A good start

Pick me, Pick me!!

How good was it to finally watch some test rugby with your friends on Saturday after a 6 month break? Drinking a beer with your friends while watching the Springboks are always good times. The fact that I was left pretty impressed with our boys’ performance made it even better for me. I had some doubts about a few selections, but in Piet Snor’s defence, a few things made it more difficult for him. He did say that Matfield and Percy’s exclusion was due to the fact that they arrived a little too late and that he had started practicing with other players in their position. Same goes for the small amount of Sharks players that were in the team. We’ll get a better idea of his first team this Saturday when all of these players have been in the setup for a while longer.

I would like to see Percy and Matfield in the starting line up. Also, there is a large contingent of supporters (me included) who have a very valid point for Kankowski’s inclusion even if Pierre Spies had a pretty good game. Spies’ speed and power is amazing and we are very fortunate to have, what Ryan Jones (Wales captain and eighthman) claims to be, two of the best no.8’s in the world. Butch was a deserved man of the match and it’s great to finally see him living up to the expectations everyone had of him during his career. Juan Smith was simply awesome. He is everywhere and does everything. Big tackles, barging runs and great skills. Another player that stood out was Jean de Villiers. He is a senior member now, especially with the inexperienced backline we had on Saturday. He can make Hillary Clinton look like an impressive centre. I’m not saying that was the case with Adi Jacobs, just that Jean creates opportunities for those around him.

Easiest way to say it would be that we are better than Wales. Full credit to them for winning the Six Nations where they beat England and France, but we are just better than them in all departments. We dominated them so much on Saturday that Warren Gatland said it was a bit embarrassing. Northern Hemisphere countries are always quick to say that we were lucky or that it was only in the last 20 minutes that they lost the game. Brian O’Driscoll spoke of a mistake that cost them the match against New Zealand on Saturday. They needed 10 more points in order to draw on Saturday. No mistake costs 10 points in rugby and is it really our fault if they only want to play the game for 60 minutes? The real thing isn’t that they lost it in the last 20, it’s that Northern Hemisphere countries can only last and compete for the first 60 minutes. After that they are simply run off their feet and don’t have the stamina to compete at the breakdown. This was the case for Ireland Saturday – not for Wales. Wales just never had a look in. We didn’t give them a chance. And we didn’t play faultless rugby. We can improve on a lot of things. Our defense, our scrumming and handling… I’m just very pleased if you take into account that it was the first test of the year, against decent opposition four such an occasion. And the fact that only 5 of our players were in the team from the World Cup Final and that none of the combinations had played together in quite a while. These first games are always full of handling errors and its filled with stop, start rugby. Frustrating rugby that makes your brandy and coke taste flat. The New Zealand vs Ireland game was one of these.

So all in all I’d say we can be pretty proud of the way we performed against the Six Nations champs, who were undefeated under Gatland before the game. Beating them 43 – 17 and the way we dominated them was great to see. We have a fully fit squad for the second test and I hope we can improve on this performance and even though Wales can play a lot better, we should be looking to put 50 points past them in test no.2. That will send a message out to the rest of the world that we are ready for what anyone can throw at us this year. It might be very early to say this, but if you judge it simply on the two big tests that were played on the weekend, New Zealand might just find themselves a little bit worried about the Mighty Boks.

Quote of the week…

“You would have to say that, of the two teams, South Africa were the more disadvantaged … and yet they dismantled the Six Nations champions. I don’t think anybody expected them [Wales] to be walloped by a 26-point margin. If that is the real difference in ability between the world champions and the Six Nations champions, then northern hemisphere rugby – and Wales in particular – needs to have a good look in the mirror. Next week will be the biggest test Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards have faced in their brief time in charge, and they will be smarting after a disappointing result.”
– Jeremy Guscott isn’t too impressed by the Wales performance in Bloemfontein.
– Sunday Times (UK)