Friday, June 8, 2007

South Africa vs England, 2nd June 2007

At halftime any South African Rugby supporter would have been wondering if it was really possible they could lose to the basically 3rd-string side England had come up with after their spate of injuries and sick players had really weakened their side. England supporters would have been hoping their hardly recognisable international team could pull off a miracle, this would have been the case because England's depleted side went in to the half time break up on the home team by 19 points to 17.

One way in which to see a manager's influence and knowledge of his team is watching a team play an average game, riddled with basic errors and not seeming to be following a structured game plan come out all guns blazing in the second half. And this is what South Africa did. Simply reading the difference in scores at the ends of the frist and second halves is enough. to come back from being down 17-19 and win the game with a full time score of 55-22 is no mean feat. England tried to lie flat and disrupt the South African Springboks and this game plan worked for the first half. SA was not playing with either discipline or intensity nor did it seem that they were playing as a team.

First half: Ricky Januarie's kick into space saw the ball bounce fortuitously over the defending Jamie Noon's head and into the arms of Januarie allowing him to drop over the line and score a try. Bryan Habana was given a yellow card by French referee Joel Jutge after he adjudged that Habana had deliberately knocked the ball forward when England were attacking in the South African side's 22.

Shortly after Bryan Habana's yellow card and while he was still in the "sin-bin", a lazy pass by Pierre Spies was intercepted by Dan Scarborough who ran the fifty or so metres to score England's try.

With just about 30 minutes remaining the scores were level as Percy Montgomery missed the resulting kick from Botha's try, and it seemed that the English might just hold out. But then the South African's seemed to decide to let loose. Bryan Habana was obviously back from his ten minutes spent on the sidelines for his earlier offence and just before his usual use of his outstanding pace to score from an intercepted pass, Pierre Spies ran in about 30 metres, nonchalantly bouncing off players left and right, to score a wonderful try at his home ground. Soon after that Percy Montgomery ran in a good try as well.

And then came the best moment of the match, Bryan Habana seemed to receive a "nothing" pass while flat-footed. Somehow he managed to duck underneath an awaiting England tackler's open arms, then managed to keep on his feet as it seemed he had to surely fall as he stumbled from his ducking antics and sprinted thirty or so metres towards the awaiting English fullback. He shimmied to the right and then rounded the defender on the right to crown off this wonderful individual try with a TV dive that would have impressed even the sternest of diving judges at the olympics.

With Pierre Spies scoring his second and South Africa's eighth and final try, the Springboks had managed to score 33 points in the last 30 minutes. These last minutes showed the true ability of the SA Rugby side if they play well. In this kind of form any team would be truly tested to try and beat them. The performance in the first half though needs not be seen again because in the face of stiffer competition the Boks will most definitely not be able to win those matches, and they need it out quickly too seeing as it's a few months away from ther IRB Rugby World Cup...

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