To be honest, with what was shown tonight, I'm not afraid of either.
To be honest, with what was shown tonight, I'm not afraid of either.
That would have been a very difficult game for this Bok side to win. If we had a fit Pollard with Esterhuizen, and a real loose trio, I think we'd be a heck of a lot better though. Esterhuizen has been, for the past 6 years, that missing piece. No nation abuses and wastes talent like South Africa! I haven't seen the Boks play against pressure like that on attack since 2014.
The French loose trio is stellar. And their scrum a lot better than the NZ scrum we played against a few weeks back. They will be tough.
Xavi I agree with you that NZ looks like a shadow of their great teams, but they will be smarting out there in the first quarter…a dangerous opponent.
If South Africa can beat Scotland and Ireland, and get the All Blacks (on current form) - they could go all the way to the final (The French?)
All Blacks could bounce back with a good game and beat any team, but I dont think their forward pack could be consistent enough to go all the way.
Xavi, I think the French looked a bit flat due to nerves.
In the second half they looked much more like the team we'll probably see for the rest of the comp.
Though, saying that...their backs didn't look like they would be able to deal with our rush defence.
Still, I bet that at the half they were told to be themselves, and reminded that they were on home soil with an entire stadium behind them.
Man the last try was awesome. I think I may have caused some dolphins to beach...and I'm in JHB.
Our defence has been sub 80% the past two years. It's actually the worst of the top 10 nations. We lagged in the RC on defence. We don't have a good defence, and our rush looks at best like a ragged bunch of blind plonkers ambling around in the dark. When a team applies pressure, we fold. That'll be our undoing. Our set pieces are statistically very weak. Things we need to keep in mind. We need some personnel changes to give us some individually assured defensive pressure and some leadership.
As for New Zealand. They are dangerous, but ordinary. They are tactically hit or miss. When they get their tactics right they are very hard to stop. They have more than enough muscle in the pack to overcome us as well, as they've already demonstrated. We are at a crossroads. Miraculously, despite the poor coaching, we can still turn our poor form around. If they wise up and get serious. Maybe a loss to Scotland is the kick up the backside the Boks need. They usually perform better when under fire.
My partner, who is also a rugby fan, though not the keen follower most here are, commented how demoralising it must be for the backs to watch their scrum get demolished.
So much truth her words.
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….it’s going to be the ABs if we win the pool, or France if we lose one game.