Firstly the two tries at the end.
The Bok scrum broke under their poles as Sio rolled up Malherbe putting Schalk under pressure and leading to a 5 metre scrum. The actual try by Hooper came because Lomp swallowed the dummy leaving a gap.
On to the try at the end by Kuridrani. Reinach put Oz on the attack with a woefully short up and under. We battled away manfully and actually regained possession. We had 30 seconds to negotiate and Reinach passes to a pod right in the teeth of the Aussie defence, we get penalized and they get a lineout. We defend well until De Allende peels out of the ruck and races outside Louw.....but leaves a massive gap!!!!!. Kuridrani runs straight into the gap and through de Allende and Louw holds on desperately but it's futile.
This game turned when the front row changed....Slipper and Sio owned Malherbe. Heinke wan't great but the main issue was at tighthead. And the kicking onto Folau was a death wish.
Willie contrary to reports made two brilliant open field tackles on Folau and Horne.
Kriel looks fine at 13....an exciting find. De Allende does many good things, but his defensive nous is non existent. His positioning is wrong and he is beaten on the inside far too often.
Pollard had a mixed game, but we lost a lot of physicality when Lambie replaced him....this boy is class. And our only flyhalf who is a threat ball in hand at this level.
Pienaar wasn't great, but better than Raainacht.
In the forwards Etzebeth, Bismarck and Schalk were massive. Coetzee and Louw were both good. Jannie and the Beast scrummed superbly.
And of the subs only Lood had a long innings.....I expected more given the praise I saw on here all day. He was fine, but a notch below Etzebeth and towards the end he started loping from breakdown to breakdown without getting engaged....an old fault. Still one of his better games.
The big casualty today is Malherbe whose reputation as a big scrum ager took a hit and cost us the game.
