2012 Rugby Championship Round 4 Game 1 New Zealand vs South Africa - 15 Sep

[Hugh Jarse]

Morne Steyn has gone to the heavens with an up and under. Quelle Surprise?

No problems with the catch from C Jane. Resulting phase has seen Black penalised for not releasing. 40 metres out. M Steyn misses to the right with what appeared to be an easy kick. 24:00 gone socre still 5-3 to Darkness.

 

[Bardon]

Steyn's woes with the boot continue. Missed penalties could be costly for SA.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Saffer forwards looking quite cohesive both on attack and defence.

Alreeady one good rolling maul from them, and one maul defended with a scrum turnover by holding the ball up.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The Backline is for Backs, not forwards standing still when they taken the ball. Plenty of seagullers in NZ backline.

Backs don't scrum, so why do forwards think they can partake in sweeping backline movement?

 

[Bardon]

SA pass it into touch again when the overlap was on.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Darkness penalised for obstruction. 58 metres out. F Steyn lines up PK almost in centre field. Just under by about 1 metre. Straight as an arrow. 10 minutes to oranges. Score still 3-5.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Not rolling away. McCaw, Read penalised 26 metres out and Saffers opt for the points. M Steyn shaves the outside of the left upright. No change to score.

These misses may be telling for the Saffers.

Possession and Territory stats nearly equal now.

 

[Bardon]

Rolling maul is SA's best weapon so far. But you always worry for the Boks when their kicking isn't going well.

 

[Bardon]

Dagg did brilliant there to recover that situation. Was a pretty decent kick from Pinaar initially.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The kicks this week seem to be more "intelligent" and focussed from both sides in comparison to the SAF v ASUS. One or two exceptions.

 

[Bardon]

Half is ending as it started, good intensity but poor decisions and accuracy from SA.

 

[FrankLind]

The ABs look very average.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Approaching oranges. Siren gone. Score still 5-3. This could be anyones game. #18 Bekker on for last lineout of the half.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Bokke have final shot at goal after Woodcock penalised at front of lineout for taking lifter out. M Steyn dragged shot to the left.

Saffers will be rueing the missed kicks. 4 kickable shots missed - 12 points left out there.

Meyer needs to pull Steyn for Goosens.

The Darkness have shown that they are vulnerable.

The Saffers are having difficulty to think outside their kicking game. Their forwards have looked good with the one rolling maul that made impressive gain. More of the same, and don't give it to the backs.

The Darkness have not looked all that good from set plays. Broken play and counter attack has been good, when they can avoid having fatties clogging up the backline.

 

[Bardon]

SA should be winning this one with so many missed penalties, that's not to say they deserve to be leading. Game has the feeling that it hasn't really started yet.

NZ haven't been that impressive, Dagg & Nonu for me has been the standout players for them in the first half.

 

[Dam0]

Well that half was pretty poor from the All Blacks. Great work from the Saffer forwards is getting in our face.

I think we'll be OK so long as we get a bit more aggro at the breakdowns.

 

[FrankLind]

Boring game so far.

The most entertaining part is watching Meyer cursing in the coaches' box.

 

[whatty]

AB's treating the rucks as if it is a Olympic diving competition. You could give a penalty to the boks for every ruck.

 

[ACR]

SA should be winning this one with so many missed penalties, that's not to say they deserve to be leading. Game has the feeling that it hasn't really started yet.

NZ haven't been that impressive, Dagg & Nonu for me has been the standout players for them in the first half.

That's because SA kick the ball away when they have it and the AB's are not looking after their own ball at ruck time. Dagg has been good, Nonu okay. He missed an opportunity to put Smith through a gap and then threw the ball out of the ruck when he tried to place it. We're just not securing the ball at ruck time or else it has been too slow. Need a huge improvement for the second half.

Morne Steyn and Luke Romano both need to come off.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

You get the feeling that the first team to score after oranges will take this game. Saffers just don't seem to have ang attack in the backs. They can win this game in the forwards.

The Darkness could win via their backs if they can be a bit more patient.