Rugby Asteroid

It just hurts to be this right, all the time.

On Saturday the Springboks reinforced our view that they are World Champs in name only. In comparison with the discipline and teamwork of the All Blacks, the Boks played school-boy rugby, with every man for himself. It was a shocker of a performance and the first time in 105 years since they’ve been held scoreless in South Africa.

The South Africans will no doubt feel some ire towards the refereeing of Matt Goddard for the way he policed the break-down, but his style of refereeing was entirely consistent with the way he called the game in Dunedin a month ago. Indeed, the Boks were kindly treated getting something like four “last warnings” for hands in the ruck and other misdemeanors. But despite repeated infringements and explosive outbursts from ill-tempered Springboks, Goddard was restrained and kept his cards in his pocket. Vic Matfield, on the other hand, did a fair impression of John McEnroe complaining loudly on a number of occasions. His behaviour was ill-fitting a Bok captain.

It was a funny old game full of errors and outright brainfarts. It was supposed to be a celebration of Percy Montgomery’s century, but he turned in a forgettable performance. Before he left the field early in the second half, he chugged two penalty kicks – the only scoring opportunities the ABs conceded all night.

Even worse was the goal-kicking of Dan Carter – he missed four in a row and had a couple of drop goals charged down. But Carter’s kicks in general play were outstanding as was his match-breaking try towards the end of the game. Riche McCaw may be the AB’s talismanic leader, but Carter is the Demolition Man. Just two months ago he scored his 700th point in test rugby; last night he scored his 800th. He’s now ninth on the all-time list, just behind Ronan O’Gara.

Thanks to Carter’s poor-kicking, the game was close for over an hour. The Springboks made a number of prospective forays into the visitor’s 22 but the Black line held perfectly time and time again. While they muffed numerous point-scoring opportunities, the All Blacks were nearly flawless in defense. They may not be the World Champs, but when they’re at full strength they are indisputably the World’s Best Rugby Team.

Then, as if they weren’t facing a tough enough challenge, Bok coach De Villiers subbed off Schalk Burger. The lanky flanker had been having one of his usual monstrous games in defense playing like three men. The All Blacks probably heaved a sigh of relief when they saw him walking off. Seconds later Carter went over for his try under the posts and it was all over red rover. Mealamu capitalized on another moment of stupidity – this one courtesy of Frans Steyn and Jean de Villiers – and another 7 points were added.

In our expert’s panel I predicted a thumping, but few were expecting such a one-sided match. Perhaps the Boks were a bit excited by the occasion; perhaps beating the depleted Argies a week ago had made them forget their limitations, but the Springboks made a huge number of unforced errors, particularly with the boot. They are now no longer masters of their fate. They need to thrash the Wallabies twice over the next two weeks and hope for a lucky break when NZ go to Brisbane in the last round.

But the fact that we’re hypothesizing like this tells us it’s all over for the World Champs. They came third and last in last year’s Tri-Nations and they’ll probably do it again this year. If it hadn’t been for one heroic run from back-up scrumhalf Ricky Janurie in Dunedin last month, they would’ve even have their solitary win.

Saturday’s game revealed the yawning gap that separates a team full of talented players from a talented team.