Willem de Waal Kicks from the touchline during extra time to level the scores 13 all

What a closely contested game, the Emerging Boks trailing right through to the end and never giving up.

Well done to those of you who braved the icy Newlands conditions. I was there and let me tell you, it was cold! At one point it even started hailing on the field. A brave 39 000 odd spectators pitched up for the game, even in those conditions. I guess that’s why we are called the Newlands faithful. The atmosphere in the stadium was electric.

A special thank you to HO de Villiers for the great tickets.

I think the Emerging Boksdid extremely well to come off witha draw. I must tell you though, that I was a bit disappointed with a few of the selections, as well as individual players performances.

When I hear the name ‘Emerging Springboks’ I think of players who just missed out on Springbok selection, or atleast players who have proved themselves in the Super 14 for a season or two. There were a few players in the team who I have never seen in a 1st class game, namely Bjorn Basson and Deon van Rensburg. I do understand the fact that the Emerging Boks purpose is to give players a chance to show what they have, but I feel those players should atleast already have shown that they can handle the tempo of the Super14. The concept of even having such a team, being to show us the future/fringe players who will soon be representing the Springboks. I can think of a whole host of names who could have been included instead. I don’t want to sound overly critical, but here it goes:

I have purposely avoided the topic of ‘Earl Rose’ because I think that he isn’t deserving of the attention he is getting. Even negative publicity is still publicity. At the moment this guy is getting more publicity than any other player in world rugby. What for?

I have seen Earl play rugby since u16 level, through every representative age group he has played in. There is no doubt that he does possess rugby talent. Whilst he excelled in these teams, I don’t feel he has made the step-up from playing excellent age-groups rugby to playing senior rugby. Perhaps his over inflated ego, or his off the field behavior is holding him back, who knows? He needs to bulk up by about 8kg to be any kind of serious contender at this level, as well as work on his erratic decision making. Whilst Earl showed some great touches during the game, his drop-grubber being most memorable for me, I feel it’s his erratic play that outshines his good play. Play that one can’t afford at senior international level. That said, I feel there were also some good aspects in his game. Something I like about Earl is the fact that he is always looking to offload the ball in contact, getting his hands throught the tackle. He has an uncanny Larkamesque ability to get the ball away even when his is completely wrapped up in a tackle.

Another player I was very disappointed in was Zane Kirchner. If you read back on my fullback selections for the B&I Lions tour, you’ll see I didn’t even consider him. Not because I don’t rate him as a player, I very much do. I just feel that he needs one more season in Super14 to prove himself and improve his decision making.

I won’t even start on Morgan Newman. He showed how one dimensional he is and why he doesn’t even make the Stormers bench half the time.

Some key moments in the game:

1st Half

• 7th min: Rose’s clearance kick is partially charged down.
• 8th min: Kirchner makes a vital tackle on the B&I Lions #11, Luke Fitzgerald.
• 11th min: Rose puts through a perfect drop-grubber to put the Emerging Boks 5m from the B&I Lions goal line.
• 14th min: Kirchner kicks right into the B&I Lions hands, 10m infront of him, resulting in the 1st try of the game.
• 25th min: Shane Williams tries some fancy footwork after fielding a catch and steps into touch.
• 28th min: Another charge down off an Earl Rose clearance kick. The Emerging Boks are lucky to get a penalty.
• 31st min: Morgan Newman duffs his clearance kick, putting his team under unnecessary pressure. ‘Shanks for coming’
• 32min: A bad pass from Earl Rose to Morgan Newman nullifies the Emerging Boks overlap as Newman is caught man and ball.
• 35th min: Kirchner passes instead of running with the ball and drawing the man. A try opportunity goes amiss.
• 38th min: Another bad pass by Rose destroys any counter attacking opportunity.
• 39th min: Kirchner wastes the overlap by grubbering into touch instead of moving the ball through the hands.

2nd Half

• 42nd min: Newman drops the pass.
• 45th min: Referee Alain Rolland ignores the fact that the ball stayed in the field of play off his knee and goes to the TMO to see if the try was scored.
• 49th min: Earl Rose does exceptionally well to hold the ball in the tackle after he dummies, and is dumped by 2 B&I Lions players. Emerging Boks go back for previous penalty advantage.
• 49th min: B&I Lions lock Nathan Hines spear tackles opposite number, Wilhelm Steenkamp, no card is shown, no penalty awarded. (Hines was later cited for the incident and suspended for one week)
• 53rd min: Morgan Newman passes forward to Kirchner and shows his unhappiness at the touch judge’s call. (The pass was right infront of where I was sitting, I’m not sure what the camera angle showed, but it was clearly forward)
• 58th min: Rose juggles a fielded kick and shins the ball to avoid a knock on.
• 59th min: Rose shows a clear understanding of the rules in calling the ref to show the ball went dead. (I thought he took a bit of a chance in falling back too casually)
• 80th min: Emerging Boks do well to keep composed in the dying seconds, sucking the B&I Lions defenders in and going over for the try.
• 81st min: Willem de Waal you beaut!

Here are the highlights, enjoy.

Is it just me, or did Potgieter’s “never say die” leadership remind anyone of Corne “Captain Courageous” Krige?