|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Stodgy Springboks Pretoria win flattered to deceive
South Africa gets top marks for effort, but earned few style points with its long overdue Tri-Nations win against Australia. The Pretoria victory was achieved through sheer determination and brute force up-front, plus desperate defense. Certainly, the whistle-happy performance of Irish referee David McHugh created a stop-start kind of Test that played into the Springboks' hands. However, despite a promising debut by Conrad Jantjes at fullback, dangerous running by Breyton Paulse and some stellar kicking from Braam van Straaten, the Springboks still have plenty of problems. They should have put more points on an under-par Australian team, which seemed lacking in motivation and purpose after the exhausting Lions' series. Despite scoring the only try of the Pretoria match, Bobby Skinstad doesn't strike me as the best man to lead South Africa. He seems too young and hot headed, doesn't always take the right options and his handling often lets him down. Once mighty scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen is definitely in the twilight of his career while macho fly-half Butch James doesn't have the creativity to spark the Springbok backline. I've always liked Robbie Fleck at outside center but am not impressed by the giant winger Dean Hall. The Springboks still lack confidence with ball-in-hand and too often revert to a 1970's style "kicking rugby" when they run out of ideas, which is often. In the forwards, South Africa is reasonably strong, especially in the tight, but lack mobility at times. Knowing the mentality of the South African media and public, under-fire coach Harry Viljoen will now be hailed as a hero after his first win of this Tri Nations' campaign. But he will be the first to admit that this 'Boks team is just a shadow of Francois Pienaar's side that won the 1995 World Cup. As for Australia, its pathetic first half performance was even worse than the opening 40 minutes of the first Lions Test in Brisbane. It's a strange fact that John Eales' Wallabies only seem to play well when their backs are against the wall. Trailing 14-0, they finally produced a more rousing effort in the second half only to run out of steam in the lung-busting altitude of the Loftus Versveld stadium. Too often though Australia lost its own lineout, squandered good possession in the three-quarters and missed tackles. In hindsight, it was a mistake to bring back experienced lock David Giffin to replace the in-form Justin Harrison, hero of the third-Test against the Lions. Australia also missed injured fly-half Stephen Larkham with his back-up Elton Flatley, not bold or influential enough at number-10. Frankly, both teams were unimpressive in Pretoria and the New Zealand All Blacks, now my Tri-Nations favorites, would have seen nothing to disturb them. Let's hope the quality of Rugby in this season's Southern Hemisphere championship soon improves. So far, it's been more like the stodgy Six Nations, with teams more afraid of losing rather than trying to win. We've seen only one try in 160 minutes of football and both matches have been turgid affairs. Jason Dasey is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
