Scotland host South Africa in the second week of the annual Southern invasion of the Northen Hemisphere.
The Scots took a hammering at the hands of the All Blacks last week, but was impressive in general play, scoring a few tries and keeping the mighty All Blacks grounded. Tim Visser especially impressed, scoring two tries on the night, and will be a danger against the weaker defence of the Springboks.
For the Springboks, Heyneke Meyer has opted to make two changes to the team that scraped past the Irish last week, changing his loosehead prop and selecting fit again Gurthro Steenkamp over CJ van der Linde, while finally seeing the light and selecting an actual centre to play in the 13 jumper.
The match should be much closer than we saw last week with the Springboks typically unable to put a weaker team to the sword and putting 50 points on them, while the Scots will be bouyed by their last performance and will hope to achieve another win over the Boks at Murrayfield.
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Nick de Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Denton, 7 John Barclay, 6 Kelly Brown (captain), 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Ryan Grant.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 Henry Pygros, 21 Ruaridh Jackson, 22 Peter Murchie, 23 Stuart McInally.
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 François Hougaard, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 François Louw, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Marcell Coetzee, 21 Morné Steyn, 22 Jaco Taute, 23 Lwazi Mvovo.
Date: Saturday, 17 November 2012
Kick-off: 14.30 (14.30 GMT; 16.30 SA time)
Venue: Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Expected weather: Partly cloudy with a high of 9°C, dropping to 4°C.
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: John Lacey (Ireland), Christophe Berdos (France)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)
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greetings from a very festive Murrayfield
HELP ASAP….anyone have a link for the game?? I must watch
Penalty Lambie
SA 3
Scots 0
7min
Penalty Laidlaw
Scots 3
SA 3
10 min
Penalty Lambie
SA 6
Scots 3
14min
Pienaar is not his usual self and needs to improve.
His service and decision making isn’t great at the moment.
Try Strauss!!!!
Scores from the maul
Conversion misses Lambie
SA 11
Scots 3
22min
Penalty Laidlaw missed
Scots 3
SA 11
25min
Penalty Lambie
SA 14
Scots 3
31min
Louw has made a huge impact in the team
Halftime
SA 14
Scots 3
2nd half starts
Pienaar sucks together with Meyers game plan!!!
Intercept try by Strauss!!!!
I signed in just to say this…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Converted Lambie
SA 21
Scots 3
47min
That was so skew….
Pyrgos scores for Scotland
Converted
Scots 10
SA 21
52min
Pienaar not having his best game
The Scots are making the Boks look silly right now.
gotta stop the kicking… start the tackling
Steyn on for Lambie
Flip gets sent off with a yellow
Incredibly uninspiring performance by the Boks. More Bulls rugby being served up. :sigh:
Scottish commentator being very generous regards our defence. 😕
Is that liefling on the field?? Ai!! 🙄
Fulltime
SA 21
Scots 10
Ok 1st half, but 2nd half just not good enough
Mallett JUST said, “We play sterile rugby…”
i was wondering when we are going to use willem alberts as a center…
hm is not only stuborn, he’s arrogant to insist playing like this… why lambie? if u just want to kick, use morne instead. im sick of just play withe forwards…
Another 3 years of this style of rugby? HM is going to coach the natural talent out of all our players that has it. This is not 2008 anymore!
Whatever Mallet said….is my sentiment exactly.
Oh for a world where Mallet is used as consultant for the Boks coaching and technical staff. :sigh:
Bring back Div!! 😈
@wpw (Comment 35) : No no, I think PdV will get ample opportunity coaching that second tier varsity cup team 😉
The most exciting part of springbok games this year has generally been the post-match analysis and particularly Nick Mallett.otherwise, nothing much. HM is content with staying in a box which he doesn’t see is outdated,sad really.
I’m sure pommies and welsh lost on purpose just to stuff up my SuperBru score.
