23 November
Springboks beat England by record margin
The Springboks crushed England on Saturday by beating them 42 – 6 at Twickenham by coming up with an excellent display of defence.
“Tries by Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adie Jacobs, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana and assured goalkicking by Pienaar after the break completed a hugely satisfying European tour with South Africa’s sixth win in a row against England.
On a day that marked the fifth anniversary of England’s 2003 World Cup triumph, the home side were given a stark reminder of how far they have fallen since that glorious night in Sydney and the heady days of seven successive wins over the Springboks.
“It was a brutal lesson,” coach Martin Johnson told Sky Sports News. “We created a lot of opportunities but the execution was poor.”
Springbok captain John Smit said: “We signed off in style. I asked a lot from the guys this week but they gave me more.
“I could feel it before the game, you know every guy is really on task and you get these wonderful days when everything comes together.”
England got off to a flyer with a Danny Cipriani penalty in the first minute but it was very much a false dawn as within 20 minutes the Springboks had raced into a 17-3 lead, with all the points coming from English mistakes.
A penalty levelled it before Rossouw showed great strength to get the first try after England lost possession 10 metres from the South African line.
Ruan Pienaar helped himself to the second when he charged down a telegraphed Cipriani kick – the second time in three weeks the England flyhalf had given away a try in such fashion.
Lock Bakkies Botha then covered 40 metres at winger’s pace to tackle Delon Armitage as the fullback seemed set to score.
Even with the visitors down to 14 men with prop Tendai Mtawarira in the sin-bin, England could make little impression and a penalty apiece made it 20-6 to the visitors at halftime.
England enjoyed some sustained pressure in the first 10 minutes of the second half but they were kept out by some determined defending and in the blink of an eye the Springboks extended their lead with a scything run by Jacobs.
England continued to enjoy the ball but made little impression, even when the visitors were again reduced to 14 with the loss of Conrad Jantjes.
Instead it was the “exhausted” Springboks who finished at the gallop with late tries for Fourie and Habana as the game ended up resembling last year’s 38-0 World Cup pool stage humiliation more than the closely-fought final.
England’s defeat, with the All Blacks to come next week, severely dents their chances of hanging on to their top-four place in the world rankings and could leave them out of the top seeds for the 2011 World Cup draw on December 1.
Scorers
South Africa
Tries: Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adi Jacobs, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana
Conversions: Pienaar (3), Francois Steyn.
Penalties: Pienaar (3).
England
Penalties: Danny Cipriani (2).“
Source: sarugby.co.za
November 24th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Thought the players were good and Beast was hugely under-rated irrespective of the yellow card and the penalty count. Would love to find out what his tackle count was.
Thought Kankowski should have started this fixture – Spies has been flat.
JP was a machine in defence and on attack – good player
November 25th, 2008 at 6:32 am
the players plyed well in certain phases luckily these phases were fruitfull for us.
we need to look at our full back he was nonexsistant
our no 8 from the scrums did not carry any ball forward except for ryn(what a player to leave out of the starting line up)
we need to adapt to any situation whether the refree blows against us or not
we have all the talent in the world
our children born and brought up in s.a now play for almost all rugby playing
nations including newzealand(lock)
we need to do something about our coahing
i think get an indian to coah you will get value for your money
our coaches most of the times are “structure” friendly
we need coaches like eddie jones,jhon plumtree there infliuences
if devilliers wants to beat the lions comfortably he needs to ask advice from
his opposition ROBBIE DEANS , GRAHAM HENRY ,EDDIE JONES,JAKE WHITE
ask them what are springboks weaknesses,what do we need to work on
hopefully if you aSk nicelly they might help
good luck
November 27th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Peter de Villiers should not ask anything from Jake White. Div has an uphill battle being accepted as a genius in South African rugby. Right now the white rugby community is at war with de Villiers. Craig Dowd or not, there’s among the white press, fans coaches and experts, a discernible reluctance to acknowledge that de Villiers has initiative a.k.a intelligence. When South Africa wins it is never because de Villiers is a good coach but the victory is attributed to “traditional Springbok rugby” (Wim van der Berg Sports 24) When the boks lose or when they come within a whiff of not winning, every white couch potato instantly becomes a rugby expert extremely better than de Villiers as they sneeringly question every tactic employed by the coach. The coach is made to look like he knows nothing about rugby. Alright Alright if its as easy as that lets fire de Villiers and hand the job to “traditional Springbok rugby” whoever this nut is.
It shouldn’t escape notice that van der berg for one is so keen to provide England with the excuse that they lost against South Africa because they are a team in transition under a new coach. However, when he speaks about de Villiers’ losses to Australia and New Zealand it disappears from his reckoning that de Villiers was equally a new coach with a team in transition.
Despite pretending not to be interested in the job, Jake White who thinks he is the best thing to happen to South African rugby doesn’t want to give his successor any breathing space. He only opens his mouth to condescendingly criticise de Villiers. For goodness sake White had his time and we never saw Rudi Straeuli or Nick Mallet doing what he is doing to de Villiers. It is plainly clear that the white rugby community got such a painful jolt to its ego with de Villier’s selection it desperately wants to be vindicated. To Div I can only say to those who think your team can’t win the next world Cup just boldly tell them ‘Yes we can’.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
De Villiers you don’t need to ask anybody for advice.
You’re a good coach but sadly you’ll never be regarded as one. When you lose it will be because you’re miserable and your ideas of expanding our game is ridiculous.
When you win it will be because John Smit told you to be conservative and you went back to “the Jake White way”.
Point is you’ll never have your own style, it has been decided you’re not good enough or smart enough……. unless of course you win the WC.
But even then there’ll be something, trust me!