The Wallabies win the first Tri Nations 2011 match, and the rise of the metrosexual Springbok

Juan de Jongh (Picture from http://bit.ly/oZo1T5 )

Tri-Nations


Australia 39 - 20 South Africa

As expected, the Wallabies made short work of the Springboks on Saturday. This is a sea change for the Springboks, the rise of the metrosexual Bok, with Juan De jongh boots the only bright spot in the team. The Springboks were always the bad boys of rugby, hanging on the ball when you tackled by a Bok wasn’t your first priority, hanging on to your head was your first priority. I mean listen to John Smit’s post match interview – ‘Well you have to look for the positives. We didn’t hurt anybody, the boys played nicely, we made some friends, hugged a few of the travelling fans and exchanged twitter names with a few of the nice Wallaby boys. And Juan really worked those boots – you go boy!’ .

There was none of this good sportsmanship shite in the old days (maybe only if you won). You’re the Sprinboks, you’re supposed to be out there ripping people’s heads off! This is what I was expecting to hear from John Smit – ‘That lousy New Zealand ref was against us from the start, if he ever comes to South Africa, he’s dead meat! And if I get my hands on that fecker Will Genia (although I might struggle to catch him - actually I seem to struggle to catch most people nowadays) he’s going to meet my friend paaain. Maybe I could get Gio Aplon to catch him – then he could meet Gio – then he could meet my friend paaain. I’ll tear his liver out and eat with some fave beans, and Gio, you’re from the Cape, what’s a good South African red that goes with liver?’

So what about the match? The Wallaby scrum was adequate without being outstanding, although Stephen Moore had a good match. Genia, Cooper and Ioane were in a class of their own, and should have scored more tries. South Africa were woeful, they defended like they’d only recently met, which they had I suppose, Dannie Roussow looked useful, Ashley Johnson had a decent debut, and that was it really. John Smit doesn’t look like an international player, Ruan Pienaar was off the pace, Deon Stegman was invisible and Wynand Oliver offered nothing in midfield. I was expecting at least physicality from the Boks, the Samoans showed the Ausssies struggled to deal with that, but that was sorely lacking. If they had a game plan I’d be interested to know what it was. The Springboks did well to only lose by twenty points. The Wallabies get their show on the road again, although against such poor opposition, I don’t know where that leaves them. The All Blacks are going to be the real test.