South Africa failed to impress in an uninspiring Rugby World Cup performance against Georgia at Aussie Stadium in Sydney.
The Boks won their Pool C game 46-19, but coach Rudolf Straeuli's decision to field 14 changes from the side that lost to England last week revealed that fullback Ricardo Loubscher was out of depth, centre Werner Greeff out of position and winger Stefan Terblanché out of gas.
Seemingly, the Springboks barely gave this fixture any recognition, but the Georgians showed that they were in Sydney to play the game and the fans did not take long to warm to the fiery European side.
The Boks managed to soak up the initial charge, but when they were adjudged to be off-side, Georgian fly-half Paliko Jimsheladze slotted the penalty to draw the scores level at 3-all after an earlier Derick Hougaard penalty.
The score seemed to sting the South Africans into action and they swamped all over the Georgian pack at the restart to turn the ball over. The Boks swung the ball wide and hard-running flanker Danie Rossouw broke through the defence to pick up the first of his two tries.
All eyes may have been on the halfback pairing of Derick Hougaard and Neil de Kock before the game, but it was Rossouw, who stole the show with his tireless work on defence and powerful running on attack.
The South African's continued to make elementary mistakes, however, and their persistence to field forwards in the backline led to a large amount of possession resulting in very little. The handling was amateurish in the backline, but with props and locks hanging around amongst the three-quarters, it was not too surprising.
Despite all this, however, the Boks scored a second try soon after when centre Jaque Fourie popped up a short pass to Hougaard to run over for his first international try.
Rossouw was involved again when he drew two defenders out wide and popped the ball up to No.8 Joe van Niekerk, who was open on the touchline, for the try. Hougaard stretched the lead with the conversion.
The Boks then began to produce one of the poorest performances of the tournament and besides Rossouw and lock Bakkies Botha and perhaps Hougaard, nobody in the Springbok XV could be happy with their performance on the park. They showed no vision on attack, their wingers were cut down quickly out wide and their discipline let them down on a number of occasions. "Disappointing" would be too kind a word for their performance in the first half.
The second-half performance would do nothing to change that.
The South African team initially looked better when Rossouw and Van Niekerk again linked up to score. This time, however, it was the No.8 who made the initial break and off-loaded to Rossouw, who barged his way through the defence and then cantered away over the tryline for the second time in the game. But the resurgence was to be shortlived.
The South Africans were again let down by their handling and their night got worse when the Lelos swept down the field deep into the Bok half from the back of the scrum -- following a knock-on by South Africa -- and were stopped just a few metres short of the line. Flanker Hendro Scholtz, who was barely visible in the first half, was sin-binned for constantly killing the ball at the breakdown and his exit sparked yet another bumbling display by the Boks.
Georgia, who had never stopped threatening throughout, took advantage of the extra man and barged over the line from the base of a ruck and suddenly South Africa's lead did not look so comfortable at 29-16.
The Boks fought back, however, and two more tries to Fourie and then Botha effectively ended the Georgia challenge. Fourie gathered a chip through courtesy of Hougaard and was eventually awarded the try, although it took the TMO an awfully long time to mull over what was clearly a legitimate score.
The young fly-half then swung out a wide ball to Botha on the wing, where he spent most of his night, to run over.
Schalk Burger brought the Springboks' dismal display to an end with a last-minute try, giving the final scoreline some air of respectability, although the South African side did not deserve much for an extremely poor performance against a much weaker team.
Man of the match: It was tempting to give this to the entire Georgia team, who played out of their skin against the Springboks, but ultimately it was Danie Rossouw who stole the show with an impeccable display for the Boks. Initially a surprise selection for the tournament, Rossouw is one player deserving of a starting position in the bigger games to come.
Moment of the match: The Georgia try was a highlight, but when Schalk Burger went over for a try on debut, you had to smile at his jubilation. Burger's passion is something the South African team needs plenty more of.
Villain of the match: Tempting as it is to give this to TMO Alan Lewis for taken an eternity to award an obvious try, it was Merab Kvirikashvili's high tackle on Stefan Terblanché that soured an otherwise positive performance from the European team.
Sin-bin: Scholtz 52-62, Kvirikashvili 71-80
The Teams:
South Africa: 1 Faan Rautenbach, 2 John Smit (c), 3 Lawrence Sephaka, 4 Bakkies Botha, 5 Selborne Boome, 6 Hendro Scholtz, 7 Danie Rossouw, 8 Joe Van Niekerk, 9 Neil De Kock, 10 Derick Hougaard, 11 Breyton Paulse, 12 Jaque Fourie, 13 Werner Greeff, 14 Stefan Terblanche, 15 Ricardo Loubscher
Reserves: Schalk Burger Jr., Jorrie Muller, Dale Santon
Unused: Victor Matfield, Christo Bezuidenhout, Louis Koen, Joost Van Der Westhuizen
Georgia: 1 Avtandil Kopaliani, 2 David Dadunashvili, 3 Aleko Margvelashvili, 4 Victor Didebulidze, 5 Sergo Gujaraidze, 6 David Bolghashvili, 7 George Tsiklauri, 8 George Chkhaidze, 9 Irakli Modebadze, 10 Paliko Jimsheladze, 11 Archil Kavtarahvili, 12 Otar Eloshvili, 13 Vassil Katsadze (c), 14 Gocha Khonelidze, 15 Irakli Machkhaneli
Reserves: Irakli Abusseridze, Akvsenti Guiorgadze, Bessik Khamashuridze, Sosso Nikolaenko, Merab Kvirikashvili, Ilia Zedguinidze
Unused: Gregoire Yachvili
Attendance: 34308
Referee: Dickinson s.
Points Scorers:
South Africa
Tries: Fourie J. 1, Hougaard D.J. 1, Botha J.P. 1, Van Niekerk J.C. 1, Rossouw D. 2, Burger Jr. S.W.P. 1
Conv: Hougaard D.J. 4
Pen K.: Hougaard D.J. 1
Georgia
Tries: Dadunashvili D. 1
Conv: Jimsheladze P. 1
Pen K.: Jimsheladze P. 3, Kvirikashvili M. 1
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