RugbyShout

The All Blacks won the Tri-Nations on Saturday night by beating the Boks 27 – 29 as Israel Dagg scored a try in the final seconds to clinch an epic come-from-behind win over the Springboks.

The Kiwis only needed a bonus point to make sure of their title, and they would have felt they had made sure of that when skipper Richie McCaw went in for a try on the corner flag with two and a half minutes remaining. Dan Carter missed the angled conversion to leave the teams level pegging, but at that stage it looked like the All Blacks were at least certain of the one point they needed.

Anyone who thought though that the Kiwis would be content to play safely in the final seconds to make sure of the draw was mistaken. Instead of kicking the ball back into Bok territory they did what they had done for most of the match, they probed for an opening — and it came.

Big Ma’a Nonu was the man who surged through the gap, and with Dagg at his side the All Blacks had a two on one situation — and the solitary Bok defender in their way was the diminutive Gio Aplon. It was an easy try, celebrated in spectacular style by an All Black team that showed in this match that in addition to their great skills, they also have massive ticker.

To come back like they did at this venue and in front of a 90 000 mostly Bok supporting fans was a magnificent achievement and it underlined that this All Black side has championship qualities. That they made it difficult for themselves by making mistakes in the face of the Bok defensive onslaught should only make the taste of victory that much sweeter for McCaw’s men.

New Zealand scored three tries to one, and though the winning score came late, the try tally did just about sum up the All Black advantage over the 80 minutes.

SMIT 100

That is not to say though that the Boks were not a huge improvement on what they had been in New Zealand and Australia. As you would anticipate in a home match and on the occasion of skipper John Smit’s 100th match, the pride in the jersey and the passion that was questioned on the overseas leg was very much back.

Unfortunately that is not enough at this level, and while the Boks will feel they came so close, the reality is that had Carter not had an uncharacteristically off-night with his goalkicking, the All Blacks would not have needed to rely on a last gasp try. One of Carter’s kicks was from almost dead in front when his team trailed 22-17 with six minutes to go.

Schalk Burger was immense as he strove to prevent McCaw from stamping his mark on the match as he had overseas, and for the most part he succeeded. Juan Smith also showed how much he has been missed, while Pierre Spies is always a much better player on the Highveld, particularly when he is operating behind a pack that is relatively stable.

Perhaps the biggest revelation for the Boks though was Francois Hougaard. The young Bull has been mentored by Fourie du Preez, and at times you needed to shake yourself to be sure that it was Hougaard on the field and not the senior player.

His high kicks and his little snipes around the breaks were a huge improvement on what the Boks had in that position in New Zealand, and perhaps it was questionable that the coaches should bring Ricky Januarie on for those fateful final minutes.

But it was not Januarie who lost the game for the Boks, or even Bryan Habana, who came off his line again to allow McCaw in for the second try, but rather their inferior fitness. From about 25 minutes out from the final hooter it was clear several Boks were out on their feet, and you got the impression that had this match had another 10 minutes to run, the Kiwis would have won by 20.

PHYSICAL BOKS

For long periods of the first half though it seemed that the All Blacks might pay for what appeared to be the folly of running too much ball back at the Boks instead of kicking it. At altitude the ball just travels so much higher and further from the boot, and the All Blacks just weren’t able to get as much distance from running it.

With the Boks so much more physical at the breakdown and making the first time tackles they missed in Australasia, it looked like the All Blacks were committing suicide. Indeed, even though the All Blacks scored a try on the break to bring them back to two points behind, the view at half-time was that the match had been reminiscent of what we saw in last year’s Tri-Nations, when the All Blacks were severely punished for their ball in hand approach.

The All Blacks drew first blood through a penalty in the first five minutes, but two Steyn penalties took the Boks into the lead and they were not headed again until on the final hooter. Although Carter drew the All Blacks back with another kick of his own, he also hit the post from near halfway.

It was in the middle stages of the first half that the All Blacks, determined to avoid contact whenever possible, signalled that it might be a long afternoon for the Boks, and only determined defence repelled the visitors. Yet it was the Boks who scored the first try, which came thanks to some quick thinking which saw them take a tap penalty instead of kicking for goal and Burger dotted down as his team surged over the line in the 25th minute.

The All Blacks struck back just short of half-time with a try that took a long time in coming given the threat they appeared to mount when they did have ball in hand and were able to spread the play.

It was sparked by Joe Rocokoco running the ball back after Mils Muliaina had failed to hold onto a kick, with Brad Thorne making the all important surge through the Bok defence before the play was spread to the right with the Boks having run out of defenders.

