Darkest day in SA rugby

THE hiding that South Africa took from the mighty All Blacks was absolutely mind-boggling. After the 2016 disastrous season, in which we only had four wins in 12 games, we never thought things could get worse. Under the same coach the 2017 season saw the Boks unbeaten in six games.

Five wins against mediocre French and Argentine outfits and a lucky draw against the Aussies in 2017 saw the media hustle us rugby supporters into believing we were back on track to again contest the world’s best quite comfortably and give them a good run for their money.

Cometh the hour and cometh the team. The previous biggest defeat to the All Blacks was 57-15, but the latest 57-0 to the same side takes all the cake.

The Boks had 60% possession in the first 30 minutes and either kicked the ball away or simply could do nothing with it.

The back three were constantly shown up when the All Blacks ran back at us, they were just out of their league.

Jan Serfontein has a lost yard or two of pace – that much needed element in today’s rugby.

Both Francois Hougaard and Elton Jantjies (he of the hairstyle) were atrocious and when Handrè Pollard came on the Boks were down 50-0. He must have wondered why he was even brought on.

The captain, Eben Etsebeth, was inconspicuous in his silence. The Boks are missing a leader who can read a game.

Malcolm Marx has, until this game, been the star of the season, but his wheels also came right off and he could do nothing right and was in fact, partially responsible for his team’s shocking lineout performance.

Coming up next is the match against the Aussies here in South Africa and again the mighty All Blacks. Is it going to happen again or are the players going to realise they’re up against 15 men who are not immortal or unbeatable? In fact, the Aussies nearly beat them a week or so back.

I believe the Boks are so used to losing to the All Blacks that they lose the game before they even get on the field.

Maybe now they will be shocked into playing themselves right out of their skins and regaining some lost pride. — Clive Muller, Hamburg

PICTURE the scenario: two props taking the position of flyhalf, running a few metres and bashing the opposition and effecting a platform again and again.

Now, instead of passing to those forwards at flyhalf, as a variation with that strategy, no 9 must give a low bullet straight to inside centre behind the big forwards. That must be unloaded to outside centre extremely quickly, and the outside centre to his wing, also extremely quickly.

If done like that, wing is away with nothing in front of him. — Gavin Rausch, via e-mail