South Africa made it two out of two on their British tour on Saturday by narrowly beating Scotland 10 - 14 on Saturday, after the Scots led 10 - 0 at halftime.
“For the second successive week it was the home coach who felt his team had played the better rugby and deserved to win, and Scotland’s Frank Hadden had even more right to do that here than Wales’ Warren Gatland did a week ago.
Scotland led 10-0 at half-time and were pressing for a try in the final minutes as they launched wave after wave of attack at a tired Bok defence. On a day where both kickers missed attempts at goal, it was Scotland who conspired most against themselves by fluffing no less than four shots at the posts.
It was not supposed to be this close against a Scottish team that now drops to ninth on the world rankings after this defeat, and which is at a low ebb at present. Just seven days ago the same Scotland team played the All Black second stringers and lost by 30 points, and much was made before this game of the fact the Scots had not crossed for a try at home in 14 months.
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Nine South Afican Rugby players have been invited to play for the Barbarian team against the Wallabies at Wembley Stadium next month in London. They are:
Fourie du Preez; Gurthro Steenkamp; Nick Koster; Jean de Villiers; Bakkies Botha; Schalk Burger; Bryan Habana; John Smit and Percy Montgomery.
Australia beat South Africa 27-15 at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday to end the world champions’ hopes of winning the Vodacom Tri-Nations title.
Blow-by-blow scoring:
The victory was Australia’s first in South Africa since 2000.
Captain Stirling Mortlock and winger Lote Tuqiri scored second-half tries to seal the Australian victory although South Africa closed the gap in the final quarter with two tries by centre Adrian Jacobs.
Australia flyhalf Matt Giteau gave a masterful display with the boot, kicking three conversions and two penalties.
Loosehead prop Benn Robinson scored a 27th-minute try as Australia seized a 10-0 halftime lead which they never relinquished.
Robinson plunged over the line from close range after he picked up the ball from a ruck, which followed kicks behind the Springbok defence by Giteau and replacement centre Ryan Cross. Wing Jongikhaya Nokwe conceded a free kick after he was caught in possession.
Giteau converted to add to his eighth-minute penalty.
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The Springboks have beaten Argentina convincingly by 63 points to 9. After a slow start by South Africa were Argentina lead by 9 points till the 31st minute, the Boks opened the game up and scored a series of tries without answer. More to come
It was a wet day at Newlands and perhaps that was why South Africa’s 26-0 win over Italy in this one-off test match will be recalled as one of the least memorable matches to be played at this famous ground.
The Boks scored four tries to nil and were full value for their victory in that, unlike last week, they set about the task of winning this game in the time honoured way that you do test matches — by suffocating their opponent with an approach that emphasised basics and forward control. In this way, it was much more like the first test win against Wales in Bloemfontein than last week’s clash at Loftus.
However, while their driving maul, which netted two of the tries, was a big positive for them to take onto the field in the event they face New Zealand or Australia in the wet in the Tri-Nations, there was not too much else to enthuse over in a turgid game which only briefly brought out any semblance of a test match atmosphere in the 36 000-strong crowd. Read the rest of this entry »
Friday - 20 June:
19:00 - Currie Cup: Sharks vs Western Province
Saturday - 21 June:
09:35 - Second Test: New Zealand vs England
15:00 - South Africa vs Italy
17:10 - Currie Cup: Lions vs Bulls
Scotland ended an 18-year losing streak against Argentina when they beat the Pumas 26-14 in a dour and cumbersome Test at Estadio José Amalfitani (Vélez Sarsfield), Buenos Aires, on Saturday.
Although the teams scored two tries each, it was the unerring boot of Chris Paterson that gave Scotland their first win against Argentina since November 1990.
Paterson celebrated becoming Scotland’s most-capped player by scoring 16 points of his team’s 26 points - four penalties and two conversions.
The result, which squared the two-Test series at one-all, following the Pumas’ 21-15 victory last week, also gave the Scots their first away win against Argentina - who finished third at the World Cup last year.
Scotland had lost to Argentina in the quarterfinals in France, so this win would have been particularly sweet.
Paterson, making his 88th international appearance and overtaking Scott Murray’s tally, kicked two penalties for a 6-0 lead, before Frank Hadden’s side grabbed the opening try at a packed stadium.
Ross Ford crossed the line after being set-up by Iain Morrison and Mike Blair, with Paterson adding the extras for a 13-0 lead, which became 16-0 at the break thanks to another penalty.
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New Wallaby head coach Robbie Deans pronounced himself “pretty pleased” with his team’s character-filled 18-12 win over a plucky Irish side in Melbourne at the weekend, but said he will be looking for a “huge improvement” in their next Test.
Deans now has two weeks to work on his team’s shortcoming, before the Wallabies meet France in Brisbane.
Reflecting on Australia’s narrow victory over Ireland, Deans said: “[I'm] happy with the win.
“Obviously it wasn’t flawless and clearly the guys’ legs were heavy at the end, the Irish played well, they asked a lot of us.
“Ireland rocked us. They profited a couple of times pretty easily which put us under pressure but the guys hung in there well. It was never going to be perfect first up.
“I was essentially [I'm] pretty pleased off a short background and [with] some of the character that was shown to close it off. As it was our first game, it was never going to be perfect. Read the rest of this entry »
England got their 2008 Six Nations campaign of the ground when the managed to overcome a spirited performance by Italy.
England dominated the first half, they ran in two tries and thanks to the boot of Jonny Wilkenson they went into the break leading by 20-6. Italy,who under new coach Nick Mallet looks a much better team, is no longer the whipping boys of Six Nations rugby and they put England to the sword in the second half. Italy scored their only try with 3 minutes left in the second half, causing some serious concern in the England camp. The English did manage to hang on to their slender lead and get their first victory of the 2008 campaign. Final score: England 23 Italy 19
Wales maintained their unbeaten record in the 2008 Six Nations competition with a well deserved victory over Scotland.
Wales dominated the first half, but had only one try to show for their efforts, whilst Scotland kept in touch on the scoreboard thanks to the boot of Chris Paterson. The Welsh dominated possession and only determined defence by the Scots, and some poor decision making by the Welsh kept them from running away with the game before half time.
The second half saw Wales score two more tries, and with both teams kickers maintaing 100% records with their goal kicking, the tries scored by Wales proved to be the deciding factor.
Wales looks like a force to be reckoned with in the Six Nations competition of 2008, whist Scotland will have to go back to the drawing board after two losses in a row. Final score: Wales 30 Scotland 15
