It’s the last one for the year folks, not sure if we should be happy about that or not? Will it be Allister Coetzee’s last match in charge of the Boks? Who knows? But what I do know is that this will be one tough test match.
There was expectation from most to see some sort of experimentation on this tour, some form of rotation, something positive that we can take from four matches against Northern Hemisphere opposition, but alas, all we positively know is that Allister Coetzee and whoever picks the team with him, has very little idea of what to do right now.
But’s lets not be too negative. There is a chance for some change in the backline with Warrick Gelant getting a start, albeit in the wrong position. One has to wonder how it works that a player has such a great season playing in one position, is expected to carry that form into a completely different position. The logic in that completely missing to my mind.
There I go, negativity again. I’ll end on some positive thought: Lukhanyo Am and Louis Schreuder both finally get the chance to wear the Green and Gold. Both thoroughly deserve their shot, and we wish them all the best in that magic moment, should it happen. Let’s hope for more than a few seconds just before the final whistle.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Hallam Amos, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Aled Davies, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Josh Davidi, 6 Aaron Shingler; 5 Alun-Wyn Jones (captain), 4 Cory Hill, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 Kristian Dacey, 1 Rob Evans.
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Rhodri Jones, 19 Seb Davies, 20 Dan Lydiate, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Owen Watkin.
South Africa: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Warrick Gelant, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth (captain), 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Oupa Mohoje, 20 Uzair Cassiem, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Lukhanyo Am.
Date: Saturday, December 2
Kick-off: 14.30 (14.30 GMT; 16.30 South African Time)
Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Expected weather conditions: The stadium will be sealed, sides and roof, and so the weather is no playing consideration. But for those going into the stadium, there will be high of 8°C, cooling down to 6°C.
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Frank Murphy (Ireland)
TMO: Rowan Kitt (England)
Tweet
Wales by 40
Watching the La Rochelle games recently. It’s a pity Jordaan has left us.
@durbsguy (Comment 2) : something stopped him from reaching his potential here like many of our stars it’s nothing new. He wouldn’t put in half the performances you see here.
@Poisy (Comment 1) : only by 40?
@durbsguy (Comment 2) : always s had the potential so very glad he’s delivering on that even if it’s not for the Sharks!
Wales opens their account with a beautiful try after great crosskick from Biggar
7-0
Second try Wales after another clever kick from Biggar
Wales by 40 may just be very possible
14-0
SA doing only tackling and missing high balls
Uhm … where have our bokke gone ? 😐
AC will surely be fired after this
At least we can scrum, but that is about it
AC deserves to be fired. He spent the week telling us how underrated coetzee is…. we now know hes just shit
And the maul is not too bad eithet
Marx drags 5 Welshmen over the tryline. TMO to check grounding
Eish. Looked grounded to me
Boks cock up and ends back in their 22
Coetzee finally manages to catch a high ball
Boks get a vital penalty and Pollard misses the line
And now we screw up a lineout inside Welsh 22
Coetzee … 0/10 …
Seems the players want AC fired….
Coetzee is having a mare
About the best bit of play from the Boks all game
14-3
21-3
Haha get that clown off the field !!!
Parks scores his second after Coetzee kick gets charged down
@Bokhoring (Comment 26) : water break?
Coetzee is having a meltdown tonight
Gelant scores after a counter from Lleyds
Gelant try
Although defensively Gelant has not been good
Lleyds should move to 15, Am to 13 and Kriel to 14
21-10
Dare I say … try scored because coetzee out of position?
@sharks_lover (Comment 35) : Yip
@byron (Comment 38) : Lleyds is just the more natural 15 of the two
@Bokhoring (Comment 40) : he doesnt run directly at the defender either
@Bokhoring (Comment 40) : Coetzee just conspires to run into the first defender each time
Move Gelant to 15, Leyds to the Left wing and Am to 13 with Kriel at 14
There you have it, Gelant exposed, but yes he should be at 15 where he is most comfortable.
