Except for the RWC 2019 Final v England, I cannot recall looking forward to re-watching a game as much I did the first test against the All Blacks from last weekend. Due to unforeseen circumstances I wasn’t able to take up my seat at Mbombela and I don’t know if I will get over that. We dominated from start to finish against a Kiwi side low on confidence and even lower on quality. The only low point of the day was Jimmy Stonehouse singing Sweet Caroline at halftime.
The Kiwi administrators kicked our teams out of Super Rugby and it is inarguable that this has led to their recent demise as a rugby power. It has meant that many of their current All Blacks are experiencing an SA trip for the first time. If they thought Mbombela was intense, they are going to disintegrate when they experience Ellis Park, I will be part of making sure of that!
Anthem and Haka
I have never heard our anthem being sung so loud throughout, it normally builds to a crescendo for the last two verses but last Saturday it was full on. Eben Etzebeth didn’t even bother singing the second half, he just took it all and had a smirk on his face that sent a shiver down my spine for what was about to come.
It is perhaps apocryphal that when a crowd boos or ‘disrespects’ the Haka then the All Blacks get ‘angry’ and play above themselves. They were a herd of deer in the headlights after our anthem and then getting drowned out whilst performing Kapa o Pango. To paraphrase Jaws, they are going to need a bigger microphone to be heard at Ellis Park.
Faf
Faf shot up in our first defensive set to make a good hit, but I think he was too psyched from our anthem and this adrenaline led to him badly mistiming his hit on Caleb Clarke when he went completely outside the box by stopping Clarke with his temple. He was out before he hit the ground. The Xhosa commentary refer to these incidents as ‘loadshedding’ and when Faf came back out from the dressing room, Kaya Malotana on comms declared that “loadshedding was suspended”, or maybe just moved to Stage 1. What a country we live in!
Kurt-Lee Arendse
I love this guy, even though he plays for the Bulls. He is literally a carbon copy of Cheslin. He shows incredible courage for a small guy and Clarke never got past him while he was on the field. He is electric and we need to get the ball to him whenever we can on his return to the side. In this SA side, defence will always be the first priority, that is why Fassi got let go from the squad as he cannot or will not tackle. Arendse’s defence was key on a number of occasions, stopping the All Blacks momentum by cutting off passing options and making great spot tackles, most hilariously on Sam Cane, but more on that later. He was brilliant until the brain fade in taking Barrett out in the air and was rightly shown red and given a long ban. Really sucks that we now have Jesse as his replacement!
Scrums
Our scrum was, as is always the case, very dominant. This was illustrated from the beginning. At the first scrum, the All Blacks conceded a free kick on their own put in for a pre-engage and then when we elected to take a scrum you didn’t have to be Nostradamus to work out we would shame them, winning the penalty for a dominant scrum. We have such depth in the front row and the All Blacks simply cannot cope, no matter who they bring in. Bring on ‘de Groot’ and Lomax I say.
Defence
PSDT was basically man-marking Beauden Barrett in Mbombela and he did not miss when given half a chance to tickle his ribs. Du Toit’s workrate takes your breath away every game, it is the quality not quantity of our defence.
To use a football term, Am and our wings block ‘passing lanes’ and make it difficult for the first receiver to know what to do when he has little option out wide and is faced by a Bok loose forward in his eyeline. It was often simply target practice for our defence on Saturday. The All Blacks then make things worse when they throw wild passes to move the point of contact when our outside in stops them in their tracks. It is beautiful to watch.
Sam Cane
It was always going to be tough being Richie McCaw’s replacement but I don’t think Stuart Barnes was that far wrong when he said that Cane wouldn’t get into the Italy side. For the vast majority of the game on Saturday, Cane looked like he was a prizewinner who had won the chance to play for the All Blacks in a competition.
His body language is terrible, from the toss to the ruck inspecting he does when jogging around the field, hunched over in his awkward running style. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat at the toss when engaged by the referee Angus Gardner and Siya just death stared him. It was then that I knew we had won.
On my review of the game, I watched Cane closely and came up with the following errors, startling for an All Black captain:
- 8’ – From our third scrum, Jasper played from the base and ran over Cane as if he was a boom gate and Wiese had stolen a car from the parking lot.
- 13’ – From slow All Black possession, Siya’s eyes lit up when he had his opposite number in his sights and he made a great read to smash Cane, who then threw a wild pass, typical of the All Blacks’ passing of the buck in the last few tests.
