The 1984 Grand Slam winning Wallaby skipper Andy Slack best summed up the men-in-gold’s 31-8 shellacking by the Boks last night at Loftus.
“It smells like amateur hour”.
Indeed it did, completing a wretched week for coach Robbie Deans that’s been lowlighted by two massive public serves from the injured Quade Cooper, and an horrendous addition to the injury toll.
Last night Berrick Barnes, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Radike Samo, Tatafu Polota-Nau, and Digby Ioane joined three captains James Horwill, David Pocock, and Will Genia, along with James O’Connor, Stephen Moore, Wycliff Palu, Sitaleki Tomani, Drew Mitchell, Quade Cooper, Rob Horne, and Scott Higginbotham – an entire Test team in numbers plus one.
As if the five tries to one walloping wasn’t enough, the Wallabies played the final eight minutes with 14 men because they had used all seven replacements and tried to use an eighth. In all the rugby I’ve seen that has never happened – an unwanted first.
Taking nothing away from the Boks who were superb right across the park with champion winger Bryan Habana back to his elite best with a hat-trick of tries, the Wallabies didn’t lack commitment, but lacked plenty of cohesion, communication, and confidence.
It was a nightmare from the kick-off when fullback Barnes made three terrible kicks in succession, and from that moment on it was one-way Springbok traffic.
If it hadn’t been for three disallowed tries, four missed penalties, and two missed conversions, the Boks would have won by a cricket score.
The only Wallabies who played their part were fly-half Kurtley Beale who tried everything in his bag of tricks, eventually setting up replacement Mike Harris’ first Test try.
Pat McCabe went hard in attack and defence, Michael Hooper was his usual busy self, as was Liam Gill when he came on in the second half.
But the rest were a disjointed rabble.
The big question is what will Deans do for Rosario against the Pumas next weekend? His cupboard is bare.
As for the Boks, they are on the rise with six players under 22 last night, their depth is strong and they ran the ball from everywhere, and kept backing up in support.
It was one-way traffic, but there was no excuse for the Wallabies to give away senseless penalties, no way should they wander offside or get in front of support, and no excuse for passing behind supports, jarring any positive rugby.
The basics are missing, and they won’t win anything playing under 8’s rugby.
And that’s being unkind to seven-year-olds.
amband
Guest
the teletubby
frisky
Guest
This has been a year from hell because of the extraordinarily long injury list. The mature way of looking at this is the one positive to come out of this is that a lot of players have been blooded who would not have had the opportunity under normal circumstances. The WB now have a lot more depth to draw on than would otherwise have been the case. It will pay benefits down the line.
Mike
Guest
It depends on what you mean. We were missing a lot of first-choice players for both matches, but yes, we didn't have Genia, Cooper and Higginbotham for the match in Pretoria. We also lost S. Timani but on the positive side got Douglas back. The broader injury issue is not just for a single match. It stands to reason that no team will obtain cohesion if a large number of first choice players are only available intermittently. This should not be viewed as an excuse, so much as an obstacle to optimum performance, which Australian rugby needs to analyse and come up with a way to dramatically reduce the number of games missed by top-level players through injury.
7andabit
Guest
Why is Cooper included in that list? Is he coming back? How does a Wallaby side suddenly become a 2nd string side within a couple of weeks? Its almost the exact team that beat SA in Perth. Genia and Cooper out suddenly makes them 2nd string?
frisky
Guest
Oh for goodness sake !! To paraphrase what Bradman said about that last ball, “give credit to the opponents”. You can only play as well as the opponents allow you to. They are always hard to beat at home. All teams are - partly travel fatigue, partly local support. With the depleted lineup, this result should have been expected. I would not be surprised if the Boks beat even the AB next week. Please focus on the #2 ranking. Focus on the fact that the WB have beaten the Boks 5 times in a row. Every side will lose some games. The predictable moaning and denigration from Lord and Uncle is so wearing.
frisky
Guest
I thought that the AB pack did dominate - especially in the loose. Their scrum was steady and the backs usually got clean ball. Look at the turnover and ruck+maul stats. I was expecting a more dominant role from the Puma forwards. IMO , the Pumas were too open. They should move away from their normal conservative play, but they need balance, not go from one extreme to the other.
Indio
Guest
"Hard to beat the Boks at home." We were getting force-fed the same message about playing the Pumas in Argentina by the media and any other has-been and never-been with access to a keyboard.
