The All Blacks of New Zealand defeated South Africa 12-3 in a hard-fought opening 2001 Tri-Nations encounter at Newlands in Cape Town.
Whilst the Springboks will take some heart from their brave performance, once again the bad out-weighed the good as the Men in Black showed the value of having a well-organised defence and a specialist goalkicker.
Whilst tries were non-existent, blood and guts were a hallmark of a game that did not quite reach the level of play that the near 50 000-strong crowd would have hoped for. Sure they got a bit of rain and a torrent of tackles, but for the first time in Tri-Nations history no tries were scored in an entire match.
South Africa dominated much of the possession and territory stakes in the first-half, but other than a third-minute penalty by Percy Montgomery they had nothing to show for their efforts in the entire match as New Zealand defended as if their lives depended on it.
There were good moments for the Boks, especially at line-out time where novices Victor Matfield and Lukas van Biljon impressed, but it was New Zealand flyhalf Tony Brown who stole the show with a faultless goalkicking performance in the first 40 minutes, whereas Springbok fullback Percy Montgomery missed three attempts at goal and Butch James missed one fairly long-range attempt very late in the match.
At one stage South Africa spent a considerable amount of time in the All Blacks' half, but they could only watch minutes later as the visiting side entered their territory and Tony Brown kept the scoreboard ticking over with four penalties from different parts of the ground, although none of them were long-range attempts.
There were no real try-scoring opportunities in the first stanza, but in the last five minutes wings Jonah Lomu and Doug Howlett threatened the homeside's defence on numerous occasions.
Some brave defence from vice-captain Robbie Fleck saved the Boks on one occasion in particular when Lomu managed to get his hands through a tackle from André Venter and Breyton Paulse, before feeding lock Troy Flavell on his outside. Fleck hunted Flavell down and won a penalty for his side.
But the All Blacks continued their knew-found dominance, which was reminiscent of the last time the two countries met at Newlands, and Brown extended their lead by yet another three points shortly before half-time.
The Boks' second half onslaught began with earnest some eight minutes into the second stanza.
They went left, they went right, they re-cycled the ball for over 10 phases, but the All Black defence, with retreaded opensider Taine Randell and skipper Anton Oliver the stand-outs, just stood firm in the face of danger.
The Boks managed to force a scrum on the All Black tryline after Dean Hall was held up by Jonah Lomu with the tryline only a metre away, but despite winning a penalty, which Joost van der Westhuizen took quickly, they did not make any impression on the All Black defence or the scoreboard.
The All Blacks almost managed a break-away try through wing Doug Howlett in the last quarter and the match ended with an interlude from an adventurous spectator dressed in a wet-suit and a botched penalty attempt from Springbok flyhalf Butch James, which could have given his team an all-important bonus-point for losing by less than seven points.
New Zealand will no doubt be delighted with a hard-fought opening Tri-Nations win but where to from here for South Africa? Well, that is a good question, which could perhaps be answered against Australia next week. They were not embarrassed, but simply beaten by a side that seemed to want it more in the second half, which produced no score and only one penalty attempt by South Africa.
Man of the match: Springbok hooker Lukas van Biljon had an outstanding match in only his first start for his country. He did the basics first. Cleaning out at rucks and mauls, his line-out throwing was spot-on, he stood his ground at scrum-time and he ran with much power and purpose when given a chance with ball in hand.
Villain of the Match: Nobody. Sure there were some niggles and a bit of "how's your father", but boys will be boys.
Moment of the Match: When the very brave spectator, clad in a wet-suit, emerged on to the pitch abd got the loudest cheer from a subdued crowd. He even had the guts to initiate a tackle on the policeman, who was about to apprehend him.
The Teams:
New Zealand: 1 Greg Somerville, 2 Anton Oliver (c), 3 Carl Hoeft, 4 Troy Flavell, 5 Norm Maxwell, 6 Taine Randell, 7 Reuben Thorne, 8 Ron Cribb, 9 Justin Marshall, 10 Tony Brown, 11 Doug Howlett, 12 Pita Alatini, 13 Tana Umaga, 14 Jonah Lomu, 15 Jeff Wilson
Reserves: Marty Holah, Chris Jack, Leon MacDonald
Unused: Carl Hayman, Mark Hammett, Byron Kelleher, Andrew Mehrtens
South Africa: 1 Robbie Kempson, 2 Lukas Van Biljon, 3 Cobus Visagie, 4 Victor Matfield, 5 Mark Andrews, 6 Andre Venter, 7 Andre Vos, 8 Bobby Skinstad (c), 9 Joost Van Der Westhuizen, 10 Butch James, 11 Dean Hall, 12 Robbie Fleck, 13 Marius Joubert, 14 Breyton Paulse, 15 Percy Montgomery
Reserves: John Smit, Johan Ackermann, Deon Kayser, Ollie Le Roux, Joe Van Niekerk
Unused: Neil De Kock, Conrad Jantjes
Attendance: 49720
Referee: Young s.
Points Scorers:
New Zealand
Pen K.: Brown T.E. 4
South Africa
Pen K.: Montgomery P.C. 1
No comments:
Post a Comment