Steenkamp 4.5/10
Strauss 9/10
Du Plessis 6/10
Etzebeth 7/10
Kruger 6.5/10
Louw 9/10
Alberts 9/10
Vermeulen 6/10
Pienaar 6.5/10
Lambie 7/10
Hougaard 7/10
De Villiers 7/10
De Jongh 7.5/10
Pietersen 6/10
Kirchner 7.5/10
Van De Linde 3/10
Van Der Merwe 2/10
@wpw (Comment 35) : What are you on about, Stormers supporters/players/coaches etc are more than happy with a 1 point win in a game as long as their defence holds out. We saw 2 tries today which should make you extactic. 😈
The way we are playing I think having 15 forwards starting would be better. What’s the need for a backline if its also used as battering rams??? Its really funny how HM always says before a match that he’s always happy with one point wins because they give him one more win then after the match says the exact opposite.contradictions maybe?
@robdylan (Comment 23) : For me the tackling stat goes hand in hand with the fact that we kick too much possesion away. At one stage the stat fro tackles was 64 to Scotland and 120 to SA. If we tackle that much, it means we have no possession. I dont know if I agree with your comment there.
But – help me right if I interpreted it wrongly! 😉
Lambie looked like a mini-Morne out there. THAT is not Lambie”s natural game, I am sorry, and I see all over he was getting bad ratings. Hardly his fault if you ask me, lets just hope HM is not killing him, by letting him play under instructions now.
I said this last week and I;ll say it again, I am hoping all Sharks players get dropped from the National team, there is no doubt in my mind that any natural talent and skills they have is being coached out of them as they are forced into a rediculous kick and chase style of play.
I have never seen Lambie kick so many up and unders – never !! It is obvious that he is not allowed to play his (own) natural game – what a shame ! If only he could play the type of rugby he plays at the Sharks …..
@swan (Comment 44) : Here`s a scary thought . . . What if he brings that kicking game back with him to the Sharks? 😯
@Ice (Comment 42) : forget that it is alleged that lambie was playing to instruction, his kicking out of hand was wayward…he was nowhere.
it is funny though because in the last 2 games of currie cup vs griquas & lions, lambie did NOTHING but kick, kick & kick & everyone said he had showed meyer his kicking chops, now all this wailing… 😆
@Megatron (Comment 46) : As far as I can remember, the potential Bok players and Bok players are given instruction on what they need to work on to be considered for the Boks.
It has been stated on numerous occasions that HM wants Lambie to work on his kicking game.
Lambie is chief reason why a unified contracting system for rugby in SA will end up destroying whatever talent we have.
We need a coach with the ability to marry the different styles of rugby played by the franchises into a unified style, and not try to change all our franchises to play HM’s brand of bland rugby.
@Megatron (Comment 46) : This is my take on his kicking:
– his up and unders (except one) were well placed such that the chasers could actually compete
– some kicks went straight to the Scots, but I did see one or two well places kicks, such as the kick where the Boks forced a scrum after catching the fullback in pocession
– I recall a cross field kick being caught by JP
– the distance on his line clearing kicks not far enough
– one charge down (immediately after Pienaar was charged down)
So all in all a mixed bag = not great but not atrocious either. I would say the biggest issue was the distance on his line kicks.
This does not mean that I agree with the Bok tactics
Has anybody ever seen Lambie take the ball so deep in the pocket before? Something changed from last week.
Very unimpressed with Pienaar’s service and Lambie’s uncanny impersonation of Morne Steyn. I do however hope that Meyer persists with the Pienaar/Lambie combo for the England game and that the two of them work their behinds off in practice this week. CJ van der Linde should be replaced with Pat Cilliers for the last game.
On the positive side, we won, the majority of our forwards were impressive and bar Scotland scoring from their lineout our defence was impressive. Our loose-trio balance also seems to be about right.
Anyone noticed even Lambi’s tackling style changed. He use to tackle low and now it’s more an upright tackle ?
@juba_fan (Comment 51) : Probably to prevent offloads.