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What a Test. 94,000 passionate Springboks fans. The biggest crowd ever (on official statistics) to watch a rugby match in South Africa. A must-win Tests for the Springboks. Elation with minutes to go. And with time up, despair as the All Blacks scored a sensational breakaway try.
With minutes remaining to play the Springboks led the All Blacks 20 – 17. A brilliant try in the corner to the skipper Richie McCaw, the most successful (in terms of Test wins) All Black captain ever, gave Carter the chance to kick the All Blacks into the lead.
Another miss for Carter who’d previously missed a very kickable penalty. This time it was a duffed conversion that wobbled away from the posts and then collapsed to the ground like a shot bird.
There was time for one more play.
The Springboks got the ball back from the kick-off and put it through the hands. On the far extremity of the field a player took the tackle. The Springboks dutifully lined up to carry the ball forward again, probably to get within drop kick range. No one bothered to support the tackled player. The All Blacks burst through the thin defending wall like a cannon ball through cardboard.
The ball was spun wide.
Ma’a Nonu shrugged off the weak/tired tackle of John Smit. He raced up field and fired a bullet-accurate pass to Israel Dagg. The youngster burst clear, raised a fist in the air in triumph to mark the coming try and then remembered just short of the tight dead-ball line at Soccer City in Soweto to plant the ball down in his dive.
A Boys Own story-teller couldn’t have scripted the finish better for the All Blacks.
The All Blacks had the better of the game in terms of possession and breaks. I counted five occasions when they were very close to scoring a try. The Springboks had one chance and they took it. But Morne Steyn kicked the penalties that mattered, and Carter missed a couple, one hitting the post.
I thought the build-up to the Test was among the most intense and intimidating (for the All Blacks) that I’ve ever seen.
As the team ran on to the field a tremendous roar of boos greeted them. Then the mike was turned off during the haka, allowing the crowd to drown it out with choruses of ‘ole, ole, oooleee!’
And did I notice something of a smirk on the face of Steyn and Francois Hougaard as the All Blacks whipped themselves up into a sort of silent, grimacing, thigh-slapping frenzy?
I made a note virtually on half-time when Tony Woodcock sauntered across for a winger’s try, after a pass from his centre-at-the-time Tom Donnelly, that a shot of John Smit in a huddle with his players was the first time, aside from a crooked throw-in and a delayed throw-in, that we’d seen the Springboks captain in the play.
Indeed, as he came on to the field before the Test (I was going to say unkindly that he ‘waddled’), it was obvious that Smit is over-weight and out of condition for a modern Test match player. As he admitted, he missed the tackle on Nonu that allowed the final try.
After 100 Tests and a record as possibly the greatest of the Springboks captains (a World Cup, Tri Nations and series victory over the British and Irish Lions), Smit should really now be told, gently perhaps, that his days as a Test player are over.
I think the same is true, too, for the other centenarian, Victor Matfield.
Matfield rarely calls himself now in the lineouts. He rarely steals an opposition throw. He failed to organise an effective rolling maul, one of the strong points of the Springboks RWC 2007 triumph. The Springboks did get one penalty from a maul but this was the result of an unforced error by Keiran Read.
The other aspect of the Springboks game that would have been disturbing from their point of view is that the backs did not make one break in the match from set play. The forwards made a couple. But the backs were very pedestrian. They missed Fourie du Preez, the master, and Jacque Fourie, the master blaster.
But it is difficult to make breaks when you are never given the ball.
Francois Hougaard who looks like a promising running halfback for the Springboks overdid the kicking, in my opinion. So did Steyn who just can’t play a passing game. The result was that Jean de Viller did not receive the ball in a backline movement at all in the Test. Neither did Juan de Jongh.
How can you score tries when you don’t try to score them? This is the issue for the Springboks coaching staff to consider and work out an answer to.
Having said that, there was a lot about the Springboks play that was impressive.
They monstered the rucks and mauls and forced the All Blacks to commit numbers, sometimes illegally (for which they were penalised), which should have exposed their defensive line.
The chasing and defensive game was much better with J.P. Pietersen, who played effectively in the sort of non-attacking role the Springboks give their backs to play. Bryan Habana, too, who has been out of sorts this season lifted his game somewhat, making one sizzling break.
The inclusion of Juan Smith, too, improved the play of the loose forwards.
If I were coaching the Springboks I’d move Smith into the second row in place of Matfield and bring in Francois Louw as the ‘fetcher’ the Springboks need desperately.
The Wallabies have a good idea now how the Springboks will play against them.
They will play their traditional kicking game, relying on pressure at set plays and at the tackle to create penalties for the kicking machine, Steyn, to convert.
They will run ball from turnovers or from short kicks. In this respect I thought Gio Aplin should have been brought more into play than he was. When he did run he was elusive and provided the X-factor to the somewhat rudimentary ABC play of the other backs.
The Wallabies have to do what the All Blacks did.
They have to play the ball wide. And after a couple of phases start banging away in the middle of the field. Their tackling needs to be strong against the runners like Shalk Burger and Pierre Spies.
The Springboks will be hurting from what is a devastating defeat at the hands of the All Blacks. The hurt will be emotional and physical. A fast start by the Wallabies should be the order of the day to capitalise on this hurt early on in the Test.
If Quade Cooper can orchestrate this sort of ball-in-hand attack, keeping the stolid Springboks off-balance tactically, he will be worth all the money he is currently extorting from the ARU.