Ellis Park. The ultimate ABs bogey ground.

First topic message reminder :

Really looking forward to game tomorrow. It dont get much bigger than this for AB or SA fans.
Was somewhat surprised about what a stranglehold SA has had over ABs here.
ABs have a 37% win ratio. Or conversely SA have a 63% success rate since 1928.
3 wins for ABs in 11 games and one of those was in 1928!
On a personal note there are certain matches that stand out in my lifetme.

1. 1976. The first rugby tour of SA I can remember and i think the first with live coverage in NZ. AB loss 15-14.
Dont remember a whole lot about tour or game. Mainly that the grounds seemed like rock hard dust bowls (especially when compared with the muddy bogs I was playing on at the time as a child in dunedin!!) and why didnt Brian Williams or Sid Going not kick goals half as competently as Gerald Bosch!

2. 1992. The "Re-admission Game". AB win  27-24. Just to be playing SA again was almost unbelievable. It was a game that we AB fans thought may never come again. ABs fans saw it as the biggest compliment that SA wanted their first game to be against us at Ellis Park.
First time Id ever really seen a team affected by altitude. SA came back from 27-10 down to nearly win.

3. 1995. RWC Final. Cant/choose not to remember this game. I believe it ended in a certain amount of pain for me!

I could go on but....

I cant believe ABs havent played here since 2004.

Should be a cracker.
Lets hope game is remembered for all the right reasons.

Poor discipline and Franks gets his marching orders for 10.

A word about Owens...absolutely fantastic reffing display today under this pressure.

Nigel Owens has reffed this wonderfully, one of the best for many years well done both sides.

Franks you idiot

Agree Tman, Owens has done very well

The gap between ZAR, NZ and the rest is alarming...

The rankings say these are the 2 best sides in the world and this game has put that beyond debate!!

Hansen will be throwing his own stiff arms in the dressing room after seeing that. Get a man off and now it's another. The second one has no excuses or justification. He will get a hiding for nothing after that stupidity.

As a neutral I feel I can comment, and it's probably the best officiating performance I've seen. I'm not saying it because Nige is Welsh! I'm especially impressed with him allowing the game to flow, and his collaboration with his assistant's and TMO.

What a player Read

Brilliant try!! Great move ABs

Wow, how did NZ score again?!

What a try! Man down and Read and Savea work havoc again. You can't put that down to poor defence. It's great attack. I've run out of superlatives. The neighbours have called the police as they think somebody was being murdered in my flat.

The Saint wrote:As a neutral I feel I can comment, and it's probably the best officiating performance I've seen. I'm not saying it because Nige is Welsh! I'm especially impressed with him allowing the game to flow, and his collaboration with his assistant's and TMO.

This game needs to recognise not only the efforts of NZ and SA but Nigel Owens as well. We all harp on about poor officiating so we need to congratulate the ref when he gets it right.  

Let this be a lesson - altitude is only wn advantage when half your team isnt based at sea level!

I'm knackered watching this, god alone knows how the players are keeping it going, what fitness

Safe to say Kirchner has not had a great second Half

What a sperm TK. Nonu does a great to rip the ball and he goes blind side.

One more minute until Franks back on. Hopefully with visible slap marks on his face.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:One more minute until Franks back on. Hopefully with visible slap marks on his face.

+1

What a tackle

This game!! Incredible

What a tackle from Barrett. His try wasn't enough to make up for it. That was.  

my god barrett...ref with cramp as well...one of the greatest tests Ive ever seen...breathless watching it...

Nigel Owens deserves a round of applause for his input today

Well played NZ, great game.

Meyer is yet to get wthin 7 pts of the ABs, correct? For all the guff written about de Villiers, at least he won a few

Best game of rugby i've seen for a long time

Is finishing on 28 points a first?

Both teams and the officials.

Sadly this game deserved that try to be scored to give us hope. The game ends though as it was played with throughout. End to end stuff. I can't help but stand up and salute both sides and the ref for an absolute incredible game of rugby. I fear the next game we watch will pale in comparison compared to this today.

We got what we wanted. A fair contest with both sides, number and number two, going toe to toe. I applaud SA for entering this game giving it their all. If the game wasn't a five point game maybe we wouldn't have seen this kind of game and for that very reason I am glad we got. Hand on backs to both teams. Rugby at its best. I feel so happy to have witnessed that but I know the SA team must be gutted. Hold your heads up high. You have sent out a message that SA rugby has it all and can foot it with NZ. I have ploughed my way through the beers and I am going to get absolutely wrecked tonight. Thank you rugby gods for putting on this display today. To the SA posters, hold your heads up high and know that your team is capable of beating NZ. The two best teams out there today and provided us with a game that defies explanation. Thank you mighty Bokke. That was lekker.  

Top game. So it's still the ABs - gap - Boks -gap - everyone else I think. If the Boks work out how to defend as well as attack in a single game, they may start getting closer to the ABs.

