Sunday, July 31, 2011

All Blacks reveal new kit in training exercise

The new jersey (picture from http://bit.ly/rijiW4 )

New Zealand 40 South Africa 7

So as a Springbok supporter, I had the electro shock therapy, I had the counselling, but unfortunately I can still remember the match on Saturday. In the context of the World Cup, this is a gamble, a strategy. South Africa have an aging stable of stars they are trying to nurse through to hit their peak in a few months time, and to do that, they’ve sacrificed the overseas leg of the 3N. At the same time, they were hoping to uncover a few diamonds in the rough, and I suppose they haven’t been entirely unsuccessful in that regard.


The best place to start is the all conquering men in black, sporting new kitI’m not entirely sure about yet. What we got was a series of running attacks, superb, offloading in the tackle, and competency in the set pieces. Dan Carter, apart from a bit of wobbly kicking, put in a superb tactical display, he seems to have that ball on a piece of string. Cory Jane always looked dangerous, and Zac Guildford popped up everywhere at the right time. Time to be picky though. Putting 5 trys on this Springbok team, is that enough? The guys have barely met, the defensive system was like a sieve, I was expecting the All Blacks to be a lot more ruthless. It was like an elaborate training exercise for them, and at least gets them primed for the real start of the 3N next weekend.

For the Boks, Lambie looked good, tackled like a Trojan, and is pushing his way up the current fly half pecking order. Mostert had a stormer of a match, i was really impressed, and Deysel was like a human wrecking ball. Going backwards are Steyn, and Smit, while playing better, wouldn’t make the starting line up of any other top 5 ranked team. Chilliboy showed a serious turn of speed there as well. This is heaping pressure on the A team back in the Republic, think they need a miracle, never mind a bit of rehab.



No comments:

Post a Comment