SA Boks beat Samoa

[tec0]

hehehehe... I think everyone is going to find there Green and Gold T-shirts when they go into town tomorrow

[AndyD]

Well the Boks were a helluva lot more convincing against Samoa this evening, especially so in the 2nd half. They looked confident and a lot more brisk, chalk and cheese compared to the Japan game where they looked shellshocked. I'd still stop short of saying they look like World Cup winners at this stage but they played a good game and at least they look like contenders. They walked away with their bonus point and a very convincing win and are now on top of pool B. Hopefully a couple of weeks from now the Japan debacle will just be an inconsequential blip on the radar.

[tec0]

Well the Boks were a helluva lot more convincing against Samoa this evening, especially so in the 2nd half. They looked confident and a lot more brisk, chalk and cheese compared to the Japan game where they looked shellshocked. I'd still stop short of saying they look like World Cup winners at this stage but they played a good game and at least they look like contenders. They walked away with their bonus point and a very convincing win and are now on top of pool B. Hopefully a couple of weeks from now the Japan debacle will just be an inconsequential blip on the radar.

Convincing yes but hats off to them they play a near faultless game and overall the players have some chemistry now thus they can read and react to the other player and we all know how important that is for the team effort. i hate to single good players out and the same goes for bad players so i am not going to do that. As for the pool of death i am disappointed that of the best teams in the world cup may not get a chance to go forward. Australia is going to take all kinds of hammering in the coming games and injuries may well become a deciding factor moving forward. It feels cheated in a way that some of the best teams can go out so early in the game.

But days are till early we will wait and see...

[Dave A]

Definitely a much better performance from the Boks. Amazing the difference a week can make!
(And a scoreline).

So given that most of the tries were scored by the veterans, what's the verdict on the selection of an "old" team now?

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Well the coaches biggest decision has been decided for him...
Jean De Villiers has retired after fracturing his jaw.

For me it is not that the oldies were bad (well) and they copped a lot of flack, but what disturbed was that no one seemed interested, there was a need for the exuberance and excitement which in turn would lift the veterans.
Make no mistake its pretty tough to haul 100 odd kg out of bed every day to go train, play, train play.

Going back to Japan, even after half time the lethargy continued.
In comparision, Scotland were down by 7 going into half time today.
They came out a different team and blew USA off the park inside of 10 minutes - you have to wonder how the boks came out of the change room with no more oomph than they went in.
I suggest it points to low morale.

[CLIVE-TRIANGLE]

So given that most of the tries were scored by the veterans, what's the verdict on the selection of an "old" team now?

The tries were scored by the players playing

[Dave A]

The tries were scored by the players playing

Good point!

[wynn]

The tries were scored by the players playing

And playing as a team!

Someone needs to give young Pollard a klap through the chops and tell him to pass the ball when they are near the try line instead of always trying to ghost through, (so predictable, Pollard got ball? tackle Pollard! kill ball.) I see the scrum halves mostly stuck to the game plan and didn't try to be heroes for a change, especially Pienaar.