Six-try Boks cruise to victory over World XV
South Africa (18) 47 World XV (13) 13
JOB done and boxes ticked as the Springboks ran out comfortable winners against a spirited, but outclassed, World XV yesterday.
Once the Boks quelled the World XV’s initial and expected onslaught, the home team turned the screw, keeping the World XV scoreless in the second half while adding four tries to the two they scored in the first. The Boks were aided by separate yellow cards for flank Mamuka Gorgodze and scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan, for cynical and foul play respectively.
“We knew we would struggle initially but we wanted to build an innings and that what’s we did,” said coach Heyneke Meyer.
“At half time there were some harsh words and Victor [Matfield] showed his leadership by telling the guys to keep calm.”
Debutant Cornal Hendricks was lively on the right wing and did enough to deserve another shot and a full test cap against Wales next week, while JP Pietersen was promising at outside centre.
Matfield also showed that he’s lost none of his touch at the highest level and not only in the tight and at set pieces. At one stage he tracked back 35m to cut down rampaging World XV hooker Craig Burden. It exemplified Matfield’s commitment and ability.
The rolling maul purred along nicely and provided two tries from hooker Bismarck du Plessis. Bryan Habana and Willie le Roux showed their finishing prowess by each scoring a try.
Bakkies Botha scored a rare try when he finished a fine move and Johan Goosen showed some good touches to score a late try, hinting that his poor Cheetahs form might be behind him.
But the match also provided several questions for Meyer after his side were made to work hard for their deserved victory.
The Springbok lineout functioned well, but the scrums were erratic, with both tighthead Jannie du Plessis and loosehead Tendai Mtawarira penalised in the first half for boring in. On other occasions the scrum went backwards, which will be an area to address.
“Hopefully the World XV did enough to make the Boks look at areas of their game that were good and some that were not so good,” World XV coach Nick Mallett said.
In the loose, Steffon Armitage, the Toulon and England flank, was a menace, but he came up against an equally tenacious duo of Francois Louw and No 8 Duane Vermeulen, who were also destructive at the breakdown.
Defensively, the Boks were sound, with the World XV’s only try coming in the sixth minute from a fortuitous bounce into Hargreaves’ hands after Kruger was pulled down short of the line.
Although the scoreline was not the main focus of the outing for the Springboks, Meyer will be relieved that it looked comfortable in the end because, in the opening half, it was anything but an easy ride.
“There were too many mistakes and soft penalties in the first half,” said Matfield.
“After 20 minutes we knew we were in a test match, but we cut the stupid errors in the second half and that made a big difference.”