The Boks led 16-14 at the break, the first time in a long while that the All Blacks have been headed at the halfway point. But sadly for the hosts they had 75 minutes of defence in them, and not the necessary 80.

Scorers:

South Africa - Try: Schalk Burger. Conversion: Morne Steyn. Penalties: Steyn (5).
New Zealand – Tries: Tony Woodcock, Richie McCaw, Israel Dagg. Conversion: Dan Carter. Penalties: Carter (4).

Source: supersport.co.za

Pic: sport24.co.za

Where were we in 98:

A squad full of World Champions.

Looking back to June-ish 1998 and using the IRB Rankings formula, via the Pick and Go web site, we disover that the Wallabies were sitting in 3^rd spot on the ‘world rankings’. Above them were the All Blacks (1^st) and Springboks (2^nd).

The ranking should not come as any real surprise given the dominance both teams had over us the previous two years. In fact the last time we had played South Africa they smashed us 61-22. A humiliating loss, without doubt. It was also what we in the industry like to call a ‘turning point’. The Wallabies had reached the lowest of the low. The CEO was angry and the coach was sacked.  A new coach was brought in and, as Rachel Hunter warned us, it didn’t happen overnight (on the end of season tour we were beaten by Argentina and drew with the Poms) but it did happen.

Greg Smith - actually did better than Deans is doing!

Key Players:

Rod McQueen, fresh from his success in creating an immediate positive culture at the Brumbies was the man to replace Smith at the end of 97. After a shaky start on the November tour he refined his method and was starting to leave his imprint on the national team.  Part of that imprint was a team of off-siders in the form of astutely chosen assistant coaches and strength and conditioning aids.

John Eales had been appointed captain in 1996, to take over from Michael Lynagh, and still had the job under McQueen. The relationship started somewhat rockily, as McQueen’s player-power approach led to a strong ‘Brumbifying’ of the team. But the two worked it out and come 1998, the relationship was blossoming.

So far that year:

The year started pretty well. A 76-0 shellacking of a pathetic English side at Lang Park was a tremendous kick start to this ‘new’ Wallaby approach. Two further comprehensive wins over Scotland (45-3 in Sydney and 33-11 at Ballymore) had the team ready for the All Blacks.

The Team:

The team for the last Scottish Test at Ballymore on 20^th June,1998  which was our 3^rd test of the year and last before we took on the All Blacks.

15 Matt Burke, 14 Ben Tune, 13 Daniel Herbert, 12 Tim Horan, 11 Joe Roff, 10 Steve Larkham, 9 George Gregan, 8 Toutai Kefu, 7 David Wilson, 6 Matt Cockbain, 5 John Eales [c], 4 Tom Bowman, 3 Andrew Blades, 2 Phil Kearns, 1 Richard Harry. Replacements: Dan Crowley, Owen Finegan, Nathan Grey,Jason Little, Willie Ofagengaue.

Still struggling to find a flyhalf to replace Michael Lynagh – Scott Bowan, Pat Howard, David Knox, Tim Horan and Elton Flatley had all been tried their with various degrees of accomplishment-  McQueen took the plunge and moved promising young utility back Steve Larkham into the 10 jersey. Larkham had been covering at fullback for the Wallabies for the injured Matt Burke, and had starred there for the Brumbies. It was a risk and it was a master stroke.

Larkham and his sublime pass.

A key component of the team McQueen had was that it was young, injury free and pretty experienced. He had a group of players with immense experience (Horan, Little, Wilson, Kearns and Eales all over 50 tests), as well as a band of talented stars with more than 20 tests (Burke, Tune, Roff, Gregan, Harry).

These were all players coach Dwyer had introduced to world rugby, but who happened to peak during McQueen’s reign. Or perhaps Rod was just able to get the best out of them. Regardless, one thing that is obvious is that there were not a lot of test match rookies brought in by McQueen.

One debutant was centre Nathan Grey who would debut from the bench in this match. Like the debutant from the previous test, Jeremy Paul, both would fill a vital role for McQueen’s Wallabies. Impact from the bench.

The year ahead?:

1998 was a killer year for the Wallabies as we thrashed the All Blacks 3-0 via test wins in Melbourne (24-16), Christchurch (27-23) and Sydney (19-14). In between we did fail to beat the Boks even once, falling 13-14 in Perth and 15-29 in J-Burg.

One thing often forgotten about that champion team is that they actually had to qualify for the 99 RWC after our failure in 95. The Pacific zone qualification games were played in Australia the end of 1998. We beat Fiji in Sydney (66-20), Tonga in Canberra (74-0) and Samoa in Brisbane (25-13) before heading to Europe.  Up there we beat France 32-21 in Paris and snuck home on the boot of Eales, 12-11, against England.

