I am glad to see that the senior Springbok players came to the party on Sat and that the defence showed great improvement. Looks like the Stormers defence coach made a difference.

Well done to the BokkiesThe best result for the AB,hopefully
now the same mistakes of 2007 wont be made.Its clear theirs a
huge difference between the team minus Carter,Mccaw etc,but
take nothing away from the Boks,on the day they were the better
team.

Well, Well...... seems the AB's won the match on the field but not on the scoreboard - 23 line breaks and 1 try.

but as said before, you only win a world cup with 1 point(be it a penalty or drop goal), so ja.....

defence system (after 15 mins) was evident that Nienaber's influences was there - similar to the Stormers style.

People are saying that SBW was out of the game....but i reckon Slade never enabled him to play his natural game. his floating passes, together with the rush defence by JF especially & JDV most often resulted in man and ball at the same time. However, when he got his 1 chance, he offloaded to Kahui to score - so he more than capable of 'doing his thing'.... Weepu made a difference when he came on...

Morné Steyn got the ball on the front foot and this allowed the backs to attack gain line.

Scrums - way better by the Boks than previous weeks and even resulted in 1 or 2 penalties & through the 90.

But most important factor - BRUSSOUW!!!!!!!!
He was just on another level(darajah )
Plying with a heck of a gash on the head he was like a typical criminal - stealing any ball that was there for the taking. Thompson was caught a few times on the wrong end of the stick at the breakdown - proves again, a true fetcher comes around once in a blue moon (aka McCaw)......
This man, makes up with guts, determination and an eye for the steal for what he lacks in size.

think it bodes well for the world cup but remember, its only 1 game and against an 'understregth' AB side - but - as they say - the stats wont say who played and a AB side is  good side irrespective of its line-up, so............

GOOI HOM BOOKE!!!

Battery, I agree about the "understrength: AB side but remember, the BOKS were also playing their understrength side and every week everyone had so much to say especially bad things about the BOKS - I think this is the downfall of the AB side - No one really says anything when their B side looses, in fact it just gets shoved under the carpet...come world cup time, they have not eaten up so much shit as we do and therefore when push comes to shove they fail becaue suddenly they feel the pressure.
The BOKS knows all about the pressure so that is why they tend to do better when crunch times comes.

The only people who make the Bok setup eat shit is the SA fans and media, please dont come and play victim here .. thats all over now ... The AB know where they are going to , they know where their shortcomings are and the one thing they do is go back to work the next week and try to fix what went wrong ....
Push comes to shove, I think you're forgetting this was a game the Boks absolutely had to win and they did it playing the only game they know .. and good on them for that .. why change the way u play .. for who ?? and why ??
The reason why many ppl had alot to say was the fact that the public was lied to in terms of players resting .. then stories surfacing about training camps .. the AB setup were open and up front, they were resting players and game reasons ... cloak and dagger shit that from the SA setup ...

As for the game, the Boks were hungry in defence and I would not neccessarily point that to Nienaber, but rather to a change in attitude .. because thats more than half the job done ... I would suggest he would be worried with 21 line breaks though and the ease with which the AB scored off first phase possession.

Brussouw was immense on the ground, now he just needs to couple that with some staunch tackling .. he got bounced on at least 3 occassions ... Makes for interesting weekend ahead ... I would go as far as saying that if the Wallabies win, its going to severely dent an already fragile Kiwi psyche.

Josh K wrote: The AB know where they are going to , they know where their shortcomings are and the one thing they do is go back to work the next week and try to fix what went wrong ....

and no other team in world rugby is so far advance to do this???

Josh K wrote: Push comes to shove, I think you're forgetting this was a game the Boks absolutely had to win

why is that? which trophy was up for grabs?? was it a promotion/relegation match?? Could it not be said that it was a must win game for the AB's, after resting players and taking on the Boks??

Josh K wrote: the public was lied to in terms of players resting .. then stories surfacing about training camps .. the AB setup were open and up front, they were resting players and game reasons ... cloak and dagger shit that from the SA setup ...

How were they lied to and by who?

Josh K wrote: As for the game, the Boks were hungry in defence and I would not neccessarily point that to Nienaber, but rather to a change in attitude ..

I expected this sort of throw away comment from you, not in the slightest surprised. So the change of attitude had nothing to do with Nienaber?

What has come out of this Tri Nations is that of New Zealand having the strongest depth. Aus B team got schooled by Samoa and SA B team got schooled by Aus and NZ where as NZ B team were soundly beaten by the Boks.....

and no other team in world rugby is so far advance to do this???
Never said that was the case, my point is that the Boks and their fans should not be getting ahead of themselves.

