Lax All Black Pack Cracks But Shag Backs Dagg To Drag Match Back.

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Wow. Just wow. South Africa look to be in awesome form.

Granted Australian rugby is in its most miserable state for fifty years, but there is no disguising how intimidating  this Springbok side is.

The Boks have now married their power game with a rapier precision in the Back line and the experience to know when to switch modes. Add Morne Steyn's siege boot and back in form long range goal kicking and you have a serious unit that will be tough to beat. 

Normally poor tourists, South Africa easily outmuscled a fragile looking Australia and clinched a convincing win at the bastion of Australian resistance, the parochial Suncorp stadium.

In this kind of form I can see South Africa ending new Zealand's long run of success at Eden Park. Especially with captain Richie out injured and Dan Carter out of form.

Hats off to Heyneke Meyer. I was a detractor and I put my hand up and say I was wrong.

Most impressive is south Africa's command at the breakdown. Defensively they must have the best turn over rate in the rugby championship and on attack they can maintain pressure through numerous phases and patiently wait their chance to pounce.  Just awesome stuff.

Was Ellis Park under construction or something DC?

Wrong option from Smith there but our protection of the ball has been poor this game. Three SAs standing over that ball. They are getting carried away with the one man advantage and trying to force things right away. Get some continuity.

Etzebeth is a machine. Everyone knows the ball is going to him but they can't beat him up in the air.

what is poite doing?

Surely the all blacks were pushing early which your not allowed to do?

Scrums have been a mess this game. The surface is a bit greasy but not to warrant so many resets.

Luatua on. Let's see if he can take out those Bok players standing over the ball.

Should've been a try and a yellow card to Pienaar.  

Too soon?

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Should've been a try and a yellow card to Pienaar.  

think the all blacks have had enough favorable decisions in this game!  

Really poor from SA

wales606 wrote:Really poor from SA

indeed it was, think there heads have dropped now. I can see some justice arm bands coming out lol

Good drive over from NZ and then Cane with good pace and leg drive to get over. All important bonus point.

Retallick has been immense for NZ tonight.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Good drive over from NZ and then Cane with good pace and leg drive to get over. All important bonus point.

Retallick has been immense for NZ tonight.

been really impressed by him, how old is he?

been a bit of strange game with cards lol

We should have been down to 12 there

He's a young fulla nathan. 22.

Looks like Biltong will have to start a new ref fan club. Not even two yellow cards to NZ will change that.

That's a try

he was tackled in the air.

NZ are lucky to have 13 players, so many cynical fouls in the last 10

NZ have to deny an all important bonus point to SA.

What a good old fashioned classic that was.

"One of the best tests ever" says Steve Hansen. Hard to disagree, that had a bit of everything.

Is Poite a speech impediment. Because he was one in this game!

What a brutal game. Such attrition. Thankfully there's a two week break now because there's a lot of sore bodies no doubt.

I thought NZ didn't learn from NZ last year. SA dominated us at the breakdown and our clearout was poor. We are not committing players to rucks and two or three SA players were constantly standing over the ball and we got pinged for not releasing. Messam was good with the ball in hand but he needs to be more engaged in cleaning out those players. Our kicking game was average and too often we didn't release the pressure with a poor clearing kick and had SA run back to us.

Nonu just never seems to learn and he was lucky that his late charge didn't cost NZ a vital bonus point. I'd like to see Nonu start again in Argentina and if he doesn't play well he should give up the 12 shirt to Saili.

The pleasing thing for me was that with all our injuries, we didn't seem to suffer in continuity. I think Piutau had a great game, Barrett was solid apart from the kicking.

Obviously the big talking point of the game was the two yellows for Du Plessis. Hopefully this is the end of Poite. He didn't control the scrums, he couldn't keep the offside line and the first yellow card ruling was inexcusable given that the TMO said there wasn't a problem.

Disappointing really but SA showed that they can be a real menace with their pack. I wasn't so convinced with their backs. At Ellis Park, they have the advantage of altitude but they also have the disadvantage, as DC said earlier, that they will be playing on a dry, hard deck.

The Boks will feel robbed and that didn't help them today as you could see them slump after that decision but it might work for them in Ellis Park. NZ will feel lucky but my hope is that they look at the contact area and set piece and see they were outplayed today and must improve for the last game.

How did Morne Steyns goal kicking go?

Pretty good GE. Missed a couple but on the whole struck the ball well.

Missed a couple?  

Who could've predicted that?

Had the impression Barrett missed more.

Did you predict that as well? If not I want the Euromillion numbers for next Friday.

Yeah I told BT that Steyn had a mental block with NZ and wouldn't kick more than 55-60%

Think he got more than that.

One thing in the game doesn't seem to be getting any attention. What was Habana doing running into Dagg when the ball was 20 metres further back down the field?

I wasn't going to say anything GE.

But just bloody well grow up.

Firstly making up Poopie as you go along will coincidently mean your prediction may come true.

Steyn missed two kicks, one was from 56 meters out and the ther from the touch line.

This is not a good day to behave like a smarty pants, know you are sitting behind your keyboard, but believe me today is the day you should not look for trouble.

As for the game, I have nothing to say.

Be calm BT. I think we all agree on the game.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Think he got more than that.