Coetzee miles out of position
And now the talk is Davids of the Kings said to be the next Bok coach 😆 😆 😆 😆 Trust me the day that is announced is the day I stop supporting the Boks altogether. And the current coaching staff are a total disaster.
@sharks_lover (Comment 43) : Would be worried about Gelant’s positional play as well as under the high ball
@sharks_lover (Comment 46) : Davids is a good coach!
@sharks_lover (Comment 46) : Sounds more like the plan is for Rassie to do the light show from behind the scenes and Davids his front man
@byron (Comment 48) : Agree
Etzebeth off and replaced by Mohoje
So it’s official absolutely everyone in south africa can see what AC can’t. And everyone but SARU and their clown boss can see this guy is a lost cause. You can’t coach worse if you tried. Actually terrible of Wales NOT scoring more out if these mile wide gaps.
Geez how is that not high
@byron (Comment 53) : Ref not too fussed with chokeholds
@byron (Comment 48) : Sorry mate but he is nowhere near Bok coach material yet, the closest we have is Ackermann, we need someone like Robbie Deans, with Ackermann as Forwards and yes Davids as backline coach.
@sharks_lover (Comment 55) : Won’t happen
Try Pollard
Pollard scores after sustained pressure
21-15
Gelant just as kak as Coetzee under the high ball
@Bokhoring (Comment 56) : I know, thus Bok Rugby will drop even more into the dumps.
Our kicks out of hand are rubbish,
Then Gelant kicks a good one
@sharks_lover (Comment 63) : With good coaching he can become a great player. Fortunately he has Mitchell to provide that
Kriel scores and suddenly the score is 21-20
Forwards showing the backs how to draw a man …. try!!!
Blitzbokke 19-0 up second half
Pollard kicks the conversion from the sideline. 22-21 SA leads
@Bokhoring (Comment 64) : He is, just needs to work on his up and under jumping.
Marx MOM, Dan has been solid.
Boks cock up a maul after doing very well with that all evening
And then gives away their first scrum penalty
Wales upping the tempo and Boks looking a bit tired now
Blitzbokke just taken gold
PSDT does well to disrupt the Welsh maul
@Bokhoring (Comment 75) : Then gives away a stupid penalty right in front.
Wales lead again 24-22
Schreuder gets his cap
Schreuders passing is friggin light speed compared to Cronje
Shreuder speeding up fame nicely
And Jantjies keeps F***ing up
Jantjies has fluffed two balls in a minute now
Elton not used to fast ball
Jantjies just an utter piece of shit. Why the hell did he take Pollard off? Just killed all the speed and momentum of the backline. Well done toetie. Prove us all right.
Again Coetzee shows himself to be the most useless coach ever to coach the Boks. instead of strengthening the backs with subs he weakens it at pivot. MORON
I hope he brings AM on at 12
Scrums a mess now. Ref needs to warn Wales about wasting time
Boks needs some balls now and run the ball from deep
Wales victory, better team won. congrats
Well done toetie we were almost in danger if winning. Some quick thinking …loser.
So Jantjes contribution… two dropped balls and a kick for touch with 2 mins left. Brilliant.
Also how the f%&king hell did Andries Coetzee get 80 mins on the park… but Pollard gets subbed. Genius. Sheer genius
@Pablo Dinero (Comment 91) : I thought he got subbed by kitshoff
@Pablo Dinero (Comment 92) : He got the time cause Alistairs game plan called for 3 wings and 0 fullbacks. I feel sorry for both him and Gelant both these guys were expected to play a game plan and in areas they were not used to.
Surely there is ground for a vote of no confidence in the SARU chief for not removing Coetzee when he should have. They should both be fired.
I dont really care if they fire AC or not, but I don’t think it will make much of a difference unless they allow the Bok coach to select any number of OS players. The local talent pool right now is just to thin to do much better they did this year.
@fyndraai (Comment 96) : I tend to agree with you. You only have to look at someone like ross cronje to understand just how much talent is missing. He left the sharks because he was effectively the 4th choice scrumhalf at the time. He joined the lions as a second choice behind faf. All those players before him are no longer in the country. You can go to pretty much any position and you could find same.