Bakkies
Guest
Our under 20s team this year had a few pacific islanders, kiwis and I am sure there were a few players that didn't attend a private school
Kuruki
Roar Guru
I would have dropped Morne Steyn before he even got a start. Your coach wanted to pick the biggest loose trio he possibly could, he just wanted hard runners, he thought that was the master plan that would work, it was not. He should have known that he needed balance from the start. Like everything a team needs balance. His initial plan was for a huge hard running pack to batter the opposition and then pressure them into mistakes after kicking everything at them. The change in direction only came about because his initial idea of what was winning rugby failed. I'm sorry but i don't think he is a good coach because he took to long to understand what he needed to do to get it right. Many on here called it way before Heyneke done it.
Kuruki
Roar Guru
By the sounds of the talk in the All Black camp this is far from dead rubber. The RC is in the cabinet and they have reset goals. I'm sure the next goal whether they admit it or not will be to get that record winning streak. There will be no excuses nor should there be if we lose on the weekend. This is the biggest game of the RC for the All Blacks imo.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Don't knpw. South Africa were in danger of dropping out of the top 4 if they lost to Australia by a similar margin.
mania
Guest
serves deans right for using the sub loophole of leaving robinson on for 30 mins then getting him back on later in the game for "injury purposes". always thought this was a loophole that should be exploited by the AB's but now i know why they dont. have to say tho that beale played really well condiering his boys doing down like dominoes all around him. beale showed a willingness to attack and has finally shaken off his comeback blues.
Suzy Poison
Guest
Royce, people like you, are why South Africans have a reputation for arrogance. You embarrass me as a South African. Pull your head in, mate. Also you don't know anything about rugby. It's all well and fine to be proud of your team, but don't go slagging other folks just because you have had too many brandy's and cokes. Firstly Shalk Burger has a long term injury. Looks like he will never play again, and the same for Juan Smith. Smith been out for more than a year, and has signed a deal to go to France. We will probably never see either player in a Bok jersey. So forget about these players, and they certainly won't make the Boks any stronger. As for Heinrich Brussow, well Frans Louw is going to keep him out the team, after Saturday performance. Never seen Brussow ever play like that. Yes, the Bok forwards dominated the All Blacks for the first 60, at the breakdown only. Not in the line-out and not in the scrums. The Kiwis got better in that last twenty and closed the game out. I do think with Bekker and Etzebeth back, we can take it to the Kiwis in Soweto. I do believe we can win, too. But mostly because it's all ready a dead rubber and the Kiwis won't be as motivated as if the Championship was still up for grabs. However, I will say this, it's quite obvious the difference between the teams at the moment, the Boks struggled to a draw in Arentina, whilst the Kiwi's destroyed the Pumas.
nobody
Guest
lets hope Pooper is not influencing them from outside.
amband
Guest
yes but why? pacific Islanders physically mature quickly. The question still needs to be answered why we have forward trouble I maintain it is due to league being prominent here as well as Rugby advancement confined to private schools Unlike league, our union forwards have never been hardcases
amband
Guest
our record for a rugby match here is 110,000 the most ever anywhere. Rugby popularity is shown at test match attendences. They have removed a lot of the seating. They are better off financially So the 4th tier thing is probably incorrect
amband
Guest
yes and i suspect the game has been turned into a private fiefdom
True Bono, I am actually quite excoted looking at our backs, it seems we are getting a little bit of depth there now as well.
Chivasdude
Guest
Hard to beat the Boks at home. And with such a shocking injury toll, not really much the Wallabies could do. Still, a bad loss. A lot of youngsters coming through for the Boks. They will be in good stead in the next couple of years. Let Deans see out the Championship. Then we need a review of where we are and this should culminate in Deans going and perhaps some of his coaching staff as well. Time to clean house. Cooper also needs to go. You cannot accept this type of behaviors, whether you agree with his views or not. Otherwise you will have anarchy. Anytime a player does not agree with the coach he starts tweeting? Give me a break.
Bono
Guest
Biltongbek, SA has the best depth of forwards in the world and nz has the most number of quality backline players. No country in the world could replace an entire forward pack from the previous year, the way the boks have done so, and still be as powerful as ever. As an AB fan, I am so envious of your endless supply of great forwards. NZ will struggle over the next couple of years to replace our aging hookers and the great Richie McCaw...