Well much has been said about Saturday's test. And it was surely one of the offensive explosions of the year. But it's roots are to be found in two sets of phased play...one at about the 55th minute when a series of Aussie attacks were repelled.....a try then could have been fatal.
The next phase attack came from the Boks comitting Oz to a muscle sapping plethora of tackles...and ending significantly in the Lambie drop. The Aussie team that played the last 10 minutes was shagged and defensive alignment fell apart.
So much so when Reinach came round the ruck he was in clear space for 30 metres. So much so that Steppie was marked by Horwill. They did well, as did Lambie, against a somewhat compromised defence. Now on to the players.
Hougaard got MOM, and he played quite well. His tackling and work around the fringes was very physical. That said he threw at least 4 poor passes....one Pollard took off his toes, the pass that almost led to an OZ break out try, the poor pass to Willie at the end of the half and another ball near the start that bobbled along the deck. The lad is not a crisp passer or a decisive kicker. All this will be costly at some point.
Lambie gets lots of accolades and he scored a terrific try, with a dummy to beat Kuridrani and a step or two to power over the line. His drop and rolling line kick were also good, as was his good low tackle and one strong clean out.
But he looked like a deer in the headlights until the drop, got monstered in the tackle and sold Steppie in a huge tackle. He also left 7 points out there of missed kicks. We have seen this scenario before when Lambie came back in the S15...a good cameo off the bench, followed by a shocker in the S15 semi. If he gets elevated over Pollard which Lambie appears?
Matfield was great....again. A huge tackle to stop McCalman when he would have surely scored...and another on Foley also in try scoring position. A massive cleanout of Hooper that left the limpet on his back. And he formed a handling link with Schalk in most of our moves towards the death, timing the last pass to Jean perfectly for our fourth try.
Jean had some poor moments in handling...but he gained influence as the test progressed. Every run saw him gaining hard yards....breaking Kuridrani's tackle for example. And he put in a massive hit on Foley as well as smashing Hooper down singlehandedly 2 metres from our line....not an easy ask. His first try was more a question of good backing up, but in the second he had to beat a tackle right on touch.
The we come to Steppie. Really another busy bee, not very effective bee performance. He was monstered once by Kuridrani, run over by Hooper and taken down easily in the tackle.....until he had a barndoor gap outside by Horwill with Foley slipping as he turned to help. He executed that well enough...but any good centre would have done the same.
The thing to look at is the Ashley Cooper try. When Kuridrani breaks free Steppie checks briefly to avoid AC who is running right next to him. AC accelerates and Step is left in the dust....he needed to stay on AC who was open, but he never did. Was it acceleration, pace.....a mental lapse? I'm guessing a bit of all three. But I guarantee you, if that was Jean AC would never have lost him. Pace is an issue.
Pollard had some shaky moments, But he attacked the advantage line effectively and put himself about. Things happen faster at this level....the Hooper charge and near charge of his conversion showed that he is still learning.
The other observation is about Coetzee who had a good game, but we were beaten on the deck by Hooper, who also ran over Coetzee for good measure. The fact is, if he is our primary breakdown asset, he has to be in there. Too many times Vermeulen was fighting a lone battle, while Coetzee was standing at first receiver. He may or may not be an effective fetcher, but he can't fetch from 10 channel.