@fyndraai (Comment 96) : Yeah, our best players and best coaches are now outside of the country. Due to the lack of experienced coaches (apart from Mitchell) as well as hardly any decent specialized skill coaches our young talent is also not really progressing as they should.
It is not just the experienced hardebaarde leaving for a retirement package – more and more of players around 21-26 are now leaving for overseas shores.
@byron (Comment 97) : I was under the impression that the Cronies, Rhodes and Cilliers left for other reasons.
I thought the Bok forwards were good but backline offered nothing again and were hopeless under the high ball and in defense. I thought Dan Dupreez had a good game in his first start- probably his best game he has played this whole year. PSDT also did really well but when he moved to lock it showed the benefit of having a more mobile lock and flank when Mahoje came on. I thought Schreuder looked sharp and the difference between his pass and Cronje’s is qite startling considering Cronje has played in the Bok 9 shirt all year. Wins over the hapless French and Argies made this year look better than it actually was…i believe the Bok backline regressed badly this year. Although some credit to Proudfoot who seems to have got the forwards at least keeping us in games.
Schreuder made a big difference i think , just with him @9 and Am @13 the Springbok backline will have a decent attacking threat
@SheldonK (Comment 100) : Sharks are lucky to have two scrumhalves who pass from the base (no two-step three step, just pass)
I must say I am a bit worried about meeting the Stormers scrum next year – Ginger, Mbonambi and Louw with any of Etzebeth, PSDT and Schikerling behind them is going to hurt most opposition scrums.
@Bokhoring (Comment 102) : Yeh i made the comment to a mate what a huge difference a decent pass from the base makes. Wales were not able to close our space. Jantjies to his credit was running onto the ball well he just forgot how to catch. Think the direct way Pollad plays is having a good influence on Jantjies- likewise Jantjies goal kicking is putting pressure on Pollard to kick well- which he did barring the one shocker for touch.
As for the Stormers scrum- fully agree. Sharks were looking pretty good too with Coenie there but without him there is a glaring hole
There is a lot of negative surrounding the Boks and probably rightly so. But what did they do right this year??
Well i thought they got it right in the front row- Beast/Kitshoff, Marx/Mbonambi, Coenie/Louw were the right picks and did pretty well. I thought our locks Etzebeth/De Jager and should be PSDT are great locks to have in a 23. I think getting Duane Vermuelen back in the loose trio is a good thing. I think Serfontein and later Venter were pretty good at 12…i do prefer a play maker at 12 personally but that seems to be anti South African so i will compromise and say then play one at 13. Other than that i think the rest are a problem…particularly the 9 and the interplay in the backline
Am i the only one that noticed that when wwe subbed our tighthead Louw we brought on our loosehead Reserve Nyakane instead of our tighthead reserve Dreyer? That one move tells you all you need to know about AC’s coaching of the Boks
@SheldonK (Comment 105) : Coetzee is responsible for the squad he took on tour, which left him with only the grass eating Dreyer available to bench for TH. Given that game day squad, I too would have done what AC did, wait as long as possible with the starters, and put Nyakane in for whomever looks like they need to be replaced. Ginger was on fire all game, Louw seemed to fade toward the end, hence I too would have brought Nyakane on at TH. Anything to leave Dreyer on the bench. Of course the blame lies at AC’s feet due to the squad he selected for this tour, and didn’t bring in TH cover when it was needed.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 106) : If that was his plan then why not pick DuToit and Nyakane as his Reserves props. It just shows he has no clue in regards to selection which is a major reason the Boks are in the mess they are.
@SheldonK (Comment 107) : I see use are using the word PLAN very gratuitously. ..
@coolfusion (Comment 108) : This is true
@SheldonK (Comment 107) : I agree with you. I am not trying to justify his selections, just trying to understand it somewhat. But you are 100% correct, it is clear he does not have a clue when it comes to squad and game day selections.
@Dancing Bear (Comment 110) : Yeh look if he is to get any credit it is because he realised he couldnt put Dreyer on.