Finally, the last test match of a very long season is upon us.
Will the Springboks rise meet this final challenge at Croke Park?
Or will the Irish exact a measure of revenge for the Lions series defeat earlier in the year?
Kick-off in Dublin is at 16h30 SA time.
Teams:
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O’Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O’Connell, 4 Donncha O’Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Sean O’Brien, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Gordon D’Arcy
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Danie Rossouw, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Dewald Potgieter, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Jean de Villiers.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Chris White (England), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
TMO: Hugh Watkins (Wales)
GO BOKKE!!!
Oh dear, bakkies out! Now if schalk can keep his head right we might keep all 15 players on the park!
The stadium holds 80 000! Awesome!
Hehehe
Schalk actyally scored our try!!
The ref has been really poor imo…
The Boks lose. Morne Steyn cost us the game. What a limited player!!
Im glad you not blaming the ref! The entire bok game plan is ‘ we will out muscle them’ and when they dont… No plan b!? We did not look like scoring at any stage after the first try:(
i had a feeling that Ireland may take it but decided to go for Bokke
so much for trying to be loyal.
France please beat Abies otherwise my SB will be in tatters.
@Rahul (Comment 6) : no the plan was obviously “ball = hot patotoe – get rid of it as quickly as possible”
Plan A kick and chase but never get the ball back. Plan B, kick and chase but never get the ball back.
The definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
@Baldrick (Comment 9) :
in this last move i thought that should pienaar had gone for a gap he might have scored but i cannot honestly say that springboks deserved the win.
We didnt play too badly for a side that has been very dominant this year. Before the EOYT of course…
I still think a B side should have toured cos some of our players looked jaded!!!
33 -12 for wobblies
Hey rekin… You have to stay loyal, win or lose!
I expected a loss for the Boks, Man Management and bad selection is what crippled us these last few weeks. PdV and our provincial coaches should come to some sort of an arangement as to how many games the Boks will play before 2011 WC. Get the guys hungry for their starting spots again.
@Rahul (Comment 13) : yip