John Smit more than held his own in the scrum

The 1st test match against the touring B&I Lions game down to the wire on Saturday. An admitted mistake by Springbok management in sending on a whole host of replacements almost cost us a game that I felt was in the bag from early on. lets look at a few key moments in the game:

1st Half

• Who would have known that referee Bryce Lawrence would have made a stand against French TMO, Christophe Berdos, to rule a 22m dropout early in the game, after the TMO called for a 5m B&I Lions scrum – Good call by Lawrence, the right decision and one of the key moments of the game.
• 10th Minute, The Beast started showing his dominance, winning us the 1st scrum penalty against Vickery. (Who?)
• 16th Minute, the Lions enter the ruck from the side and are off their feet at the breakdown, costing them the 1st of a number of breakdown penalties.
• 19th Minute, Beast destroys yet another B&I Lions scrum.
• 24th Minute, Lions score a try through Tom Croft – In my opinion, this try should have gone to the TMO, as I felt Tom Croft dropped the ball without touching down.
• 31st Minute, yet another scrum penalty.
• 36th Minute, I had a good chuckle at Bismark threatening Byrne. (Perhaps not a key moment, but funny non the less.)
• 37th Minute, B&I Lions throw the ball in skew at the lineout and play is allowed to continue.
• 38th Minute, Bryce Lawrence is a bit over zealous at blowing the whistle, doesn’t allow the B&I Lions to gain advantage and apologises.

• 38th Minute, Beast wins yet another scrum penalty for the Springboks.

2nd Half

• 44th Minute, Springboks maul the B&I Lions a good 50m, again showing their forward dominance.
• 45th Minute, yet another breakdown penalty against the B&I Lions. (I know its against the spirit of the tour, but surely cards should have started coming into it)
• 54th Minute, Heinrich Brussow gets substituted – what a mistake!
• 55th Minute, B&I Lions #16, Matthew Rees throws a punch – no card is shown.
• 58th Minute, Jean De Villiers is replaced instead of Adi Jacobs – both are great players, neither of the two had the best games of their lives, but I felt Adi should have been replaced, each time BOD touched the ball he broke through Adi’s channel.
• 72nd Minute, Both Steyns, Francois and Morne, make a crucial tackle on Monye, causing the big winger to lose the ball.
• 73rd Minute, Phillips holds Januarie at scrum time and isn’t penalised.

For those of you who were a bit pissed by that far into the game, here are the highlights.

Tendai Mtawarira was undoubtedly the man of the match. His dominance at scrum time causing Vickery to be replaced after only 45 mins. What a brilliant player, and to think he is just 23 years old, and has only been playing prop for a few years. What a great future for SA rugby.

I think it should also be mentioned that John Smit did well after the B&I Lions claimed he was our week link. In my opinion Deon Carstens faked his injury just to get Smit back on the field for those crucial last minutes.

Another player I feel played exceptionally well was Ruan Pienaar. His tactical kicking was near perfect. He is solid on defence and has the flair that fits PDV’s expansive gameplan. I hope he is retained at flyhalf for many years to come. He has the potential to be a great of the game, in the mould of Stephen Larkham.