The Boks face the Wallabies in Cape Town this afternoon.
The last time these sides met, the Boks turned around a strong of poor performances in Brisbane going back 40 years, recording a resounding bonus-point win over the outclassed Aussies. With New Zealand having pulled ahead in the title race courtesy of their controversial Auckland win, Heyneke Meyer’s men will be going all out today to pick up as many log points as possible, in order to set up a decider at Ellis Park next week.
Kick-off in the fairest Cape is at 5pm.
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Willie le Roux, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Flip van der Merwe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Juandré Kruger, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein.
Australia: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Christian Lealiifano, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Nic White, 8 Ben Mowen, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 James Horwill (captain), 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 Saia Faingaa, 17 Benn Robinson, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Sitaleki Timani, 20 Ben McCalman, 21 Will Genia, 22 Matt Toomua, 23 Chris Feauai-Sautia.
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Psyched!
And if I never see another AIG advert again it will be too soon.
What’s up with the singer’s eye patch?
BOKKE !!!!!!!!!!!
Its seems rugby is no longer a contact sport #frenchrefs
@rhineshark car accident
@byron (Comment 5) : Thanks. Did he lose his eye?
Nerve damage apparently
@byron (Comment 7) : Ah. Bad luck.
that was kak
@robdylan (Comment 9) : It was a good game until Aus’ first yellow. It fell apart after that for some reason.
Too bad that cynical play gifting Aus’ first try against us this year.
@robdylan (Comment 9) : and Fourie Du Preez was brought back at 9 for what? The moment Will came on we were shown up big time
Pretty average effort if you ask me. We should’ve put 40 on them.
@benji (Comment 11) : Which game were you watching bud? The Woblies got one consolation try of which Cooper was the architect. That’s all they managed despite SA taking their foot off the gas. If that’s Australia showing us up we should stop keeping score.
@benji (Comment 11) : I agree .Genia was massive in that second half ,he also brings the best our of Cooper.
Im surprised how none have mentioned how kak Steyn was. He is effin clueless .Those hallelujah skip passes are not conducive to good attacking Rugby. The only time they are acceptable is when the opposition wing miss marks his man and a flat pass is put in front of your man who is running onto the ball. His kicking was terrible and his defense was worse.
On the upside ,Kirchner is really silencing his critics with huge performances.
Bloody Argies can’t defend at all when it matters. This may be the end of our championship.
@benji (Comment 11) : You don’t think he played better than any of Pienaar’s previous performances?
Genia only gave the Ausies better direction as White didn’t have a clue.
We just defended our score until the last 10 minutes which I hate when teams do. Bulls sometimes do the same. And by then it was too late.
5 points in the last 40 is not good enough against this lot if you want to win the RC.
@Talent (Comment 14) : I fully agree bro…Weird how so few have mentioned it.
Personally I felt FdP was great and everyone played average or better EXCEPT for Morne. I have always said that Steyn is a handbrake to our full potential. And the treatment of Lambie is disgraceful.
I thought that Jean played a more playmaking role and did very well at it – a lot of our good attacking play ran off him and FdP.
And I also agree that Kirchner is playing well. (thats saying a lot coming from me.)
rather an out of form Lambie that can attack , than an inform Steyn that relies on his boot the whole time and poses no threat. I mean how long are we going to watch Steyn play like a Robot. I don’t blame the guy he looks like someone who was told “when in position X, do action Y”, whereas Lambie was given freedom at the sharks(before HM got into his mind) to play his heart out. . .I feel sad watching us do this. I’d rather lose playing all out rugby than win playing robotic rugby.
Geez… there’s just no pleasing some people is there?
The boks just put 20 points over the Aussies (after playing for 40 mins) and you guys are complaining as if we just drew with the Argies?
Heck, this team is playing such good rugby they’re even making Kirchner look good!!