The Boks were under pressure to win as Matfield, Smit and co stated throughout the week ... what the hell are you on about ?? Imagine they lost to the AB over the weekend ...

You can read the comment in any way you like, but if you are a coach, you will know what I mean, if a player wants to work hard on defence, he will .. you must want to get in the right place to make the tackle, you must want it ... If you dont really want to, then you wont, its an simple as that .. only the player can change their attitude ... Nienaber is a great defence coach , no mistake, but who excecutes on the field ..

stop wetting yourself all the time .. u might embaress yourself.

Clarity as to the so called injured players was always furthest from the Bok management teams' mind .. like I TOLD MY buddy, whilst the 2nd string Bokkies were being handed lessons, the real Boks were in training with Rassie .. why all the cloak and dagger ???

The Bokke were brutally efficient, played above themselves and I feel with more precision ... it will serve them well come RWC time.

Josh, just a comment from my side. Just to put things straight...I am 100% Springbok fan but I actually feel so sorry for the All Blacks that I certainly wish them all the best for the world cup because if they dont win the world cup this year then I'm afraid the essence of world rugby will be lost as the AB's are an important part of the game. So lets hope October coming that the AB's are holding the cup so that the Springbok-AB's battle can live on forever cause I'm afraid if they dont win this year the Springbok-AB game will just become another game and the Springboks would start loosing the respect for them as they would not be able to take them too serious anymore.
And please...dont start crying over my comment as I honestly feel the AB's are due for a WC win.

The1 wrote: Josh, just a comment from my side. Just to put things straight...I am 100% Springbok fan but I actually feel so sorry for the All Blacks that I certainly wish them all the best for the world cup because if they dont win the world cup this year then I'm afraid the essence of world rugby will be lost as the AB's are an important part of the game. So lets hope October coming that the AB's are holding the cup so that the Springbok-AB's battle can live on forever cause I'm afraid if they dont win this year the Springbok-AB game will just become another game and the Springboks would start loosing the respect for them as they would not be able to take them too serious anymore.
And please...dont start crying over my comment as I honestly feel the AB's are due for a WC win.

Sorry The1, but I have to giggle at this one. The AB vs Springboks will always be a great game and the teams will always respect each other, no matter what the result of the WC is.

Hi Jean.  I guess I did get a bit ahead of myself.  But I must say that even though I am a BOK supporter (and this might sound strange) I would not mind for the All Blacks to actually do well in this WC. I somehow feel that there are a hectic need in NZ for them to do well.  I watched a NZ rugby documentary on DSTV the other day (made by a NZ citizen before and during the 2007 WC) and even their own countrymen are not sure what the fate of NZ rugby will be if they don't win the WC this year...so I guess that's where I drew my thoughts from.  

Josh K wrote: The Bokke were brutally efficient, played above themselves and I feel with more precision ... it will serve them well come RWC time.

But thats as good as it gets for them,they have nothing more 2offer,i
hope Wales beat them in their opnening fixture.

Unlike the Proteas,the Bokke got the mental toughness and the ability to dig deep when it matters the most.Personally i think the Bokke will step up another gear come WC time, as not not only do they still have the hunger,but will also like to prove the doomsayers wrong.The AB's and their coaching will be under tremendous pressure in their own backyard,and it will be interesting to se how they going to react.The expactations from the nation might just be too much,or maybe it will just motivate them more,especially after the disaster earlier.Damn!come on WC!

This is an interesting topic. I'm not sure whether I would prefer winning 50% of my tests and winning the WC or winning 95% of my tests and not winning the WC.

During the last 20 years the AB were the top team in the world with the exceptions of short periods. In these 20 years they played in 5 WC and did not win 1 of them.

Are we not placing too much emphasis on the WC? How can we say it is ok if we loose 4 or 5 tests in a row as long as we win the WC?

Before our return to international rugby the Boks had the proud record of winning more test vs every other rugby playing country in the world. 21-17 vs All Blacks. Within a few years that record was overturned and these days winning a test match doesn't seem to be that important anymore. We tour with B teams and experiment with players who might make it in the future. It's sad that we play tests with anything else than our strongest possible team and that losing is ok because we have a bigger plan. 

I think this loss is the best thing that could have happened to the All Blacks ahead of the WC. They can study what happened and plan accordingly. If this was a WC knock-out match it would have been too late.