I believe they will.
This is my team, my Boks....Go you good things!
Nah Clean, I don't go along with your sentiments here! By all means, hate Meyer and his conservatism! Lord knows I am p!ssed off with the situation he has put us in, but this is still our team. For most of the players (except the geriatrics), their whole life comes down to this world cup, this one moment, and it is their one and probably only shot at the ultimate prize! For those guys, there may be individuals in the team that we don't like, but the team on the whole is still the Springboks!
All the way boys!!!!
Bo bokke !
Nah Clean, I don't go along with your sentiments here! By all means, hate Meyer and his conservatism! Lord knows I am p!ssed off with the situation he has put us in, but this is still our team. For most of the players (except the geriatrics), their whole life comes down to this world cup, this one moment, and it is their one and probably only shot at the ultimate prize! For those guys, there may be individuals in the team that we don't like, but the team on the whole is still the Springboks!
All the way boys!!!!
G o bokke!
...Bean Brain the Samoans are coming mate...and they're hungry..
Johannesburg – The Samoan rugby team have always been known to be a little dirty (The guy is attempting to be humorous). But they took their “below-the-belt” tactics a little too far for some on Saturday in their game against the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld with fullback James So’oialo being accused of steeping a little too low for Bok vice-captain Adriaan Strauss.
Not much flusters the usually calm and collected Strauss, but So’oialo’s fiddling with his testicles at a ruck angered the Cheetahs man so much he jumped up, arms flailing, ready to have a full go at the man who dared dabble where he shouldn’t. Slow motion television replays showed Strauss berating the Samoan No15 with some choice Afrikaans words, but credit to the Bok hooker for quickly regaining his composure and settling down to help his team to an impressive 56-23 victory in the four-nation series final.(Lets hope for a simialr score today!)
It was but one of a number of unsavoury incidents in the match at Loftus Versfeld. Asked afterwards how Strauss was doing after the “ball-grabbing incident”, Bok captain Jean de Villiers simply said: “Adriaan played his balls off today.”
De Villiers handled the incident and questions about it, and others, afterwards as he usually does – with class.
The case against So’oialo, who was cited for the transgression, was on Sunday dismissed by RFU judicial officer Jeff Blackett, who deemed the contact with Strauss’ testicles as “accidental”.
“If I am to uphold this citing I must conclude that the player has lied to me. My assessment of the player is that he is honest. He immediately accepted that he had grabbed an opponent’s testicles – he did not attempt to dispute that fact – and he said there is no room in the game for insidious acts.
“Further there was no attempt to weaken the evidence given by Strauss, who himself accepted that there was probably no malicious intention. In those circumstances I determine on the balance of probabilities that the player did not intend to squeeze Strauss’ testicles, nor were his actions reckless.”
Wing Alesana Tuilagi though, was not so fortunate at his hearing. He was banned for two weeks after his dangerous stiff-arm tackle on De Villiers. Asked if there was a lot of malice in the game, De Villiers said: “No, I don’t think so. The Lord sent his angels to look after me.” He was, of course, also referring to the fact that he entered the game under an injury cloud after struggling with a sternum injury all of last week. “I honestly don’t know how I got through that. A lot was said about the physicality of the Samoans and what we’d be up against, but I think we won that battle.”(We always win the physcality battle but lose the dirty play battle)
Samoan prop Logovi’i Mulipoli was also a lucky chap on Saturday after spending 10 minutes in the sin-bin for a first half transgression, and then escaping a second yellow card in the second half, which would have become a red, for kicking out at Coenie Oosthuizen, while No 9 Jeremy Su’a also escaped major punishment after he was caught on camera making contact with his boot on the face of Francois Louw at a ruck. – The StarBeeno, on this thread you will read about biting (oh wait on that was the Boks)
.. Bean Brain, at least you have yr religion to fall back on if the Samoans kick yr butt...whereas there will be those that rugby is their religion who will take it v hard...