A marked difference

The Springboks were able to record their 1st win of the 2009 Autumn Internationals with a somewhat sketchy, somewhat good win over an Italian team that is fast progressing into quite a competitive unit.

Although this was only the Springboks 2nd test on their 2009 European tour, losses in both matches by the Springbok XV, or “Dirt Trackers” as some call them, were beginning to make some people nervous. In my opinion, the Springboks were never ever going to be in any danger of losing against Italy, no-matter how negative some of the rugby loving public in this country may have been before kickoff.

I always find it amusing how some South African rugby supporters (now before you get ready to march me off to the gallows, I did say “some”) can be so very fickle about their support of the Springboks. When we are winning, we are the greatest team in the world, yet when we lose a game, we are kak, plain and simple. Perhaps this stems from our high expectations of the Springboks, who knows why we turn so easily when the results don’t go according to plan.

I was siting in a pub watching the game on Saturday, and behind me was an older Springbok “supporter” (or alleged supporter), clearly on his 5th or 6th round, lambasting us before the game had kicked off, saying how we are going to lose to Italy, how kak we are and some other things I probably shouldn’t mention. Then the game kicked off, and all of a sudden we were 2 tries up. Jaques Fourie’s try was like a muzzle for this dude. The guy who was so outspoken before the game was suddenly silent, and left shortly after it was clear that the game couldn’t slip away from us.

I too have very high expectations for our beloved team, but it is the law of averages that we will not win every game. Let us not forget though, that we are still the IRB world champions, a South African team won the 2009 Super 14, We beat the touring British and Irish Lions, we won the 2009 Tri Nations and untilwe lost against France last weekend, we were still number 1 on the IRB world rankings. Let us also not forget that the so called “Dirt Trackers” or mid-week team, is not an actual Springbok team, majority of the team are not capped, and until the Springboks start playing so dismally (if ever they do), we can’t very well claim that the Springboks have lost all but one of their games on this tour. In reality, we had a very uncharacteristically shocking night in France, where we went down 20 – 13, but this past weekends 32 – 10 win against Italy puts the score at 1 all.

Then just to put it into perspective, Italy are no longer the walk overs of international rugby. The All Blacks only beat this same team 20 – 6.

Some points I’d like to make about the game:

• Jaque Fourie was a machine as usual. I was glad to see he kept his record of being the only player worldwide to have scored a try against every nation he has played against.
• Besides one or two good runs and a great offload, Ryan Kankowski was once again uncharacteristically very ordinary.
• Although Francois Hougaard only got a few minutes on the park, he is definitely one to look out for for the future.
• Fourie Du preez was himself… brilliant.
• It was great to see BJ Botha back in the Green and Gold, what an impact.
• Morne Steyn had his worst game so far in a Springbok Jersey.
• Adi Jacobs once again showed he is not the answer at number 12. Both him and Morne Steyn made KAK with that try.
• After last week’s butchering of our national anthem, the Italians were too scared to attempt to sing our anthem

Here are the highlights: [Rugbydump]