Boks grind out another vital win

Aggressive defence seals the win for SA

South Africa completed a 100 percent Tri-Nations home record for 2005 when they ground out another vital win, beating New Zealand 22-16 at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.  The teams scored one try each, but penalties and some aggressive defence won the day for the Springboks.

It was not the fluid game that most expected, partly due to the north-westerly gale that had sprung up during the course of the day before the kick-off, and partly due to the aggressive defence that disrupted New Zealand's attacking rhythm.

However that suited the Boks just fine.  It was disruption and plunder of the New Zealand ball that was the tactic of choice, and the more ragged the New Zealand attacks became during the second half, the more obvious the outcome.

South Africa's back row swarmed all over the New Zealand half-backs and line-outs, and rushed them into a series of errors, especially in the second-half.  Dan Carter, on whose shoulders a seemingly never-ending shower of praise is heaped, had a terrible game, and despite Aaron Mauger's attempts to bale him out, neither could spark the All Black backs into anything like the life they showed against the Lions.

Nobody who saw the game will ever be convinced that Richie McCaw had fully recovered from his attack of mumps either, so sluggish did the New Zealand pack leader look.  He was also unfortunate enough to come up opposite Schalk Burger, whose maturity, skill, and desire for the full eighty allowed us a glimpse of the truly finished Burger product.  He was an inspiration to his team, as was Victor Matfield, who is fast etching his name onto the tablet of all-time greats.

South Africa were 13-0 ahead after ten minutes.  Percy Montgomery stroked over an early gift courtesy of a wandering hand, and Andre Pretorius stroked over a close-range drop goal for the early advantage.

Then Rico Gear made a sizzling break through the centres, but his support let him down, and Jean de Villiers once again read the offload to intercept and outstrip Rodney So'oialo for the opening try.

Pretorius' drop goal was his lone success from five attempts on a distinctly mixed day for the fly-half, who rarely got his backs into decent motion.  But South Africa's game was not about making points of their own, rather forcing their opponents into presenting them.

Byron Kelleher left the field shortly after De Villiers' try, feeling the after-effects of a massive hit early on by Matfield.  Piri Weepu replaced him, and looked to be the All Blacks' one true source of inspiration.

The All Blacks eventually clawed their way level, through a brace of penalties from Carter and a superb try by Gear.  Jerry Collins' floated pass over the on-rushing Springbok defence was one for every centre to be proud of, never mind a flanker, and Gear took the ball wide and at pace and blazed into the corner.

New Zealand had the upper hand at this point, reading the Boks' defensive rushes and floating a series of passes wide and flat to the pacemen, but Montgomery, Jacques Fourie, Breyton Paulse and Bryan Habana were exceptional in the amount of ground they covered to stymie the moves.  Gear's try was the only one to get away.

Montgomery kicked a simple penalty on the stroke of half-time to give the Boks the lead, and it was a lead they never lost as the wind increased in strength and blew into the All Black faces.

He landed two further penalties early in the second half to stretch the lead to nine, and then the Boks simply defended in numbers.  Not once did an All Black attacker break cleanly for more than ten metres' gain, and the number of SA tackles behind the gain-line was simply phenomenal.  Several times more intercept tries looked on the cards, and several times referee Andrew Cole called the moves back for infringements which might not have been on other days.

Carter, Umaga, and McCaw all knocked on under pressure, and when Juan Smit took the number of turnovers into double figures midway through the second half and Breyton Paulse fired a peach of a kick into New Zealand's left-hand corner, New Zealand's shoulders drooped.

Carter brought them back to within a score ten minutes from the end, but despite the industry in the final part of the game, the Springbok defence held, and South Africa ended a winless streak against the All Blacks at Newlands that stretched back 29 years.  They earned their lap of honour.

Man of the match:  Bok flank Schalk Burger.  Pillaging, rampaging, and DISCIPLINED.  What all have wanted from Burger for so long may finally have arrived.

Villain of the match:  New Zealand lock Ali Williams ought to be censured for the number of times he tried to niggle his opponents, but the reactions of his targets were so exemplary that the niggle was rendered more ridiculous than villainous.

Moment of the match:  When Breyton Paulse fired a spiralling kick 50m back into the corner with 20 minutes to go, after the All Blacks had threatened to break the line several times.  Any New Zealand resurgence faded thereafter.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Try:  De Villiers
Con:  Montgomery
Pens:  Montgomery 4
DG:  Pretorius

For New Zealand:
Try:  Gear
Con:  Carter
Pens:  Carter 3

The teams:

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 André Pretorius, 9 Enrico Januarie, 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt.
Replacements:  16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 Gurthro Steenkamp, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Wayne Julies, 22 Jaco van der Westhuyzen.

New Zealand:  15 Leon MacDonald, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Tana Umaga (c), 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Mils Muliaina, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Derren Witcombe, 17 Greg Somerville, 18 James Ryan, 19 Marty Holah, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Joe Rokocoko

Referee:  Andrew Cole (Australia)Touch judges:  Alan Lewis (Ireland), Donal Courtney (Ireland)Television match official:  Nigel Owens (Wales)