The wind wasn't a factor at Croke Park, but South Africa fly-half Morne Steyn missed three penalties and captain John Smit admitted his side needed to be more ruthless after his side's 15-10 loss to Ireland on Saturday.
Ireland pivot Jonathan Sexton kicked five penalties to clinch a victory in Dublin, but the loss of lock Bakkies Botha and fatigue will be put down as the main contributors to South Africa's downfall.
The Irish were hugely motivated to make it three wins on the trot against the Springboks - after the Lansdowne Road successes from 2004 and 2006.
For most of the match, Peter de Villiers' team were on the back foot, content to use their kicking game to put Ireland under pressure and use their dominant scrum to launch any telling attacks.
It was to their enormous credit that their line went unbreached in a match that started brightly but faded as a spectacle as Ireland brilliantly seized control in the second half.
Sexton coolly kicked Ireland to a deserved win as the Grand Slam winners concluded an unbeaten year by toppling the Southern Hemisphere's best.
Steyn, who booted a conversion and drop goal, missed three penalties and other than Schalk Burger's try, the Springboks only tactic was to bombard man-of-the-match Rob Kearney with kicks.
"We created enough pressure in the first half and kept the scoreboard going," said Smit.
"We wanted to do the same thing in the second half. We wanted to create pressure but didn't follow through.
"You have to kick your penalties. They took their chances but we didn't.
"We did a lot of damage in the scrum and that gave us a huge amount of impetus.
"But our line-outs and kicking let us down but ironically those have been our strengths this year."
The match came at the end of an exhausting but successful season for the Springboks and coach Peter de Villiers admitted his players were tired.
"We want to honour rugby and do the best we can," he said.
"If we'd picked the second team people would have thought we're looking down on them but maybe we should have rested a few senior players.
"We must regroup and build on what we've achieved this year."
Comments
homergriffin says...
BozOnline - I'm an Irishman and I agree with you on most (if not all of the points). Most interestingly, your point about the lack of variation and changing of the game plan is exactly what the Irish pundits mentioned. I think De Villiers is a very good coach but he needs to focus more on options and not just kicking the ball. We have Rob Kearney (the best at fielding kicks in the world) and yet Steyn and Pienaar kept giving us our best attacking platform.
Having said that, the SA will bounce back.
Posted 13:36 29th November 2009
BozOnline says...
Yes, the Boks were poor yesterday, and the Irish were better. There's no doubt about that. But instead of dwelling on recriminations, let's look for lessons learned from the November tests:
1 - You cannot carry a player who is not up to it. This goes for Smit at prop as much as it goes for Jacobs at centre, or Kankowski at 8. I say this even though the Sharks are my team. If you don't pick THE best players in EVERY position, you WILL lose test matches, and you will do so consistently. Yes, you need to test combinations and blood new players, but that's what the mid-week matches are for. Smit is NOT a prop, and if this test series didn't show that, nothing will. He's a hooker or he's gone. Don't move him to prop just so that Chiliboy can hobble onto the bench.
2 - We don't have much depth across the park. There were a couple of finds this season, including De Jongh, Brussouw, Potgieter and Deysel, but at scrumhalf, fullback, wing, front row, and second row, we need to look more carefully. This means keeping players we already have, or find a way of selecting players who don't stay in SA (F Steyn, De Villiers, BJ Botha, James, etc).
3 - Pieter de Villiers is a good coach, but he needs to take the next step. Thinking that he could use the same game plan through a whole season is just stupid. Once the plan is known, it would take a knowledgeable ten-year old to figure out how to combat it. A comfort zone is as bad for a coach as for a player, and never has there been a coach further back in his comfort zone than De Villiers.
4 - We need on-field leaders. Smit is a great leader, but when the game plan fails, it's up to him to change things on the fly, and he doesn't seem able to do that. Maybe that's because he's tied up in the front row; picking a backline leader could help.
These are not difficult things to fix. We have the talent; we just need to use it.
Posted 10:29 29th November 2009
Andhesaid says...
Smit - The Boks performance was shocking to say the least. Dont talk about fatigue being factor Nz and Aus played more or less the same amount of games yet look how well they finished the year.We played the same old style that we played all year, kick and chase and then try smash and run over everyone. Why can't our team see that kicking is not working and change tactics - why??...Guess what!! Ireland and France have watched and studied the videos of our game plan weeks ago and were ready for us.The Irish are good high ball catchers as they play Gaelic football from a young age, so are not afraid of the high balls. The Irish No15+14 even showed us a bit in the Lions tour that they were solid under the high ball...That kick and chase tactic is over used now, it worked for us during the tri nations but its effectiveness as our main attacking point is over. We need our backs to be more creative and run the ball more. You know it makes me think that if Carter was in the NZ team this year would we have beaten them? The Boks need to start using their brains as strength alone is not the answer. We have the players to do the job they just need to be shown how to do it.
Posted 02:49 29th November 2009