Come 1999, it wasn’t all smooth sailing with a lot of injuries to leading players. Burke, Eales, Larkham and Finegan all had injuries which took them away from rugby for a considerable time. We managed though and had two comfortable wins over Ireland (46-10 in Brisbane and 32-26 in Perth) before a 22-15 defeat of England in the Centenary Test in Sydney. Our Tri-Nations was all too familiar. Good wins over the Boks (32-6) and Blacks (28-7) at home bookended two away losses (15-34 to the All Blacks in Auckland and 9-10 to the Springboks in Cape Town).

Spooner - a rare photo.

New Faces to come:

Not many of the new players McQueen introduced to the squad were starting players. A sign, in my eyes, of the settled nature of his team.  Once the 98 Tri Nations started until the start of the RWC the following year, the below players made their debut.

• Glenn Panaho and Chris Whitaker both came off the bench v South Africa in the J-Burg test of 1998. If I remember correctly, Panaho was injured come World Cup time, whilst Whits fulfilled his bench duties admirably as well as starting v the USA.
• Manny Edmonds made his debut at flyhalf in the qualifier against Tonga. The thought process being to give Bernie Larkham a break.
• Chris Latham and Pato Noriega on the EOYT against France.  Latham was a straight swap for the injured Matty Burke, who did his shoulder scoring a crucial try for Australia in the last Tri-Nations test v New Zealand. Noriega was finally able to play for Australia having fulfilled the required residency requirements imposed by the IRB.
• In 1999 Nathan Spooner would get his debut after a strong season for QLD, but was again covering for an injured Larkham v Ireland at Brisbane. The same game would see back rowers Jim Williams and Tiaan Strauss off the bench. Strauss, the former Springbok captain, famously scoring three tries when he got on the field.
• Once the Tri-Nations started, Mark Connors got his first cap off the bench v the Boks in Briso. John Eales was injured and the lock position was causing some concern as Tom Bowman hadn’t fulfilled promise and John Welborn was not quite cutting it either.
• As the RWC got closer, there was increased concern as to who would play 10 with Larkham expected back mid-tournament. After Spooner, McQueen reverted to playing Tim Horan there, with mixed success. Eventually Rod Kafer was brought in for the home test against New Zealand in Sydney, orchestrated a memorable win and proved himself capable to fill the whole, at least temporarily.

Those that missed the boat:

There were a number of players that would play their last test in the lead up to the RWC

• Queensland winger Damian Smith’s farewell was a cameo v Fiji in RWC Qualifier in Sydney.
• McQueen has said the hardest cut he had to make was opting not to select his former Brumby captain Brett Robinson and he would play his last game v Tonga in 98.
• Willie O’s body couldn’t continue and finished v France in 98.
• Nathan Spooner served his purpose and played just the two tests v Ireland in 1999. In the end he was the best man for the job at the time.
• John Welborn had the difficult task of trying to fill the boots of one John Eales. He performed admirably but once Eales was back, and with Mark Connor’s excellent performances, there was no room for Welborn. His last test would be the 34-15 loss to New Zealand in 1999.

A quick analysis will show that all of these served a purpose, most filling in for an injured first choice option. All (other than Spooner) could be considered aging as well and perhaps this was a lesson learnt from 95 campaign – ‘cut the dead weight’.

Brennan - Kefu'cked up!

The 1999 RWC:

Come the World Cup all our stars were back on deck, albeit Larkham missed the first game v Romania just to be safe. The team clicked early and we won through to the finals with wins over Romania (57-9, featuring Timmy Horan’s try within 90 seconds of kick off), Ireland (23-3 featuring Toutai Kefu smashing Irish flanker Trevor Brennan with a barrage of punches that would see Kef suspended for two games) and the USA (55-19 featuring the only try scored against Australia through the entire World Cup).

A quarter final match up with Wales in Cardiff didn’t end up being the battle anticipated as we won 24-9. The Boks were next in the semi-final which is famous enough already, thanks to a wonky 45m drop kick from Bernie Larkham. Which took us to the final in Cardiff against France who were somewhat underwhelming following their upset win over New Zealand a week earlier. In the end we won 35-12 with the team being:

15 Matt Burke, 14 Ben Tune, 13 Daniel Herbert, 12 Tim Horan, 11 Joe Roff, 10 Steve Larkham, 9 George Gregan, 8 Toutai Kefu, 7 David Wilson, 6 Matthew Cockbain,5 John Eales [c],4 David Giffin,3 Andrew Blades, 2 Michael Foley, 1 Richard Harry. Replacements: Jason Little,Nathan Grey,Chris Whittaker,Mark Connors,Owen Finegan, Dan Crowley, Jeremy Paul.

