After the Springboks’ overwhelming 53-8 victory over the Wallabies, the question must be asked: Why did it take so long? Why did they wait till their last match in the Tri-Nations competition to dish up such outstanding rugby and inflict the biggest losing margin to date on the Wallabies?
And how was such a sudden and incredible turnaround possible after two horrible, heavy losses in successive mediocre performances in their previous two home matches in the competition (against the All Blacks and Wallabies)? Was it because this time there was no pressure on them as nothing else was at stake — except pride?
Was it perhaps the advantage that Ellis Park (now Coca-Cola Park) generally gives the Springboks over touring sides? Is the long-awaited expansive game of Peter de Villiers now finally coming to fruition? Was it a (welcome) flash in the pan?
We’ll have to wait until the November tour to the British Isles to find that out whether they will continue playing such winning rugby.
Their first match is against the Six Nations champions, Wales, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. It is expected that the Welsh will be at full strength this time and provide much better opposition than the depleted line-up that toured South Africa at the beginning of the southern-hemisphere season.
De Villiers, of course, said despite the Springboks’ huge victory on Saturday, they are not yet where he wants them to be; “we’re only about 60% to 70% of where we want to be”, he added.
That really is a bold statement after such a convincing victory against a side that beat us in two Tri-Nations matches this year. Was this just big talk after being subjected to such heavy criticism locally and overseas? What type of rugby does he expect the Boks to produce once they have progressed that extra 30%? Perhaps playing like real rugby world champions!
Now that he has been given a breather from demands for him to be replaced, he has hit back and accused those critics of being unpatriotic. He is reported to have said: “If they can become patriotic and believe in what’s happening in South Africa and not look for their honey outside of the borders and offer support [rather] than stomping on people who gave them hours and hours of joy last year and this year, we as a nation will grow much better.”
I’m gobsmacked, however, that he was stupid enough to compare his plight to that of Jesus, reportedly saying: “The same people who threw their robes on the ground when Jesus rode on a donkey were the same people who crowned him and hit him with sticks and stuff like that, and were the same people who said afterwards how we shouldn’t have done that, he’s the son of God. So that’s exactly what we do. You have to look at history is repeating itself, and I’m not saying that I’m God.”
De Villiers regularly opens his mouth to change feet, but with this analogy he sets himself up for enormous, unnecessary criticism. It shows what intense pressure he must have been under leading up to the match.
However, if the powers that be at South African Rugby don’t want him to be chewed up and spat out by the notoriously vicious British media during the year-end tour — and South Africa by association becoming a laughing stock — they will put De Villiers into intensive media liaison training, starting right now.
But, let’s get look at some particularly heart-warming aspects of the match itself.
At last, the Springboks were able to control the ball at breakdowns and did not surrender possession in this facet of the game, where there had been glaring failures in a number of matches prior to this face-saving encounter.
A decisive moment in the match probably came in the first few minutes when the Springboks managed to stave off a Wallaby onslaught on their try line. It might well have changed the whole course of the match if the visitors had managed to penetrate the Boks’ defence then!
The performance of that live-wire Jongi Nokwe, playing in only his third international, was fantastic. He’s a real star and a worthy man of the match. He was certainly a revelation on the left wing in the place of the injured Bryan Habana. He put up his hand and took every opportunity that came his way to set a new Tri-Nations record by scoring four tries. He is nimble and fast and could prove an even greater match winner than Habana in future.
It certainly is comforting to know there are players of his calibre waiting in the wings! Unfortunately he injured his ankle and had to be helped off the field. We can only hope that it is not too serious.
Finally, this match marked the retirement of evergreen Springbok fullback Percy Montgomery. He does it at the right time, when the Springboks are on top, but a bit late for me. He is no longer as agile as the Percy of some years ago and, I feel, was playing on borrowed time. I wish him well in his retirement.
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