- 18’ – Cane tries to clean Jasper and he slips down and is left flailing on the floor while our No. 8 remained standing and moved to the next breakdown. Cane then is unable to clean Malcolm Marx a couple phases later and this leads to Marx winning a crucial jackal pen.
- 21’ – Cane was late to contest the breakdown and conceded a penalty which Pollard knocked over to make it 10 – 0.
- 24’ – Cane half-heartedly attempted to contest another breakdown and was met with incredible ferocity and superb technique by Frans Malherbe, who sent the skipper flying in the best clean I have seen in 2022.
- 30’ – Cane cannot clean Marx again and this leads to the All Blacks’ ball being turned over. To be fair to Cane, no one can clean Marx.
- 32’ – With the All Blacks finally having a period of good territory and possession, the ball was spun wide, too quickly as it turned out as Cane knocked on, under pressure from the dynamo that is Arendse.
- 39’ – With a run up and momentum, Cane was only able to shift Arendse sideways not backwards at a breakdown, leading to slow ball and showing how far off the mark his physicality is against this Bok team.
- 71’ – The breakdown was proving to be a harsh environment for the soon to be ex-All Black skipper and when he was unable to shift Am a t a breakdown, the All Blacks conceded a penalty which Pollard converted to take the score to 19 – 3 and confirm what we knew from the moment our anthem started.
The amount of times Cane was the would-be receiver and the All Black carrier clearly figured, “FCUK it, I’ll carry it myself”, was glaring on the review of the game and he doesn’t even contribute in breaks in play, Ardie Savea being the man the players seem to listen to instead.
His Imposter Syndrome must be all-consuming.
Malcolm Marx
Marx is too much, don’t know what else to say. The thought of him coming on to finish the game on Saturday makes my heart race. He was everywhere last week for his 50th and there is so much more to come from the immovable force.
Room for improvement
Our maul wasn’t as effective as we have seen it in the past. Credit to the All Blacks here who seemed to have come up with a plan to stop our primary weapon.
Whilst our maul wasn’t at its best, Pollard not finding touch in the 13th minute from a penalty meant we were robbed of what would have been a perfect opportunity for a lineout drive in their 22m.
In the 24th minute, DDA was in space when released wide and he had Am AND Mapimpi in support but inexplicably chose not to give it wide. Late in the game, before the All Blacks scored their consolation try, Am got an intercept and was clean through but we didn’t show the composure needed to score the try.
All Blacks changes for the Second Test
Richie Mo’unga will surely try and exploit space behind the rush defence and his tactical kicking game will be employed more than was the case with Beauden Barrett at 10. He has a wide range of grubbers and chips and we will need to be alert to this.
Their changes up front don’t really make a difference as all their front rowers on this tour are inferior to what we have.
To prevent Marx, Kitshoff and even Am getting jackal pens, you need leg drive and gainline superiority. They have brought in Shannon Frizell to help them carry with a bit more authority. The problem with that is that he is playing the Boks here, not assaulting a woman like he did in Dunedin last year, so he may encounter a bit more resistance. #nodickheadspolicy
Bok changes for the Second Test and Ellis Park
I am worried that Joesph Dweba is going to be too psyched for this game, especially after seeing him being serenaded by the Gwijo Squad earlier in the week. As someone subtly put it on Twitter in response to the video of the singing, Dweba gaan die All Blacks opf@k. Quite.
I would back Jesse Kriel on the bench press and his ability to forego a carb but not to contain Caleb Clarke if the All Blacks can finally paly around our suffocating defence. Canan Moodie was brought in as KLA’s replacement and would have loved to see him start. Moodie was key to the Bulls win over Leinster, owing to his incredible defensive reads AND execution. Kriel’s inclusion isn’t a surprise given our coaching staff’s conservatism but it would have been great to give Moodie a go against an underpowered and brittle All Blacks side. His time will come.
Duane is back in place of Jasper and this means more of the same from the back of our dominant scrum. Duane may not be as explosive as Jasper from kick off receipt but his quality over quantity philosophy in tackles and collisions means the All Blacks will be pushed from the start, for Jasper to finish them off.
I am looking forward to see Ox against this All Black scrum, and also his all round game should never be underrated.
Our bomb squad for Saturday is properly loaded, we are doubling down on the ‘f@cking them up physically’ mantra and this should be compelling viewing for every Springbok fan, especially us lucky enough to be inside Ellis on Saturday afternoon. Sam Whitelock and Kieran Read have spoken separately about the intimidation factor of Ellis Park, it is clearly something which is preoccupying them. They will not be disappointed come 17:05 on Saturday.
BOKS by 8.
#bokbefok