Check out this great memories from the RWC final and after. There are some very special scenes.

2011 RWC Learnings:

I’ve identified three, I believe, relevant lessons to learn from the 1999 RWC win. The first is, this current glut of injuries we have may be a good thing.  In 1998/99 we had some key players out for a large chunk of time. But each of them – Eales, Burke, Larkham and even Finegan would return and play a major role in the RWC win.  If there is a positive we can take out of the current injuries to James Horwill, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Ben Alexander et al it is that come the start of 2011 (even earlier as is relevant) they should come back hopefully refreshed and really champing at the bit to get on the field!

Burkie - goal kicking perfection!

An area I would like Robbie Deans to take a leaf out of Rod McQueen’s coaching manual is in the use of the bench. McQueen had a fantastic bench, and he selected it that way.  He filled it with players he knew could make an impact on the game and he made sure he used them.  Players like Nathan Grey, Owen Finegan, Jeremy Paul, Jason Little, Jim Williams, Tiaan Strauss – they all were key players in that Wallaby squad and important elements of our success.

The other factor, and one that is difficult to factor too much into, is goal kicking.  Not many teams have won a RWC without a good one. In fact Burkie kicked 15 penalty goals in those last two finals (eight v the Boks and seven v the Frogs). It’s not something we can manufacture by any means, but if we have a kicker we’d want to make damn sure he’s on his game. There’s no four try bonus points come the World Cup finals!

To catch up on the previous World Cups go here for 1987, here for 1991 and here for 1995. Then stay tuned for 2003 and 2007 in the coming week.

Where are the opportunities for the Wallabies v All Blacks in Melbourne this weekend? 

Let’s take a look back at some of the things the Wallabies did well against the Springboks in Brisbane last weekend and what opportunities arose in the first two Tri Nations games between the Springboks and All Blacks.

Whilst the Wallabies played by far their best game of 2010 against the Springboks on Saturday, there are a couple of areas that need urgent attention if they are to be competitive against the All Blacks this Saturday.

Some of the positives were the performance at the breakdown where the Wallabies retained 98% of their own ball but inflicted damage on the Springboks whose retention was only 92%, the pressure exerted in defence, the ball in hand strategy and a return to top form by Will Genia.

Apart from the return of his running game, Genia’s performance at the base of the ruck laid the platform for the Wallabies to get on the front foot.  Not only was his delivery much faster than his last game against England but the accuracy and width of his passes was world class again.

Whilst the Wallabies applied pressure with their swarming defence, there were 22 missed tackles (an 87% success rate) with Rocky Elsom missing 6 and Rob Horne & James Horne each missing 4.  It’s great to put pressure on in defence but that doesn’t offset the need for completing the tackles.  This defensive performance needs to step up again against the All Blacks.

The main area that needs attention is the amount of possession lost – 54% of the times the Wallabies started a possession sequence.  It was extremely frustrating watching the Wallabies blow good attacking chances over and over again but fortunately the Springboks weren’t playing well enough to take advantage.  That won’t be the case against the All Blacks and the Wallabies really need to tighten up in this area so they don’t just give cheap ball back to the All Blacks.

Click on the Team Statistics or Player Statistics icons to download the full statistical analysis.

Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke made five changes to his starting line up for his side’s Currie Cup clash against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Did you get a feeling of deja vu watching game 2 of the Tri Nations between the All Blacks and Springboks?  The All Blacks picked up where they left off in game 1 and the Springboks again looked to have no answer.

The only area of the game won by the Springboks was at the lineout where the second half performance by the All Blacks was very poor resulting in a very low 56% win rate for the match.

Possession was again fairly even with 53 possessions to the All Blacks against 50 for the Springboks.  Whilst it wasn’t apparent to me when I first watched the game, the All Blacks actually kicked more that the Springboks – 49% of the time they had the ball to 42% from the Springboks.  Those figures were vastly different between the first and second halves.  In the first half the All Blacks kicked 41% of the time compared to 58% in the second half.  The Springboks kicked 63% of the time in the first half and 23% in the second half.

The All Blacks dominated at the breakdown winning 95% of their own ball whilst the Springboks could only win 87% of their own ball.

Click on the Team Statistics icon to download the full set of statistics.

For the end of the season, Northern nations came in the South to play against All Blacks, Springboks, Wallabies and Pumas... And the constat is that in this end of season, the four southern nations are better. They absolutly destroyed northern nations even the French Six Nations 2010[...]