Springboks vs Pumas I
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@Billy-Webb I think it is the experience of the players being brought in and the cohesion as a unit. It can be improved and probably will be thru EOYT.
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@Billy-Webb the Pumas had that Kolbey gift of a try. The Bok defense was very good against the All Blacks. No worry for myself. Our lineouts was much better, Etsebeth had for a change a good game.
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@OomPB said in Springboks vs Pumas I:
@Billy-Webb the Pumas had that Kolbey gift of a try. The Bok defense was very good against the All Blacks. No worry for myself. Our lineouts was much better, Etsebeth had for a change a good game.
It wasn’t really tested as much as people think given ABs either couldn’t catch or were kicking good ball away.
Sliding doors moment was the Kolbe intercept. Boks were under the pump at that point
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@OomPB said in Springboks vs Pumas I:
@stodders I dont agree. The Boks actually dominate that first period.
At that specific moment, the ABs were in the midst of a purple patch. They had scored a try, had butchered an opportunity when DMac kicked and had a 3 on 1 when Kolbe made his intervention. Passes were sticking and the Bok defence was under the pump.
I wasn’t talking about the half as a whole, more that if Kolbe hadn’t intercepted, it would have been 14-0 with ABs ascendant. As was shown the previous week, the Boks didn’t handle the scoreboard pressure that well.
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Huge difference between a Pollard/Dda/Kriel backline chasing down a score or a Wellington or Durbs backline.
I’m still not sold on Reinach/Manie/Willemse’s ability to embrace pressure (scoreboard or otherwise) but you don’t want to engage in a shootout with them. They can ball.
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@stodders to be honest, I’m not sure who the coaches see as 1-5.
I’m in the minority (at least in my SA rugby chats), but I’d have Faf, daylight, Williams, Reinach and then a long way back van den Berg.
Faf is far from a perfect scrummie. But he’s the best ruck rat on earth for my money. A defensive menace who gets better as pressure increases and crucially makes everyone around him better too.
It’s probably too soon to tell if Williams has that killer instinct but I reckon we know Reinach doesn’t. Which is fine, so long as the coaches keep Reinach bracketed with a mongrel to deal with clusterfucks like Ellis Park, Eden Park or the RWC semi…
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@Smuts said in Springboks vs Pumas I:
@stodders to be honest, I’m not sure who the coaches see as 1-5.
I’m in the minority (at least in my SA rugby chats), but I’d have Faf, daylight, Williams, Reinach and then a long way back van den Berg.
Faf is far from a perfect scrummie. But he’s the best ruck rat on earth for my money. A defensive menace who gets better as pressure increases and crucially makes everyone around him better too.
It’s probably too soon to tell if Williams has that killer instinct but I reckon we know Reinach doesn’t. Which is fine, so long as the coaches keep Reinach bracketed with a mongrel to deal with clusterfucks like Ellis Park, Eden Park or the RWC semi…
I hear you on Faf, but I’m not sure the coaches think he’s the 9 Tonyball needs.
I reckon he still has a chance of making the WC squad, if only to have on the bench with Pollard as the “reverse-choke squad”, tasked with coming on to wrestle back control of the game when Tonyball fails against a team that can catch and tackle near 90%, or the Boks run up against their 2027 Bryce Lawrence
