Originally posted by Crowley
Naah, that's bull. Steenkamp, 'Beast' and Mujati are all good scrummagers.
The best team we have is over there.

If any team has a dominant scrum at the moment it's the all blacks. You guys are seriously solid now.

Our half-back is useless!!!! Why cant we have a half-back like Georgy Gregan.. get that ball out fast so the backs can do their thing. Half-time.. All Blacks 9 S.A. 8.

A.B.s win 19-8.

These Africanos will be hard when they finally get to play at home after their long series of away games when the tri-nations is out of their grasp.

stuck at work til midnight caught it on the radio .. sounded like a cracker of a game in true tradition. Heard the SA pride and enjoyment in the game afterwards..that was great. Hope to catch a replay tomorow . hope hope..

Damn, that was a pretty hard game. Both sides were very aggressive, but the all black forwards gave us a lesson in support play - they were amazing...
Congrats on a good win.

Like I said, the ABs have a serious scrum now, although the boks still have the best lineout in world rugby. If only some of those lineout steals can go to the scrum-half instead of just putting us under more pressure, it could've been different.
Our scrum is solid, but the ABs definitely had an edge. Now it's going to be hard graft with John Smit and CJ van der Linde both doubtful starters.


In the end, the game will be remembered, not for the hard hits and some great rugby at times, but for the 4 REALLY bad calls by the referee and his assistants...
1) Thorn should have received at least a yellow card when he upended Smit.
2) Bakkies Botha was never off-side when he tackled Ellis inside his goal area and SA should've had a 5 meter scrum.
3) No all black was close to being in front of Carter when he put a kick in which resulted in a try.
4) Habana did not carry the ball over the line at the end and it should've been a 22 drop, not a scrum for the ABs

So'oialo was also lucky he didn't connect a punch right in front of the ref, or he would've been sent off...


In the end though, the boks had enough chances, but many aimless kicks and too many handling errors (as I said earlier, cold and wet conditions would be a serious disadvantage for the boks) meant we made the game too easy for the all blacks.
The all blacks were very disciplined, the forwards just got top the ball quickly, got it out quickly and Dan Carter was never under pressure. You can't allow a player of Carter's quality to just dictate a match, or you will never have it easy...

Originally posted by Crowley
Damn, that was a pretty hard game. Both sides were very aggressive, but the all black forwards gave us a lesson in support play - they were amazing...
Congrats on a good win.

Like I said, the ABs have a serious scrum now, although the boks still have the best lineout in world rugby. If only some of those lineout steals can go to the scrum-half instead of ...[text shortened]... a player of Carter's quality to just dictate a match, or you will never have it easy...

Originally posted by boarman
Talk about players punching.
Did you see the game of Australia and France, The French players really threw some.

I read in todays press that the coaches of N.Z and S.Africa were to meet with the ref to "clear the air" prior to saturdays' game.
Too late! It will be WW3 and i'll be loving it.

Originally posted by lordhighgus
I read in todays press that the coaches of N.Z and S.Africa were to meet with the ref to "clear the air" prior to saturdays' game.
Too late! It will be WW3 and i'll be loving it.

Originally posted by Crowley
Yeah, saw that.

Why can't South African players not shake this "brawler" stigma around our players? I can just imagine the punishment someone like Bakkies Botha would've gotten if he had speared Ritchie McCaw like that...

SA 30 NZ 28
An fantastic second half of rugby.

Well done boks.. I knew you guys were the better team.. and looked it throughout you all lined up in set drills when ever you went forward and looked very dangerous. how the abs got the territory beats me.. No game plan evident in the abs.. again a result of stupid rotation. six rotations and Mulialana chucked out on the wing.. for heaven sake we really need a coach.. volunteers anyone?? no well how about your gran.. she'd be better than our mob. Did the abs win a line out at all?
laugh both sides had a few good runs.. we saw decent tackling, thought the scrums were both a bit shakey, not one big punch up 😉
Graeme Henry summed it up for the abs.. we lacked continuity! absolutely agree with Graeme.. how about selecting the same team for two in row then maybe we'll get continuity.

Morning after the game and it's reported that Graeme Henry is complaining that Daniel Carter was targeted with late hits throughout the game. Rubbish!
Carter was getting hit because Ellis is such a slow half back that he has to stand closer to the ruck to receive the ball from Ellis and the SA loosies were quite rightly all over him.

Have to laugh:While drinking a watching rugger in a rural farmhouse in NZ is a heck of a lot of fun, the real entertainment was the women in the room... who last night, though professing dying devotion to Daniel Carter... wouldn't mind getting under "that lovely blonde SA loosie's ruck" 😵

footnote : they also said they wanted to know his hair stylists number!

Originally posted by treetalk
It wasn't a spear - not even close.

But it was a damn stupid thing to do and as a Kiwi I'm not too upset he's banned for a week.

On a semi-related note, I sometimes think that referees come down too hard on retaliation. If (I'll reverse the teams 😉) an All Black rucked a Saffer lying on the bottom of a ruck in the head and another Saffer reacted by p ...[text shortened]... ack, the chances are that he'd be sent off as well as the AB culprit - which I think sucks.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
Well done boks.. I knew you guys were the better team..