The Springboks got a timely wake up call in their World Cup warm up match against Connacht, an Irish club team.

In cold and windy conditions the Boks struggled to dominate and made way to many errors. A brisk start saw the Boks take a 3-0 lead after just two minutes but this was the last highlight in the first half for SA. The rest of the half it was Connacht who played the better rugby, making the SA defence work hard.

The second half saw the Boks start slightly better with Ashwin Willemse scoring in the corner after good work by Butch James. Connacht came back strongly after this and just determined defence by the Bokke kept them out. A try by Jacques Cronje and a penalty by Andre Pretorius saw SA out to a 18-3 lead and the Bokke held on to this lead untill the end of the game.

Although SA won the game this was a pathetic performance by a side that wants to challenge for the World Cup. Enrico Januarie had a shocking game. His hands let him down on a couple of occasions, his service to his backline was slow and he got caught in possession at least three times. Januarie is probably the worst scrumhalf in the country and what he is doing in the squad only Jake White will know. Other players that disappointed were Bob Skinstad who is definitely not fit, Ashwin Willemse who should not be wearing the Bok jersey, Bismarck du Plessis whose discipline left much to be desired, Akona Ndugane and Waylon Murray whose hands let them down and Danie Rossouw who is to predictable.

The only positives for Jake White from this game are the good defence by the Bokke, the fact that Andre Pretorius and Bryan Habana are fit again and the great performance by Wikus van Heerden. There is still more questions than answers before the World Cup and hopefully these questions will be answered on Saturday against Scotland.

pic via http://www.sarugby.com/