Shinging in the Rain

So in all honesty, Saturday’s match was about as much fun watching as it is to eat someone else’s toenails. The drubbing that everyone expected, never materialised. Bryan Habana didn’t score 8 tries and Joost’s record is still safe for a while. The Boks won 26 – 0 and managed to score four tries – two for the Battleship Bismarck and one each for Frans Steyn and The Beast. A lot of people are complaining about the performance and aren’t happy that we didn’t put up a cricket score against the spaghetti eaters. I’m actually glad I didn’t watch it on television, so I could enjoy the atmosphere of the stadium after some brandy and muskadel we drank while having a spitbraai before the game.

And even though I too, would like to have seen Jean de Viliers scribble his signature in the air all afternoon, I keep reminding myself that a win is a win. In Test rugby winning is all that matters and you win at all cost. 26 points against a second string Italian side isn’t enough, but what is? How does PdV motivate a team if all they have to do to win the game is to pitch up on the day? How much less work do you do on a day when you don’t have a deadline and your bosses aren’t there? Might not be an extremely accurate comparison, but you get my point. Motivation is lacking and it always will be. It doesn’t matter if people say they should always go out and perform 100%. On the day, it’s still Italy’s B team. We won’t beat The All Blacks playing like that, but we wouldn’t be in that mindset if we were playing them either. Peter Tash (the name Peter Tash is a registered trademark of Blog of Bam and you might get sued if you choose to use it) would rather pick Jaque Fourie in a wheelchair than Gcobani Bobo at outside centre against the All Blacks. CJ van der Linde wouldn’t show the management team an overseas offer he received the night before a Test against the All Blacks. And we wouldn’t employ the same game plan if we were playing the All Blacks! I’m also slightly worried that everyone is talking about the All Blacks and forgetting about the bunch of criminals on the island next to them.

Nick Mallett said afterwards that he had been praying for rain all week and when he saw that his prayers had been answered, he knew they could limit the damage. He even said that in different weather the Boks would put 70 or 80 points past the same team. If all they want to do is play negative rugby and keep the score down, then there isn’t much you can do about it. They’ll waste time whenever they can. And I was at Newlands so let me just say that, at times the rain would have scared Noah shitless. The weather was obviously the biggest factor in the low scoring match. Had it been sunny, we would have found ways to combat Italy’s negativity. Frans Steyn didn’t quite convince except for one moment of brilliance and his massive boot, but he needs time to mature in the flyhalf position. He should be given game time at the Sharks in his preferred position. Peter Grant would still be my backup flyhalf after Butch.

Still, it’s all in the past now. Piet Snor’s record is 3 from 3. We can only measure the Boks after the Tri-Nations. Hopefully after we’ve won it. We start with three away games. Two in NZ and the last one in Alcatraz, before we come back to the Republic for our 3 home games. I’m resting my liver this weekend and preparing myself for next week’s Tri-Nations opener where The Bokke of 2008 begin their assault to become the first team to win a test in New Zealand.

The full Springbok squad for the Vodacom Tri-Nations away leg:

Backs:

Bolla Conradie, Jean de Villiers, Peter Grant, Butch James, Conrad Jantjes, Adrian Jacobs, Enrico Januarie, Bryan Habana, Percy Montgomery, Odwa Ndungane, JP Pietersen, Ruan Pienaar, Francois Steyn

Forwards

Andries Bekker, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis, Ryan Kankowski, Tendai Mtawarira, Brian Mujati, Victor Matfield, Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, John Smit (captain), Gurthro Steenkamp, CJ van der Linde, Joe van Niekerk, Luke Watson