So apparently Jean de Villiers lamented the poor midfield defense of the Boks. Really? Here are the four breaches Australia made while the Esterhuizen/Kriel combination was on the field:
08:29 A8 makes yards through the tackle of S3 & S13
Only mentioned because Kriel was involved, but it was really Nyakane's tackle, which he missed. Kriel hung on to slow down the opponent.
17:23 A12 breaks inside S12 on the drift, S6 covering the inside channel but misses his tackle
Esterhuizen and Kriel are drifting out for wide defense here as the Boks are outnumbered 4-3 on the outside (a 4 on 2 if Esterhuizen went for Kerevi and the pass went outside, you can see the Aussies outside calling for the ball). The ball goes to Kerevi who breaks inside. No real problem as the inside channel was covered by Elstadt, which would have stopped Kerevi on the Bok 22, but he misses his tackle. Lood cleans up with a good tackle.
17:39 A12 through between S6 & S7
This is the break that set up the disallowed Australia try. Kerevi slips between Elstadt and Steph.
21:37 A12 slips tackle of S15
Kerevi slips Gelant's tackle and releases HP who makes good meters.
And that's it. Those are the clean meters Aus made. So pray tell, where was the big defensive breakdown in midfield that Jean was referring to? The only telling break of the game in this period for Australia was from phase play between the two flanks. Let's be lenient and score another clean break for Kerevi against Esterhuizen if you want to ignore the defensive situation they were dealing with and the fact that Elstadt was right there to defend that channel anyway.
