Springboks vs Pumas I
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Rassie success at WC tournaments is that the Springboks improve from start to finish. The TRC is no different and wTony Ball fit right into the gameplan of Stormers players like SMZ, Libbok and Willemse. As a supporter its at times frustrating when they get it wrong and should be a little more structured. However Rassie and Tony Brown manage this better and the proof is in the pudding. We saw our u20s perform like they should and as a bifg schoolboy supporter kwoning every 1 st team players from our main factory , WP rugby well I am sure it will be even better. We saw on friday a 19 year old making his URC debut at LH and look very good on that level. Olly Reid follow in the foorsteps of Kitshoff from PRG. The future look bright for SA rugby.
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Finished the viewing - impressive by the Boks, doing the simple things well. Yeah there are some lucky bounces in there but a couple of times Kolbe got up uncontested which points to the big issue Argentina have: fitness.
They just can't stay in the fight long enough, and TBH could have lost in Sydney off the back of it. The reason they didn't is their plus side: grit. They know how to hang tough and putting 30 on the Boks points to the current Saffer issue: defence.
Scoring more points than your opposition is fine, but when they stop you doing that you're going to have issues. Yes they'd rotated a few players, which made their line a bit fractured later in the game, but their forward pack largely knows the drill and had most aspects under control.
Obviously they're rotating a lot of guys through in order to build depth, and while they're playing a bit more through the hands the game plan is still so obviously the rinse/repeat of the last cycle. Hey, if it works, why not?
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@NTA Good summation as always Nick.
The Bok defence is a worry for me. Playing a more expansive game has resulted in the defence not being as structured and prepared as in the past. Maybe that is the price one has to pay. But, if the Boks can improve on this while still playing a more attacking game, then they will be in a good place.
If not, then you can see the sort of dismantling we suffered at the hands of the Wallabies at Ellis Park.Credit to the Pumas. The scoreline looks nasty, but they actually were in it for a large chunk of the game.
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@Billy-Webb I think it is the experience of the players being brought in and the cohesion as a unit. It can be improved and probably will be thru EOYT.
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@Billy-Webb the Pumas had that Kolbey gift of a try. The Bok defense was very good against the All Blacks. No worry for myself. Our lineouts was much better, Etsebeth had for a change a good game.
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@OomPB said in Springboks vs Pumas I:
@Billy-Webb the Pumas had that Kolbey gift of a try. The Bok defense was very good against the All Blacks. No worry for myself. Our lineouts was much better, Etsebeth had for a change a good game.
It wasn’t really tested as much as people think given ABs either couldn’t catch or were kicking good ball away.
Sliding doors moment was the Kolbe intercept. Boks were under the pump at that point
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@OomPB said in Springboks vs Pumas I:
@stodders I dont agree. The Boks actually dominate that first period.
At that specific moment, the ABs were in the midst of a purple patch. They had scored a try, had butchered an opportunity when DMac kicked and had a 3 on 1 when Kolbe made his intervention. Passes were sticking and the Bok defence was under the pump.
I wasn’t talking about the half as a whole, more that if Kolbe hadn’t intercepted, it would have been 14-0 with ABs ascendant. As was shown the previous week, the Boks didn’t handle the scoreboard pressure that well.
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Huge difference between a Pollard/Dda/Kriel backline chasing down a score or a Wellington or Durbs backline.
I’m still not sold on Reinach/Manie/Willemse’s ability to embrace pressure (scoreboard or otherwise) but you don’t want to engage in a shootout with them. They can ball.
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@stodders to be honest, I’m not sure who the coaches see as 1-5.
I’m in the minority (at least in my SA rugby chats), but I’d have Faf, daylight, Williams, Reinach and then a long way back van den Berg.
Faf is far from a perfect scrummie. But he’s the best ruck rat on earth for my money. A defensive menace who gets better as pressure increases and crucially makes everyone around him better too.
It’s probably too soon to tell if Williams has that killer instinct but I reckon we know Reinach doesn’t. Which is fine, so long as the coaches keep Reinach bracketed with a mongrel to deal with clusterfucks like Ellis Park, Eden Park or the RWC semi…
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@Smuts said in Springboks vs Pumas I:
@stodders to be honest, I’m not sure who the coaches see as 1-5.
I’m in the minority (at least in my SA rugby chats), but I’d have Faf, daylight, Williams, Reinach and then a long way back van den Berg.
Faf is far from a perfect scrummie. But he’s the best ruck rat on earth for my money. A defensive menace who gets better as pressure increases and crucially makes everyone around him better too.
It’s probably too soon to tell if Williams has that killer instinct but I reckon we know Reinach doesn’t. Which is fine, so long as the coaches keep Reinach bracketed with a mongrel to deal with clusterfucks like Ellis Park, Eden Park or the RWC semi…
I hear you on Faf, but I’m not sure the coaches think he’s the 9 Tonyball needs.
I reckon he still has a chance of making the WC squad, if only to have on the bench with Pollard as the “reverse-choke squad”, tasked with coming on to wrestle back control of the game when Tonyball fails against a team that can catch and tackle near 90%, or the Boks run up against their 2027 Bryce Lawrence