And since when does anyone really prefer “pretty” rugby over winning. Test rugby is all about winning… the day we start loosing you guys will be shouting for Heyneke’s head and this guy and that guy and and… And anyway, I’d say our back line is playing the best rugby I can almost ever remember from a Springbok team… and that’s with “metronome Steyn”!
@pienaar111 (Comment 17) : Morne was awful. To put it in perspective ,Nick White had a better kicking performance in my opinion. Steyn will go to boot if he is under the slightest bit of pressure and it generally turns out to be a poor kick. I think the amount of vitriol that us fans have directed at Steyn is starting to backfire, people are feeling sorry for him now 😆
The back-line in general played well .I thought JJE was good ,but he still lacks the feel needed to compete with guys like Conrad Smith et al.
If I had to do ratings;
Beast 7
Straus 8
Jannie 6
Etzebeth 6.5
Flip 5.5
Louw 6
Alberts 6
Vermulen 5
Du Preez 8
Steyn 4.5
Habs 6
JDV 8
JJE 7
Le Roux 8
Kirchner 8
😆 .5’s because I’m that accurate
I thought FdP was good, but not better than Pienaar from what I have seen. Genia and White were the better scrummies on the day.
Certainly, if you want to play, ball in hand running rugby, then Steyn is not a good option. The question is whether, ball in hand running rugby was a good option itself. Had the Boks stuck to their territorial pressure style of the last match, they could have easily put 50 over the Aussies, with Steyn’s contribution around 20 to 25.
AND it would have been a lot prettier.
As for Lambie being the great attacking 10, the evidence is pretty thin. Currie Cup 2010 is a 3rd tier comp and a long while back. His best recent performances at 10 were last November for the Boks and there were not much ball in hand running going on. The Sharks’ back-line in SR 2013 was woeful and Lambie’s greatest contributions were with his boot. In 2012 the Sharks’ back-line was most effective with Michelak at 10.
@DBOY (Comment 22) :
The difference was on display at Strauss’ try (12:42 on the clock). Cooper tackled the wrong guy and let Strauss by, because he could not identify the target of du Preez’s pass in time.
Pienaar never makes passes that fool defenders like that.
@fyndraai (Comment 23) : 😆 None of what you said is true at all, except for your very first sentence.
We scored 20 points in 19 minutes ,then we proceeded to let Morne destroy our game with poor kicking. Do you even notice the difference when Le Roux takes the ball at 1st receiver and how dangerous we look?
The best thing that could ever happen to Springbok Rugby would be for Jake White to coach the Bulls and wipe away their traditional style of play so that we never see it again.
@Talent (Comment 25) : It would be a sad day ,who would be the whipping boys of the Currie Cup then ,though? 😆
@Talent (Comment 25) :
Point me to a few instances in the match where le Roux was at 1st receiver and I’ll take a look. He’s is a great player, but I don’t think anyone is considering playing him at 10.
Enjoy the CC, August to October is the best part of the year to be a Sharkie. Other months must be pretty miserable. 🙄
@CS bro, I am proud that my boys won, but at the end of the day its entertainment, its what drives us. Look at the way the sharks play and you will see. We play some of the most exciting rugby this country has seen in the last 3 or 4 years… And the Ozzies are at rockbottom right now imo. This is far from their potential, and trust me, when management gets right… They will come firing at all cylinders. I love rugby, win or lose don’t get me wrong.
@fyndraai (Comment 27) : Where did I say I would consider playing him at 10? However ,he would probably do a better job than Steyn.
Geez, what a bunch of fickle supporters!
Some of you don’t deserve to be called Springbok supporters. No it wasn’t a ‘perfect’ game but I’m pretty bloody sure that you would have taken a 20 point win before the start of the rugby championship.
You would have also been elated if you were told that the Boks would go into the last game of the RC with a chance of winning the title.
I’m also disappointed that we didn’t get the bonuspoint try but remember this same competition a year ago and go look at the improvement this year.
Some never seem to be satisfied. Party van julle is net ‘n klomp moangatte!