- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
South Africa's Bakkies Botha, left, Victor Matfield and Bismarck du Plessis celebrate winning the Tri Nations Cup after defeating New Zealand in the Tri Nations International rugby match, Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/NZPA, David Rowland)
If that cross-kick by Daniel Carter in the last seconds of an absorbing Tri-Nations Test at Hamilton had been a metre or so lower the All Blacks with the numbers on the ball out wide might have snatched an astounding and undeserved victory against the unrelenting and formidable Springboks.
But the kick was too high. The ball was scrambled into touch. And the Springboks survived a torrid last 20 minutes onslaught to take a well-deserved victory and the 2009 Tri-Nations cup.
The Springboks now join the 1999/2001 Wallabies in winning the golden trifecta of a Rugby World Cup, a series victory against the British and Irish Lions and arguably the hardest part of the trifecta (at least for Australian and South African sides) a Tri-Nations triumph.
The great what-ifs of rugby dominated the post mortem of this Test.
What-if the All Blacks had got their lineout sorted out in the first 40 minutes instead of losing every one of their lineout throws in the first half?
What if captain Richie McCaw had opted for an easy penalty shot right in front of the Springboks posts with the score 19 – 9 instead of taking a scrum and having the All Blacks pack shunted off the ball and conceding a penalty?
What if coach Graham Henry had not once again made a selection mistake of playing the robotic and unskilled Stephen Donald as a play-making second five-eights and see him make three mistakes that lead directly to Springboks points?
We shouldn’t be fooled by the last 20-minute onslaught by the All Blacks as a sign that they were really in this Test with a chance. Bob Dwyer always made the excellent point that it is phony play to start playing daring attacking play at the end of a match, when the game is lost. And this, essentially, is what the All Blacks did.
The fact is that the Springboks won the Test in the first half when they played almost faultless, mistake-free rugby which took the match away from a bumbling, tentative All Blacks side.
The All Blacks were freaked out in the lineouts. They did not have the scrum dominance they believed should be theirs.
Francois Steyn booted over three penalties from inside his own half in a manner that brought back memories for those of a certain age of the great Don Clarke playing at this ground in the 1950s and 1960s.
Especially in the first half, too, the Springboks showed good attack.
I liked the way Morne Steyn took the ball to the line in the opening minutes of the Test. This Springboks side is well-coached despite the fact that Peter de Villiers is a clown in his comments to the media. Someone, probably Garry Gold or Dick Muir, or possibly de Villers (but unlikely), comes up with a new little angle or twist every Test to disconcert the opposition.
The Springboks have done the Wallabies a bit of a good turn. At Wellington the All Blacks face the prospect of winning the wooden spoon for the tournament if they lose.
Henry will certainly have to change his side, in the forwards (Jerome Kaino out, and possibly Brad Thorne who is just too short to be an effective second-rower), and in the backs where Donald, Joe Rokocovo and Mils Miliaina should get the chop.
As they showed at Hamilton, the All Blacks struggle when new combinations are put out on the field.
The Wallabies, on the other hand, have established their best team with the emphatic victory over the Springboks at Brisbane.
They will want to join France and South Africa in defeating New Zealand at home and, in a meaningful way, lay down a marker for the 2011 RWC in New Zealand.