As predicted here, tweaking the Springboks produced hardly any positives as they went down again to the All Blacks 31-17 in Auckland. The game would have been closer but for skewed reffing by Alain Rolland, but even had he blown evenly, the Boks would not have won.
For the next Test against Australia in Brisbane where the Springboks have not won in 30 years, they needed radical surgery. The following should have gone to the bench as impact players: Spies,Habana,Smit, Januarie and Olivier.
These should have been promoted to starting XV: de Jongh, Hougaard, Ralepelle, Kankowski and Aplon. When the test XV was announced, Smit, Spies and Habana are still all there and weirdly, Kankowski has been called to play at flank, which is not his position.
The Bok coaches still resist the radical surgery, or prolonged rest (n you take your pick) that certain players who are "regulars" need to have. The Tri Nations was lost the minute de Villiers and his staff made no effort to seriously trim the team after the shocker of a first game at Eden Park.
This guaranteed they would lose the 2nd round, and probably does the same for this game against Australia on the 24th. It is cause for consternation when de Villiers announces, in his cryptic fashion, that he has studied the videos of the Eden Park test and is "mystified" why we lost as we played "very well."
No comments:
Post a Comment