France gave the Springboks a rugby lesson at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, beating them by 30-10, after leading 12-3 at the half-time break.
The Boks would want to forget this match, a record loss at France's hands, in a hurry. They were out-muscled and out-classed in every facet of the game, their much-vaunted pack and backline both being made to look decidedly second-rate.
The match began with Springbok skipper Corné Krige conceding a penalty from the kick-off -- for playing the man without the ball -- but the Boks' woes were compounded minutes later when debutant centre Jean de Villiers was carried from the field after twisting his left knee in an attempt to play the ball after making a tackle on fullback Nicolas Brusque.
In the process, De Villiers, who was replaced by Marius Joubert, had conceded a penalty, with French flyhalf François Gelez making no mistake, opening his side's account with his first three-pointer of the evening.
Gelez soon added another penalty, from 39 metres out, before recalled utility back Thomas Castaignède, who had a fairly quiet night on attack, slotted an angled drop-goal with his side on the attack.
At 9-0 the Boks would have been extremely concerned with not only the scoreline, but their high penalty count and error-rates too. They were not able to build up any phases, whilst the French played it coolly, staying in SA's territory and slotting any penalties (or drop-goals) that came their way.
The Boks were soon in even more trouble when debutant lock forward Bakkies Botha was sent to the sin bin by referee Alain Rolland for kneeing a French player on the ground. To add insult to injury, Gelez made no mistake with the penalty and the home team was ahead at 12-nil.
Springbok flyhalf André Pretorius, who missed his first penalty attempt of the night, made no mistake with his second shot at goal towards the end of the first period -- thanks to some French hands in the ruck -- but, worryingly, in Botha's absence the Springbok scrum crumbled, with France claiming two tightheads in quick succession.
With the South Africans 12-3 down at half-time, their woes were compounded by Willie Meyer's absence when the teams returned for the start of the second half, leaving Wessel Roux, a regular loosehead prop, having to make his Test debut at tighthead prop.
Loosehead prop Lawrence Sephaka soon joined Meyer on the sidelines, with hooker Lukas van Biljon making his comeback to the Test arena at prop, which saw the scrums become uncontested.
Before Sephaka left the field, however, the Boks were on attack in France's 22, perhaps looking to open their try-scoring account, but all they could do was watch the French turn the ball over and score a try of their own. A creative flick-pass from No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy created the space for Olivier Magne to free Vincent Clerc on the right-wing before he joined up with his flying captain Fabien Galthié, who managed to hack the ball in-field, where Cedric Heymans latched onto the ball before beating a defender for a simple run-in to the Bok line.
Heymans looked marginally in front of Galthié's kick, but one gets the impression that it was more an indication of his pace than anything else. Gelez added the two points to put his side ahead at 19-3.
That 16-point lead relaxed the French players, who up till then were happy feeding off the Boks' incompetence, whilst the South Africans upped their error-rate and ball-in-hand jitters.
Bulls flanker Pedrie Wannenburg was introduced shortly before the start of the final quarter, with Botha leaving the fray and AJ Venter moving to lock, and although he combined nicely with No.8 Joe van Niekerk, the Boks were not able to get over the advantage line at all.
Van Niekerk managed a consolation try for the Boks after a comedy of errors from both sides -- and good work from flyhalf Pretorius, whose initial kick-ahead was central to the try, scrumhalf Neil de Kock, right-wing Breyton Paulse, combined to put Van Niekerk over.
Pretorius added the two points, only for Gelez to kick a penalty soon afterwards to put his side more than two converted tries ahead at 25-10.
De Kock came close to saving face with a near charge-down try, but France ended up scoring one more try just minutes before the final whistle when flying right-winger Clerc, on his Test debut, beat the Bok defenders to the ball in their in-goal area after a kick-ahead from replacement back Xavier Garbajosa.
Surprisingly, Gelez missed the conversion, but at 30-10 the damage had been done and the final whistle from referee Rolland must have been a welcome relief to Corné Krige and his charges.
Krige, and his coach Rudolf Straeuli, have just seven days to lift the spirits in the Bok camp, with Scotland, who recorded an unconvincing 37-10 victory over Romania, suddenly not shaping up like the easy-beats they were meant to be.
France, however, will be champing at the bit to add the scalp of New Zealand (they play them next week), who were narrow losers to England earlier in the day, to that of South Africa.
Man of the match: No South Africans came close to this award, although Joe van Niekerk was the only Bok to come away with the match with half his reputation intact. For the French, tighthead prop Pieter de Villiers was brutally strong, No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy was fast, full of skill and powerful, captain Fabien Galthié ran the show brilliantly from scrumhalf and flyhalf François Gelez kicked the goals that mattered. In the end, however, our vote goes with Imanol Harinordoquy, who despite being in doubt for this Test because of injury, delivered a commanding performance from the back of France's scrum. His flick-pass to fellow back rower Magne in the build-up to Heymans' try was superb and highlighted his influence on the game.
Moment of the match: Clerc's try looked good from the start, but the only problem is that it took ages for the TMO Gareth Simmons to make his choice. Why? Well, the radio connection between the referee and the TMO was down, leaving the "fourth official" to run around and deliver the thumbs up verdict in person.
Villain of the match: The Springboks. Every single player, with the exception of No.8 Joe van Niekerk, has to have a serious look at his performance. It was disappointing, embarrassing, record-breaking and certainly unexpected. Sadly, it was even worse than last year's debacle in Paris under former coach Harry Viljoen. A runner-up to the entire Bok side, was the Planet Rugby writer, who predicted a South African win in the build-up, whilst Bakkies Botha deserves a mention here for his yellow card in the 33rd minute.
The Teams:
South Africa: 1 Willie Meyer, 2 James Dalton, 3 Lawrence Sephaka, 4 Jannes Labuschagne, 5 Bakkies Botha, 6 A.J. Venter, 7 Corne Krige (c), 8 Joe Van Niekerk, 9 Neil De Kock, 10 Andre Pretorius, 11 Breyton Paulse, 12 Adi Jacobs, 13 Jean De Villiers, 14 Brent Russell, 15 Werner Greeff
Reserves: Wessel Roux, Lukas Van Biljon, Marco Wentzel, Marius Joubert, Pedrie Wannenburg
France: 1 Jean-Jacques Crenca, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 Olivier Brouzet, 5 Fabien Pelous, 6 Serge Betsen Tchoua, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 9 Fabien Galthie (c), 10 Francois Gelez, 11 Vincent Clerc, 12 Thomas Castaignede, 13 Damien Traille, 14 Cedric Heymans, 15 Nicolas Brusque
Reserves: Xavier Garbajosa, Sylvain Marconnet
Attendance: 60000
Referee: Rolland a.
Points Scorers:
South Africa
Tries: Van Niekerk J.C. 1
Conv: Pretorius A.S. 1
Pen K.: Pretorius A.S. 1
France
Tries: Clerc V. 1, Heymans C. 1
Conv: Gelez F. 1
Pen K.: Gelez F. 5
Drop G.: Castaignede T. 1
No comments:
Post a Comment