RWC 2015 Semi Final 1 - NZ vs RSA Twickenham

[Dismal Pillock]

Sick in my fuckin guts.

Fuck up after fuck up after fuck up.

Rained all over the dry powder so didnt mind the grubbers but come on ffs SA playing for pens from minute 1, didnt even contemplate attempting to score a try. I dont care if its the 1975 Eden Park waterworld test, fuck that shit.

I thought NZ were fucked at 7-12 though. SA physiognomy looked calm and loose, we had the dead skin masks on right out of the bloody tunnel. Hansen at 34th minute had a total Stu Lancaster dead man walking dead eyes look.

Midway 2nd half the torpor had abated a shade, thought we should be right when Hansen went for the nose rub message just before camera cut away at 66th minute.

Fuck that shit though, fuck it up the arse with all the rest of the worlds arses, I do not need any more stress like that please thank you.

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

with all due respect to your kicker, and I know what you mean, i think the fella that won you the match, was the one who executed that Lineout Steal - was it Whitelock? excellent - second nominee would be Victor Matfield on my sheet...

 

[badabing59]

We lost our coverage here half way through the speeches-anyone know who got MoM?

 

[ACR]

with all due respect to your kicker, and I know what you mean, i think the fella that won you the match, was the one who executed that Lineout Steal - was it Whitelock? excellent - second nominee would be Victor Matfield on my sheet.

Oh absolutely. I reckon NZ has the best lineout in the world right now. Crucial tonight. They also do well off the defending lineout with their maul defence save a couple stupid penalties to Read trying to enter completely from the side. Read gave up 4 penalties.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

We lost our coverage here half way through the speeches-anyone know who got MoM?

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

Is it fair to assume that ITV have given up twitter voting for the MOTM? - I'd hate to see that English feller win it again....

 

[Dewald Nel]

Missed tackle percentage too high for us. You could argue that that was the difference. That and our lineouts.

 

[ACR]

Ben Smith.

Took some great catches, saved a couple of poor A.Smith kicks. Took Habana out a little recklessly on one. Made a good tackle on the SA line bust.

I though FDP played quite well, kicked very well at least.

Saw an article earlier in the week by Bob Skinstad bemoaning Burger standing at first receiver. Pretty extreme having your flanker do that.

 

[Brisbok]

Missed tackle percentage too high for us. You could argue that that was the difference. That and our lineouts.

Possibly, I must admit I was annoyed by Lood's attempted tackle on Kaino around his shoulders for the try. But other than that, I don't think tackling was what lost us the game.

IMO, lineouts were key as we were never able to build any momentum. I thought we were very weak on exiting our own half from kick offs etc. Whether it was Pollard, Fourie or Willie, our kicking was poor.

Then on the rare occasions we did manage to get in their half, we looked like we had no plan with ball in hand and they gang tackled our one-off runners (who often received the ball from a standing start) and eventually forced an error out of us. We seemed to panic every time we had the ball in their half. Disappointing.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Missed tackle percentage too high for us. You could argue that that was the difference. That and our lineouts.

Other than the last two I thought your lineout was pretty solid & most of the missed tackles were tidied up by the second defender. IMO the difference was you're stuck in a 2007 time warp & the game has moved on. In saying that you've got the raw material (Etzebth & De Jäger; Pollard, Kriel, De Allende & Serfontein) around which to build a new game plan that involves playing some actual rugby instead of bish-bosh-bash & kick-chase-hope.

 

[Dan54]

Commiserations to Boks supporters, I obviously very happy, and one thing I was happy about was the game was close, I have to much respect for SA rugby to want them to go out of WC by losing by big score. Funnily enough I didn't get too panic stricken at end, maybe I felt the ABs were contolling the game , or how they wanted it played in last 15 minutes or so. Personally Whitelock would of been my MOTM, but no arguments with Bender getting it.

 

[Kangaroo Sausage]

Hahaha is this the first time in this RWC (or all RWCs?) that a kick has been re-attempted?

Let's hope this game isn't decided by two points.

It's the prophecy

 

[Omar Comin']

You're aware it rained right?

So what? That doesn't change anything about what I said. Rain doesn't excuse everything. Rain didn't cause the AB's to give away so many soft penalties. It didn't cause South Africa to offer nothing in attack besides kicks and mauls - sure, it made it harder, but they were playing the same way before the rain. They could have played at least a little bit, a tiny little bit with ball in hand! And while the rain made NZ kick more often, they threw away some prime attacking opportunities in the hope of pressuring mistakes instead. I thought they were overly conservative near the end of that first half and it almost cost them the match.

 

[Turtle]

first try was a forward pass

 

[Grant NZ]

That Matfield penalty reversal was both harsh and a huge turner.

They've been pretty consistent with that though, same thing happened with Moody in the first half. Neither of them were bad neck rolls, but you can't clear out that way any more.

 

[Tex]

I thought the pass to Kaino looked flat at a generous best but Garces called it backwards on the spot.

How blatant was the early charge on Carter's conversion?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

[saulityvi]

first try was a forward pass

I thought the same, but after multiple replays im sure it wasnt

 

[Mank]

Congratulations to the kiwis. Sounds cliché but you were the better team even though I did think the Boks could have taken it with a but of luck. Matfield, what were you thinking calling that ball to yourself in the last ruck, isolated, standing still. Daft. Paarl isn't going to be pleased !

Tense physical game with some old school skills on show but not much of the flash stuff. To me it shows how the teams respected (feared?) the occasion, wanting the other team to make the errors.

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[da_grubster]

first try was a forward pass

No. Those loopy passes have a suspicion of forward pass which is mainly momentum due to time in the air. It clearly wasnt forward.

Even though it was referred to the TMO formally, I am sure they were reviewing it and would have stepped in.

 

[da_grubster]

Commiserations to Boks supporters, I obviously very happy, and one thing I was happy about was the game was close, I have to much respect for SA rugby to want them to go out of WC by losing by big score. Funnily enough I didn't get too panic stricken at end, maybe I felt the ABs were contolling the game , or how they wanted it played in last 15 minutes or so. Personally Whitelock would of been my MOTM, but no arguments with Bender getting it.

Thy are just hard f*ckers to put away, especially in a RWC semi final arent they mate?

I felt we controlled most aspects of the game and our indiscipline in the first half gave the Boks an improbable half time lead based on the balance of play.

We played in the right areas of the pitch and the boks never really threatened our line but my biggest concern was a kickable penaltry.

Would have been happy with a big win but I think we needed that game as we havent really been tested at all and that will help us tune up for Argentina next week!