’t we use him? We hardly passed him the ball the whole match. When the ball was in a tackle on his wing, I thought great – we can work it right with pick and drives or channel one ball for a few phases, then swint it back to him. But did they do anythinhg like that, even once? No. Did it occur to them? No. Connor had another chance to pass it to him once and grubbered ahead. Cooper directed the team with all the level-headedness of a headless chook.
We deserved to lose because of all the basic errors we made, mainly from guys with S14 experience who must have thought it would be easy.
And who was the coach of that rabble?
Who was good? Rob Horne was solid as usual but got little decent ball. Pocock, McCalman, our no.6 (who was very harshly sin binned) and our hooker were good. Anae was good when he came on. Sam Wykes was hot and cold. The other winger was pretty good.
June 16th 2008 @ 10:54am
Jameswm said | June 16th 2008 @ 10:54am | Report comment
I’d almost say jinx to that Spiro. If it was so obvious to you and me to play to Naciganyavi, why didn’t anyone else think of it? He looked a good chance to score every time he touched it!
A good coach Brian Melrose may be, but someone has a ot of explaining to do.
June 16th 2008 @ 11:13am
stillmissit said | June 16th 2008 @ 11:13am | Report comment
Lyndon Bray is the best referee in the world at the moment and has been for the last 2 seasons according to ME!
He has a wonderful understanding of the game and what to pull up he also doesn’t strut around the park with his ego on show. He strikes me as being totally unbiased in his decisions in fact I believe he could ref a NZ v anyone game and the result would be totally up to the players.
I was genuinely shocked that he wasnt first picked for the world cup (I think he did some touch judging). One of us has it wrong and I don’t think its me – surprise surprise.
June 16th 2008 @ 11:25am
Harry said | June 16th 2008 @ 11:25am | Report comment
About Naciganyavi – awesomely big and powerful, but not express pace. And he was too slow (the Poms adopted the tactic of neutralising Lomu – kick it behind him) and out of position which directly lead to the chargedown match winning try by the Poms. So still a good prospect but needs a huge amount of coaching to play at the highest level. Cousin Lote, who has greatly improved his all round game this year (necessary as his explosive pace was fading) could teach him a thing or two.
But the real damage was done 10 minuted before when, inside their 22, we had a series of slow motion, one out pick and drives, when the Poms were a man short and our backs lined deep. I was shouting at the television to get it wide. This is where Cooper and Pocock blundered. All in all, we were outcoached and out thought on the day – the fact is in Australia we don’t play those sort of high intesity in the forwards, little backline action games that the Poms lap it up.
Yes the ref was dodgy and we were a trifle unlucky, but all up a very disappointing loss.
June 16th 2008 @ 11:32am
Jameswm said | June 16th 2008 @ 11:32am | Report comment
Harry – I’d hardly say Naciganyavi is slow. Slower off the mark, maybe, but that’s inevitable when you’re 6 foot 5.
And as for being out of positon on the last try – he turned and regathered the ball exactly how he should have, so he seemed in position to me – esp when he was the blind winger. Haylett-Petty then proceeded to take a lifetime to kick it and not notice he had an opponent so close to him I don’t know if he even had the chance to get his foot to the ball.
Also – we’d had 2 warm up games against poor opposition, whereas the english boys had already been through a full 6 Nations U20s campaign. Where’s the planning in that?
June 16th 2008 @ 11:51am
stillmissit said | June 16th 2008 @ 11:51am | Report comment
Jameswm – I think the fullback although not as alert as he should have been was put in an awful position by Naciganyavi. I guess it takes some experience to check the opposition before throwing a ball to a player in a worse position to yourself. At his size a turn and run back could have been interesting.
I am with Harry I think he is slow but almost impossible to stop when in full gallop.
What an awesome No 8 stuck on the wing.
June 16th 2008 @ 12:11pm
Jameswm said | June 16th 2008 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
Yeah but at no.8 he doesn’t have time to get going. We need to learn how to give him space (like the ABs did with Jonah), and it’s simply moving the defence around the other way so they don’t just sit on him.
As I said – he’s quick once he has time to get going. Not express maybe, but fast enough for someone his size. He only needs to take a few strides to get down the other end.
June 16th 2008 @ 12:14pm
ohtani's jacket said | June 16th 2008 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
Nigel Owens was awful.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re English or a Kiwi, from the North or the South. And for the record, I called BS on most of our tries.