Springboks vs Wallabies @ Newlands 27/9/2014

[Train Without a Station]

I agree it's unfair to single him out. The majority of the bench were a factor is a fair statement. Horne and Horwill seemed to have a crack.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Crikey, give some credit to the impact of the Saffer Bench.

Yes our mob looked like Brown's cows in the last 10 minutes, but the Saffers still had to do a fair bit to create the conditions where they could score and they weren't exactly invited to stroll across the line unopposed.

 

[Train Without a Station]

But HJ the disparity in the quality of the benches and their impact was a major factor. There's was good, ours wasn't. Surely the errors of ours, allowed theirs to capitalise.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

On paper, the respective benches were on a par in many respects. Big difference however when they were emptied.

Theirs fired and created the conditions and pressure that exposed weaknesses in our tired starting players and non-firing bench. They then capitalised from the Wobs errors.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Clearly players like Bismark and Schalk has massive impacts, but that has to at least partially reflect negatively on ours

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Bismark was uncharacteristically awful in Wellington when he came off the bench. It could have been rinse and repeat in Newlands.

For many of us, Schalk was a throw of the dice. He is old and has been playing in a soft competition that we haven't seen a lot of. A bit of a Giteauesque risk. There was no guarantee that he would be able to recreate the impact he was formerly known for.

Bakkies is usually good for a couple of dumbarse penalties against him for just being a doofus. He didn't and he wasn't.

 

[Tomikin]

Bismark was uncharacteristically awful in Wellington when he came off the bench. It could have been rinse and repeat in Newlands.

For many of us, Schalk was a throw of the dice. He is old and has been playing in a soft competition that we haven't seen a lot of. A bit of a Giteauesque risk. There was no guarantee that he would be able to recreate the impact he was formerly known for.

Bakkies is usually good for a couple of dumbarse penalties against him for just being a doofus. He didn't and he wasn't.

Bit tough on the Japan league, George Smith came from there and dominated Super Rugby.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Plenty of posters on here reckon that the Euro club leagues are soft, and that it is easy for the likes of Giteau, Dan Parkes, and other expats to look good.

I reckon most of the Euro clubs would clean up in the Japan Competition. Therefore if the Euro League is "soft" then so is the Japanese League.

How did the George Smith perform at the International Level after time in the "soft" Japanese League and dominating Super Rugby?

 

[Bairdy]

Difference is George Smith, Matt Giteau, JOC (James O'Connor), Schalk Burger etc. progressed through, and developed their game in Super Rugby, before relocating to those lower provincial comps. Not to mention these guys were arguably standouts in Super Rugby and at international level.

George Smith for example would regularly physically dominate in the Top League by all reports, and he's not a particularly large guy. He's a freak so it's no wonder he came from Japan and immediately dominated for the Brumbies, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

If anything, I think measuring the Heineken Cup up to Super Rugby might be a far more fair comparison.

 

[Gnostic]

Just highlights how poor our kicking game is - in particular the execution of our kick chase, lack of variation, and propensity to 'stick to a script' when for example the Springboks kick receivers were deep, anticipating the long touch finders. You only have to watch the All Blacks match on the weekend against the Argies, and the second Bled to see the gulf in each team's kicking.

I dare agree with the notion of the video that the role of our kickers (especially To'omua) in putting the team under immense pressure had more of a toll than Beale's 20 minute stint when collectively the team was worn out from defending. That is not to say all the blame should be laid at the feet of To'omua, because he has proven how great of a player he is.

Scapegoating Beale, however, is unfair.

Australia's kicking from hand has been below poor for a very long time. It has been identified time and time again as an area of poor EXECUTION. Why does it remain so? It can only come down to coaching. It was obvious in this game that so much of the kicking was tactical and that again comes back to the coach. Interesting that the analysis is framed in a way to show the Wallabies using rote plays to exit, right to the positioning of each player and no adaptation appears to take place for the positioning of the SA players. Very reminiscent of the play by numbers plan of Eddie Jones in fact. Wasn't Link Jones' assistant for a while?

Unlike many others I don't credit the Bok bench with that much, they were able to play at a faster pace than the Wallabies because the foolish game plan of the Wallabies gifted easy possession to the Bok for most of the game and they wore themselves out with defence.