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I am going to attempt to be as civil as I possibly can be in my review of Saturday’s game between the Springbok and All Blacks.
It is rather challenging to be unbiased and calm about the events that took place at Eden Park, so perhaps you might allow me some leeway and forgiveness for blurting out my dissatisfaction about the game.
The more I think about it, the angrier I get, so I thought it prudent to get my thoughts down as soon as possible before I lose any sense of level-headedness.
Here goes.
When the Springboks ran out and faced the Kapa O Pango, I was filled with a sense of expectation and excitement.
This was going to be the match of the year – the All Blacks at their brilliant best, and the Springboks looking to put to bed some of their issues of the past to really challenge the World Champions.
When Kieran Read went over after a poor mistake by South Africa, where Willie le roux rushed back and Ruan Pienaar didn’t communicate with him to pass the ball inside to take responsibility, I knew the All Black lineout spelt trouble.
The most dangerous lineout is the first lineout five metres from the line of an opponent; the players have not yet had time to assess each other’s lineout, it is the best time to catch a defensive team off guard, and that is exactly what happened.
All Blacks 7-0. Game on.
At the nine-minute mark, Morne Steyn converted his first penalty goal to open the scoring for South Africa and then six minutes later, from a return kick that went high from New Zealand, the players allowed the ball to bounce.
Owen Franks collected and passed back, Bismarck du Plessis saw Dan Carter standing back and started running towards him.
Carter, in the unfortunate position of being side on, didn’t see Bismarck coming and received ball and man at virtually the same time.
Brilliant, hard, physical hit, and Carter was in trouble. Referee Romain Poite immediately stopped proceedings and a fracas erupted, where jersey pulling and a few handbags were exchanged.
Instead of asking the TMO to adjudicate on the tackle, Poite had already made up his mind that Bismarck was going to the bin for a no-arms, high tackle on Carter.
He explicitly informed the TMO to look only for foul play after the tackle.
I don’t know if the realisation of having to play the All Blacks with 14 men for the next ten minutes was just anger, disappointment or despair.
I knew we were in big trouble, New Zealand would exploit the extra man advantage to the fullest.
The All Blacks immediately recognised the opportunity to strike, and so they did, Brodie Retallick going over after a break from Beauden Barrett as their dominance was immediately apparent with the absence of Bismarck.
At the 25 minute mark Bismarck returned and it took only six minutes for the Springboks to score their first try to close to the gap to four points.
Hope and positivity made way for anger despair and disappointment, we were still in this and we had cancelled the try scored during Bismarck’s absence.
By halftime, Barrett managed to add three points to the All Blacks’ total and they were leading by seven.
The difference so far, a yellow card that resulted in a seven-point lead.
In the second minute of the second half, when Bismarck hit Liam Messam with a leading elbow, the realisation the match as a contest had finally ended was irrefutable.
I looked at the replay in ultra slow motion a few times, trying to find a reason why it should not have been a yellow card, unfortunately my initial assessment of it only being a fend is not entirely correct, it wasn’t a swinging elbow, but it did hit Messam squarely on the Adams apple.
Now I am not going to excuse Bismarck for his actions, all I can say is I don’t believe he intentionally wanted to injure Messam. The choice is yours whether you believe something else.
It took but a few minutes for Read to score his try. New Zealand led by 14 and only needed one more try to secure a bonus point.
At this point it was clear South Africa’s defence was struggling to hold out, they either had to commit numbers to the breakdown to slow the ball, or less to have an extra man in defence.
Their seven man scrum was ineffective, and in a sense it surprised me the All Blacks didn’t use their ascendancy against a seven man scrum to milk more field advantage.
But I guess that is the difference between how the southern hemisphere teams do their business compared to the northern hemisphere.
The single biggest problem for South Africa was the absolutely unbelievable poor passing of Ruan Pienaar.
I counted five passes that went to ground, inaccuracy and taking three, four, five steps before passing meant that the All Black defence had an easy time with an extra man in defence.
When Cane scored the fourth try for New Zealand, the bonus point try, the match was over, the All Blacks had gotten the maximum out of this match and South Africa were too far behind to earn any points from the encounter.
As Read was yellow carded in the 68th minute for interference in the lineout, I was wondering whether Poite at this stage had a conscience or had lost the plot.
Either way, South Africa immediately gained parity and their tempo increased, running back at the All Blacks and putting enough pressure on them in the red zone to be awarded a handful of penalties.
It wasn’t five minutes later when Ma’a Nonu got carded for an illegal shoulder charge on Jean de Villiers and, with a numerical advantage, South Africa scored their second try in the 75th minute.
Sadly they ran out of time to score a try that would have provided them with a losing bonus point.
Looking at the match for a second time gave me some hope.
No, South Africa never had a chance to win, not with 14 men, but even when they had possession they made something out of it.
They managed to gain some territory with ball in hand and as soon as they got parity in the player numbers their confidence returned and their running came improved, albeit too late to effect the result of the match – they weren’t going to score three tries in 10 minutes.
This is the highest stage, the whole rugby world was watching, so what do you do when you suspect a dangerous tackle?
You take the extra three seconds necessary when you have already called for the TMO to adjudicate on the foul play just after the tackle and confirm your initial assessment.
That is what a highly paid professional should do – make bloody sure you are right.
Poite didn’t do that, and the yellow card provided the All Blacks a seven-point lead at halftime.
When you lose a players for 38 minutes of the second half, and concede a further two tries simply because you can no longer dominate at scrum time, cannot dominate the breakdown as you need the players in the defensive line, you can no longer create overlaps with one less player, you are on a hiding to nothing against the All Blacks.
The contest is over, as you have conceded three tries while down to 14 men.
Whether you believe it to be fair to blame the referee or not. Whether you want to blame fate, the man on the moon, or whomever, the fact is the contest is over.
I don’t blame New Zealand, they took the advantage and did what was necessary, I don’t blame spectators on either side for exhibiting biased views and distasteful comments, I don’t blame the journalists for writing one-eyed, biased match reports.
But I am livid and in a serious mood to clobber the daylights out of every administrator and referee that does not do their job and are ruining the game played in heaven.
Had I a teleporter on Saturday evening, I would have been knocking a few blocks off.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.