Well done Read.

JDV hats off to you sir for a great tournament and a great game tonight.

Unbeaten in RC games. Game at Ellis Park. SA showed the way how to outdo a hoodoo at Brisbane. Ellis Park and Richie in his first game there. No way he was 100 per cent fit but Read and Messam stepped up and eased the burden. I'm off to a BBQ as I've run out of superlatives. Thanks again to SA and a great occasion. No doubt as to who our main threat is.

Yes the SA defence was always going to be an issue, but they countered it with brilliant tries of their own.

This is a new SA and if this is what we can expect from here then we are being well looked after in this sport.

Whew...1956 with Peter Jones...1981 with the plane and everytinh else...1995 with the world cup and now this...yet another memorable match vs the boks...

Well done ABs, well done boks and well done Ngel Owens...this is why we love this game!

Taylorman wrote:Yes the SA defence was always going to be an issue, but they countered it with brilliant tries of their own.

This is a new SA and if this is what we can expect from here then we are being well looked after in this sport.

Whew...1956 with Peter Jones...1981 with the plane and everytinh else...1995 with the world cup and now this...yet another memorable match vs the boks...

Well done ABs, well done boks and well done Ngel Owens...this is why we love this game!

 somehow Worcester v Newcastle doesn't promise to be quite as gripping.

Frak hell. I am knackered just watching that.

How the Poopie do we in the North expect to keep up with these two teams? The skills, the commitment, the tries. It was truly amazing to watch.

Probably the best game i've watched in...jeez a long time!

Oh yee of little Faith,just come in seen the score,could`nt believe it ABs by 11 points 5 tries
to 4.Well done both sides especially the Boks just couldn't see them scoring 4 tries still just
shows hoodoo`s are there to be broken.4Ns 6-0 and another bonus point more important
a win for me never expected.

You missed the game emack!!!

I said on the GE's tabloid thread, that peak for peak, the ABs are better than us. I think this game was the best both teams played the entire year, post RWC, tbh, and I was proven correct. Habana may just be the greatest bok backline player ever (as good as du Preez is, Habana is just special) and his absence was felt for the last hour.

Will Meyer ever beat the ABs? Can JdV hang on until RWC 2015? Will Richie McCaw win another POTY for just being around?

The game was set up for an open one though graf.. Not trying to bring you down or anything. It was the best game of rugby that i can remember. But will SA play so expansively when they don't need to?

I genuinely though we would lose unless the Kiwis were at 95%, Mystir. Sure we were too expansive, or rather more expansive than might ordinarily be the case, but they stripped us to pieces at will. We might be bigger, and nastier, but the chasm in skill level is still there, even if it's narrowing. A guy like Kolisi should start ahead of Alberts if we are trying to run it, imo. Faster, with better hands.

In the end, it was a mighty fine match. The best Test I've since the 2009 Lions series, but I'm under no illusions as to who the better is. In nearly twenty years post-apartheid, we have won just three tests in NZ, they have won that many in SA in their last four tests here...

Great game from both teams. Well done All Blacks, just awesome as usual.  

mystiroakey wrote:The game was set up for an open one though graf.. Not trying to bring you down or anything. It was the best game of rugby that i can remember. But will SA play so expansively when they don't need to?

Mistake to play Steyn at 10 for the game plan. He was a liability on defense and bombed a certain try. He's just not the man the control a match like that.

been saying that for years- same with kirshner. For the amount of ball the two will be getting the skill levels in terms of options and creating chances are just too limited- Vermuelens and Louw had better vision on the pass, offloading etc.

That and defence were the only let downs. They scored four tries and could have got a couple more at least, and had they stopped the easy pre half time try they could have got there. the stopping of le roux at 50 minutes was the end of some crazy rugby. This was also the abs at their very best so the boks are clearly within reach of that and more.

SA rugby must be excited about whats to come over the next couple of years.

Hood83 wrote:Top game. So it's still the ABs - gap - Boks -gap - everyone else I think. If the Boks work out how to defend as well as attack in a single game, they may start getting closer to the ABs.

Well theres ABs - big gap - then the rest. We'll know more about where the Boks are after the november internationals.

What on earth are you talking about? NZ are the only team in the world that could have remotely lived with SA today. 

Make no mistake that SA have been very very compelling in this years tournament. What we saw today was that effectively the 14 man game at Eden Park was not far from the 15 man version today. It takes a great side to pull that off.

GloriousEmpire wrote:What on earth are you talking about? NZ are the only team in the world that could have remotely lived with SA today. 

Make no mistake that SA have been very very compelling in this years tournament. What we saw today was that effectively the 14 man game at Eden Park was not far from the 15 man version today. It takes a great side to pull that off.

We'll see.

Forgot to say, Congratulations All Blacks . I get tired of saying that.

Looks like it's only England and food poisoning standing in your way of glory...