Made it...

Phew well eventually the Springboks got home but it certainly wasn't as comfortable as it could have / should have been.

Guess I didn't have anything to be worried about after all....

Pienaar had an indifferent game and the fact that he scored a try shouldn't count too much in his favour - it was a straightforward run-in for him.

If the All Blacks had been down an extra 8 points at the half-time whistle then the second half could have been far more straightforward and allowed our team to run.

Thought our backline looked the most effective it has in a longtime. Defence was solid and on attack the All Blacks always looked like they were going to be making a lot of tackles. Apart from where Conrad Smith slipped through I thought we looked top drawer and Frans Steyn impressed me for the first time in a long while - good composure and decision making.

Hope the Devilliers injury isn't too serious.

Amongst the forwards the two guys who impressed me were Bismarck Du Plessis and Bakkies Botha. Both of them put in some good solid graft. I am not a Bismarck fan but he worked hard today and things happened every time he touched the ball - was good to see.

A nice start to our Tri-Nations campaign.

Boks. vs All Blacks

I don't mean to be negative about this match up against the All Blacks but I just have a niggling bad feeling about this fixture....

... Hope the Boks prove me wrong.

Well done Bulls

I have to tip my hat to the Blue Bulls side yesterday - they played with serious "gees" to get them through a tough home game against Western Province.

As an out and out Province supporter, I thought the result was encouraging. I think some players let us down and I Duvenhage made a bad mistake not taking the 3 points on offer when we had that penalty in front of the posts but all in all an encouraging performance.

For me the biggest disappointment on the day was AGAIN Sireli Naqelevuki - I think he either has to shape up or ship out - his novelty factor has worn off for me. He had one bull run down the touchline where he flattened somebody but that was about it.

For the rest of the time, he was dropping passes, dawdling around and missing tackles / opportunities to work.

In comparison the Bulls had a 20 year old in his first year of big-league rugby (Gerhard Vd. Heever) and a scrumhalf who was playing as a makeshift wing..... How many balls did these guys drop? How many times did they secure ball from the up and unders? How many tries did they score? How often were these two involved in defensive tackling?

Go back and look at that game? Go and see Van den Heever tackle the prop with Mangweni to disallow the try. Go and see why Van den Heever is there scoring the tries. Go and see how Hougaard patrolled the sidelines and got stuck in.

It is all good and well having a big winger who is supposedly a try scoring machine but on the strength of yesterdays performance I would be disappointed if he kept his place in the Province starting line-up. There must be hungry young wings in the Cape that we could be looking to include?!

C'mon Rassie....

Tri-nations thoughts and predictions

The Tri-Nations kicks off shortly and I must say that as far as I can see, the money must be on Australia to take the trophy this year.

Australia are the outsiders according to the guys over at World Sports Betting, but this year is probably going to one of the closest contested tournaments ever.

New Zealand are on form but have not really had a run against some decent Southern Hemisphere opponents and the Australians are playing really well at the moment.

There seems to be some real poise in the Australians and they seem to have a great ability to control the play. Think they are going to be a real handful for anybody.

The Springboks of course are as unpredictable as they come. On form they can challenge and beat the best in the world and the lineup has a great deal of battle hardened experience... their ability to control the game though appears to be in serious doubt.

Even though I am an ardent Springbok supporter I'm afraid my money is down on Australia..

Promising young players

I am not a Bulls fan but for me the most under-rated (under talked about?) young player in South African rugby is Gerhard Van den Heever (pictured).

For a 19 year old he has got Super 14 experience - and rightly so. He is big, he's damn fast, he scores tries and (for me) most importantly he just has a cool head on his shoulders.

He doesn't seem to get wrapped up in off the ball incidents or do weird and wonderful things when he is under pressure. He puts his head down and he does what a winger is supposed to do - goes for the line.

I like him - think he has some serious potential.

On the Western Province side, one of the most talked about players is Morgan Newman. He also seems to have stepped up in the last few weeks and seems to be a pretty solid choice in midfield - but that Juan de Jongh kid who came on late in the second half in the game against the Sharks looks like he could be a real handful.

(he reminds me a bit of a Brent Russel type)

Apart from the Ebersohn brothers - any other youngsters catch the eye this weekend? Didn't think that the new Sharks flyhalf did the business I'm afraid - hopefully he improves a bit. Burton Francis over at The Bulls also blew very cold on the weekend.

Disappointment

Disappointment - that is the only word I can use to describe the Springbok loss at Ellis Park (Or Coca-Cola Park as it is now less than fondly know. This is our damn fortress where we hardly ever lose - 8 years is a long time in international sport.

I personally felt it was disrespectful to both our fans as well as the British & Irish Lions players and supporters for us to make wholesale changes to the squad.

The Lions have toured for the last 5 weeks playing up to two games a week against some bruising opposition and you have not once heard them complain - we decide to basically write off the last test match by replacing 10 players?!

(And then we stick Pierre Spies on the wing? Bizarre)

If this is how we are planning to go into the Tri-Nations then I worry for our side. While the Lions side has some good individual attackers the Australian and All Black back 3's who have played together a lot will make mincemeat of a defence if it is not prepared.... I hope Div has a plan here.

The discipline shown by the Boks in this series has also been poor and the only reason it hasn't seen the side meltdown is because as a team we carry a lot of experience and skills which made sure we were on the winning side.... What's going to happen when we are on the backfoot in the Tri-Nations?!