Springbok fans get the good loser bit wrong.

I commented on this yesterday in response to a biltongbek piece and I see Keo does as well.....we have little to feel good about. Sure it was a great game and we scored some superb tries. But we were soundly beaten by NZ in our fortress. Hell if you consider Brisbane, fortresses aren't what they are cracked up to be!

What concerns me most isn't the fact that we couldn't maul, that our lineouts weren't functioning or even that our tackling was the worst I have ever seen from a Bok team....it was the lack of heart in those last 15 minutes. When Bismarck reluctantly departed it was as if the guts was sucked out of the team.

Jean scored a thunderous try that should have been the call to arms....instead the incredibly stupid Kirchner kicks out on the full and we miss a young flyhalf to cede the RC with a bonus point. After which we hardly seemed interested. ....hardly tried to at least win the contest.

Yesterday morning at the Presidents Cup the International Team was leading in several matches, with the potential to get very close before the singles matches. Then a huge choke, led by Charl and Louis. So despite an excellent performance in the singles in the afternoon there was no chance....it was the second South African choke of the weekend.

New Zealand deserves our respect they travelled, they battled and they conquered. They are a great team. But we should take no satisfaction from a good loss...that thinking is for losers.

It is not good for Boks to take too much comfort in a loss, I agree with Mozart on that.

Sure it was not a thumping although 11 points over the Boks in their fortress is not too good either.

Sure we can look at what the Boks did wrong and say if only... maybe we could have won or done much better. But it never does any good because if we start that we could say if the ABs did this instead of that we could have thumped the Boks even more.

So, IMO it is good when we have a loss not to beat ourselves up over it but to learn from it and improve. And it is also good not to gloss over the weaknesses.

Cleancut: m y points are not directed at you so relax  just adding to the thread.

 You're right Moz, nothing for Bok supporters to get too excited about. Everything was against this AB side:

Travel to Argentina and then on to SA

The Ellis Park factor

Played 20 mins with 14 players

No Carter

Down 15-7 by mid first half

The Boks should have put us away after getting that lead on the back of 2 brilliant tries by Habana. However, a true lack of depth on the bench was badly exposed by Habana's departure. The other 2 tries by the Boks could be put down to an atrocious lineout throw by Coles that went straight to Itsabutt,  and a questionable tap kick after Messam's yellow card (did the ref signal time on? Our commentators didn't think so....Is he required to do so?...not sure on that one) that caught out the AB's defence out wide.

On the Bok defensive frailties?...I thought the big men looked out on their feet at the end of the first half; they just seemed to be trying to hang on until the siren and the Messam try (2nd one) was a real killer at that time after some tired and woeful attempted tackles. Another reason to down size the loosies; they last longer!!

The Bok tactics were admirable and I think this is the way forward for Meyer. Posters have said that with the Bok loosies being so big that they can't play the AB way due to lack of mobility. Simple answer to that is DON'T pick such big men! The AB model has proved to be the right one in the last 21 years as we win a lot more than we lose.

All the ABs need to do is gain some sort of parity in the scrums and lineouts and most of the battle is won. When total domination in these areas doesn't happen for the Boks they have no real Plan B, hence the need for Meyer to continue to attack in all games and eventually he will have the guns to fire if Plan A is not happening.

You don't have to dominate the scrum....but as we saw with Oz this year a truly weak scrum can lose you matches. In the Lions series the domination of Alexander was a match losing situation. None of these rules are cast in concrete.

You need balance and players that fit your game plan. I was stunned to see the Boks run the ball out of our 22 at minute 39....that's not our strength. If we had Skinstad or Big Joe on the park with ball hound Schalk....then maybe.

That doesn't mean you can't play an expansive game, it simply means you have to be a little more careful out wide. For every try we scored out wide, we conceded one.

So the knee jerk thought process is to add speed to our loosies. I would be all for that if speed was available in a test quality loosie...a Big Joe ala 2003. We may have had that loosie in Arno Botha, but the other names in the mix Labuschagne and Coetzee aren't going to cut it. These guys are fine provincial players.

But is adding speed for grunt....a "me too" strategy..... the best solution? I somehow doubt that we are going to out All Black the All Blacks. We would be better off working for an edge in the scrums and the lineouts, that shouldn't be that hard, hell we were operating with one jumper on Saturday. But we need to add to the mix, our traditional game is too sterile. Again that shouldn't be hard, we have fine runners, that with good coaching could pay off a possession edge.

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we had plenty of possession on Saturday, we simply need to use it more effectively. If we change from our traditional model one thing is one hundred percent assured....we will go back to it eventually.

Some weak defensive efforts from both teams, but when youre playing a full out attacking game like that, from one end to the other, something has to give and it was on D for both teams.

Don't think it was the greatest test ever played.  From a spectacle point of view most likely, but I'd much rather the tight contest, couple of tries, with accuracy, balance on attack and great D.  Understandably the Boks came to play. Great that they discovered that having your loosies ranging out wide can pay off with two great tries to Habana.  Much like the ABs have in Read.  

Ben Smith game is phenomenal, especially his aerial game.  Hope we keep him at wing he is just too good there.

Ozzies next they will no doubt be wanting to beat us.  Any chance of that happening?  They almost did last year. No relaxing for the ABs.