One thing in the game doesn't seem to be getting any attention. What was Habana doing running into Dagg when the ball was 20 metres further back down the field?

Habana has a habit of doing that, commentators regularly comment on the running obstruction chasing high kicks when there is no chance of the chaser getting close, only so many things the officials can pay attention to at once.

Also thought nonu was a bit unlucky, there was definitely one arm in the challenge...but I guess once the precedent was set there was little he could do but be consistently unnecessarily harsh.

Biltong wrote:I wasn't going to say anything GE.

But just bloody well grow up.

Firstly making up Poopie as you go along will coincidently mean your prediction may come true.

Steyn missed two kicks, one was from 56 meters out and the ther from the touch line.

This is not a good day to behave like a smarty pants,  know you are sitting behind your keyboard, but believe me today is the day you should not look for trouble.

As for the game, I have nothing to say.

Sorry, but that's wrong.

Just watching the game now (on Read's try). Have heard about the red being wrong though.

What's wrong?

I know you aren't in the best of moods (naturally), but if GE was being this clever over say Wales or England, would he get the same warning?

Leave it Risca, it's ok

Incredible bit of foresight. At 1:27 Germaine sings Bok hooker getting a yellow for a no arm tackle.

Risca Rev wrote:I know you aren't in the best of moods (naturally), but if GE was being this clever over say Wales or England, would he get the same warning?

If you don't know what it is about then best stay out of it.

It has nothing to do with his score prediction.

GE knows exactly what this is about.

Biltong wrote:

Risca Rev wrote:I know you aren't in the best of moods (naturally), but if GE was being this clever over say Wales or England, would he get the same warning?

If you don't know what it is about then best stay out of it.

It has nothing to do with his score prediction.

GE knows exactly what this is about.

Sound  

Just seen BDP's first yellow. Think De Villiers can do a bit more for him really too, with getting in Poite's ear. He does question the tackle once, but doesn't really push the point. TMO should do a lot more too.

TMO was only asked to review the aftermath to be fair to him but isn't ther e a screen at the ground so Poite could have reviewed it for himself. 1st viewing I thought could be yellow but it was a great tackle although offside by the looks. Shame as it was looking to be a great game.

Ref only allowed to review try decisions on the screen.

It was a debacle anyway and detracted from the game a bit.

I'm annoyed about it because I'm sure NZ had what it took to win the game and now it will always be seen to be more about Poite.

I don't think so, Poite is an arse that should never referee an international match again.

We had issues with his officiating against Scotland as well.

But irrespective of that, Meyer has still not worked out kicking possession away against the All Blacks means defeat.

Ruan Pienaar has hopefully played his last game for South Africa and Zane Kirchner as well.

As they were replaying the tackle Poite could have had another look surely. You're also allowed to use the tv/tv ref to review foul play so even if initially he thought it was bad I'm mystified why he didn't change his mind after seeing it. It is then unfortunate the 2nd one was seen as it could have gone either way. Real shame.

Yeah that's the take on it. First call a shocker and second one debatable.

Look out for the return match.
It's going to be brutal.

Biltong wrote:I don't think so, Poite is an arse that should never referee an international match again.

We had issues with his officiating against Scotland as well.

But irrespective of that, Meyer has still not worked out kicking possession away against the All Blacks means defeat.

Ruan Pienaar has hopefully played his last game for South Africa and Zane Kirchner as well.

Glad to have you on board BT. I agree totally. The influence on the game has been acknowledged in all major NZ news vendors, citing the game as "ruined" when it shaped to be a classic.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Incredible bit of foresight. At 1:27 Germaine sings Bok hooker getting a yellow for a no arm tackle.

I thought he said "Poite will need to take another at that in the light if day." No?

Biltong wrote:I don't think so, Poite is an arse that should never referee an international match again.

We had issues with his officiating against Scotland as well.

Complete overreaction.

Also, how did that get through the swear filter?

Cyril wrote:

Biltong wrote:I don't think so, Poite is an arse that should never referee an international match again.

We had issues with his officiating against Scotland as well.

Complete overreaction.

Also, how did that get through the swear filter?

Over reaction?

Grow a pair.

Biltong wrote:

Cyril wrote:

Biltong wrote:I don't think so, Poite is an arse that should never referee an international match again.

We had issues with his officiating against Scotland as well.

Complete overreaction.

Also, how did that get through the swear filter?

Over reaction?

Grow a pair.

Hmmm. Not sure that was particularly necessary.

Yes, I think it was an overreaction. The referee made a mistake. It happens. Refs are human and part of the game is human error, by refs, players and coaches.

There has been far too many "mistakes and incompetencies" against the Boks in important tournaments of late.

So I give myself the right to over react.

Biltong wrote:There has been far too many "mistakes and incompetencies" against the Boks in important tournaments of late.

So I give myself the right to over react.

So you think there's a vendetta against SA rugby and the referees are paid off/biased?

If there was a danger of him making repeated mistakes of that nature in future, there would be an argument for it. The most logical immediate course of action is to get a point across that someone in his position isn't expected to do so. Poite, from what I can tell, had nothing to justify the first yellow. No assistant citing a clear infringement or advising a yellow or anything like that. He lost his head and made a decision based on something he couldn't actually have seen. Poor decision-making and conduct which isn't appropriate in his position, certainly meriting of some censure imo.