PLAYER RATINGS
Wynona Louw
Beautifully read Francois TrinhDuc’s kick early on and followed it up with a good run. His defensive alignment leading up to the first try by the French was a bit shaky. Fantastic work when he snatched the ball from French hands and popped it to Siya Kolisi (centimetres from the touchline, I should add). Great off-the-ground offload to Courtnall Skosan in the third quarter. Didn’t have too many opportunities, but did the basics right.
Went looking for work. Looked dangerous early on with a sniping run and great offload to Andries Coetzee. Did well on defence – that driving-back tackle on the big Virimi Vakatawa was superb. His intercept on own five relieved some good pressure for the Boks.
Great work on defence and produced a few nice runs, including a beautiful line early on. He was guilty of one or two handling errors, but an overall solid performance.
Did well to finish off the Boks’ first try. His defensive organisation was good, and he produced a few nice touches.
Fantastic offload to Kolisi in the build-up to Serfontein’s try. Nowhere pass just before Kolisi’s out-of-this-world intercept and run to score. A few nice runs, but he wasn’t as active with the ball as he would have liked.
He handled the game with composure again and his goalkicking was spot on (he missed only one penalty kick). Nice work leading up to the last try. And he even had time to smile after that
drop (he knew there was a penalty advantage).
That try-saving tackle on Damian Penaud deserves an A for effort. His service was quick and his game management was tops.
I feel I need a separate rating just for that interplay between him and Malcolm Marx in the last quarter, I mean, that overhead pass by Marx, the offload and run by Whiteley… that was just superb. He did well to snatch the ball up after Skosan couldn’t secure the high ball, and he followed it up a top run. He produced a few lovey runs and he was ever-present at the breakdowns. Oh, and I just love how he always chases kicks. And the way he runs onto the ball at pace. And his ballhandling. And now I’ll stop.
Not enough time to be rated.
All he had to do was kick for posts in Durban and he would have done it all. Spectacular performance – nothing I can say can paint a clearenough picture. That is all.
Just like Eben Etzebeth, he was right up there when it came to making tackles. He was good at the lineouts and produced great work at the breakdowns that just did not stop.
Great performance. Top effort to take Scott Spedding into touch before he scored. He was a monster on defence and made a lot of good tackles. He didn’t terrorise opposition defence with his rampaging runs, but he had a good game overall.
On Saturday he showed that he does offer more than just his scrummaging ability (well, we knew that, he just made it quite easy to forget with his recent Super Rugby showings). He was aggressive at close quarters and made an impressive steal. Also, his set-piece performance couldn’t be faulted.
He didn’t emulate his performance of last week, but he looked good again and I have to say his line-out throws are starting to look like less of an issue, which is great for obvious reasons, but also because that will mean that rugby traditionalists can no longer moan “it’s no use having a hooker that plays like a No 8 if he can’t hit his targets.”
He looked a bit more involved in open play than last week, but that involvement also saw him concede a penalty for tackling a player without the ball. Also conceded a scrum penalty, but he won one as well.