Forward metres gained, France 220….Boks 72. There are two aspects to this observation. Firstly our forward running game remains pretty much toothless. And secondly the French forwards made a number of dangerous forays through our defense, notably in the first quarter.
That and our inability to decipher the short rolling box kicks were our main vulnerabilities today
Our defence continues to win games. It's won us 3 World Cups.
It was a grubber kick that worked best for Dupont,forcing Kolbe into touch finally with the ball,from which France scored.
The All Black's pop kicks were brilliant on attack, can expect more of those.
Looking at these numbers, France conspired to beat themselves. French numbers on the left.
Clean breaks: 13 - 6
Defenders beaten: 43 - 12
Offloads: 13 - 2
Rucks: 103 - 56
Tackling: 88% - 79%
Territory/Possession: 63%/60% - 37%/40%
I'll have to revisit our game against France last year to see how that game played out vs last night's.
So like always the attackers of certain Springboks arte at it again. They won the match and that is he end of the story. Why o Why did we have those flops De Allende and Du Toit in the team.
As to the moaning about the ref - a NH ref would have red-carded Etzebeth for that tackle - he was bloody lucky to get away with te Yellow. In that 10 minuets he was off the field the Boks struggled abdly with only 14 players on the field.
We did not have line-out domination - Mostert is a nonenty in line-outs - fact is he was a nonenty in mauls as well. .
In the end though, numbers are numbers. Watching the scenes after the whistle again now, you can see what it took from all the players to get this result. I think one of the special things of a tournament like this is the scenes of raw emotion. Well done to all the players, win or lose. Us couch commentators have no idea what it's like out there or what effort it takes.
Stats count for nothing if you lose. We could say the thing against the Ireland game. It did feel that France had the upper hand. There forwards in the loose destroyed ours. Almost complete domination. Was not for Etzebeth, we would be go homing with our tail between our legs.
Kolbe and Arendse reactions are invaluable
We didn't compete on most of their throw ins because they had a very good driving maul and we needed to stop that.
We may have missed tackles as the French were good on their feet but our next defender nailed the frog.
One priceless comment was they kept punching holes in our defence but couldn't score. Precisely because our defence was so ORGANISED.
They kept chipping the ball very accurately but our defence coped with that as well. The French tried every trick they knew but it was not enough.
Great credit has to go to the center pairing. Reinach was also excellent in defence.
I don't know who the man of the match was but Kobe was magnificent. My own fear of Kolbe and Arendse being vulnerable under the high ball didn't materialize. Their abity to turn on a dime and their pace off the mark ment they could fall back very quickly.
Teams have different strengths. Our half hearted Bok supporters here and fakes like Doosie don't see our strengths and harp on any perceived weakness.
How weak were Allende and Kriel. For months some oaks have been talking themselves into a complete fantasy about these two players. To hear these oaks tell it both were totally useless. Planet Rugby I hope has helped them see the light. Bwahahahahahahaha.
One priceless comment was they kept punching holes in our defence but
couldn't score. Precisely because our defence was so ORGANISED.
Partly and at times, but much of the time France was just too frantic and ended up losing possession or momentum forcing passes, forcing offloads or isolating themselves. They punched through the defence as individuals, but there was no structure to back up the gains made. We were vulnerable around the ruck, France was too keen on moving the ball around to fully exploit that.
Glad France lost and being out of get WC tournament, The technical report favored S A to be the host country - but France convinced England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland th at it would benefit the NH teams to vote for F rance as th e host country.
Got bitten badly - all bar England are out of the semi's. The latter's perfrormance against F iji was not all that bright and I am glad SA is playing them in the semi.
Some interestin g infor on Semi's. In -
* 2014 - 4 semifinalist were S H teams;
* 2019 - 2 from the S H and 2 from the NH
* 2023 - 3 from S H and 1 from NH
The 2 finalist would likely be All Blacks and Springboks. The winner will hold the record of winning most WC tournaments since 1987. Since then England won 1 tournament - with the rest going to New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
Mike doosi e is having nightmares. He is already think what should his new name be when he returns after a break.
