ABSOLUTELY WOEFUL
Springboks lose to Wales for only the third time in 110 years
the week, citing lack of time between his appointment on April 11 and the first test against Ireland on June 11 as reasons why he was on the back foot from the outset.
But England coach Eddie Jones said in the week that his job was not to teach players how to play rugby, but rather to teach them how to be a team.
Coetzee can complain about all the issues that plague South African rugby, but he hasn’t forged a team with a sense of direction and purpose.
His team selection for this match – with a backline that had only 40 test caps between it – suggested he had run out of ideas. Building for 2019 was his reasoning for fielding such a callow unit.
Predictably there was lots of huff and puff early on with the youngsters trying to run everything, but very little on field leadership.
Flyhalf Elton Jantjies had another poor game in the green and gold and his halfback partner Faf de Klerk also struggled.
From the outset Jantjies looked a shadow of the player that swaggered through Super Rugby. Early on he showed his rust with a poor inside pass that was forward, another pass that missed its target altogether and an attempted chip kick that Wales flank Justin Tipuric charged. Ruan Combrinck had to tidy the mess up desperately.
Without direction from Jantjies and De Klerk the Boks never once looked close to scoring a try until the pair were withdrawn around the hour mark. Initially the backs ran laterally and when they did bash it up, Wales’ defence easily coped with the pressure.
De Klerk also earned a silly 42ndminute yellow card for a deliberate knock on and while he was off the field Wales stretched their 12-6 halftime lead to 20-6.
Fullback Leigh Halfpenny added to his four first-half penalties with a fifth directly from De Klerk’s infringement and hooker Ken Owens scored from a driving maul minutes later. It was a dagger to the heart of the Boks slim hopes.
But the introduction of Pat Lambie and Piet van Zyl gave the Boks better direction at halfback and from a rolling maul tireless flank Uzair Cassiem, who enjoyed a strong debut, scored to keep the Boks alive in the contest.
Jantjies’ early penalty was just reward for a bright start but repeated mistakes set the Boks back. A lineout infringement by Lood de Jager, not rolling away by Adriaan Strauss, and an accidental offside by Rohan Janse van Rensburg allowed Halfpenny to keep the scoreboard moving.
The Boks were also turned over in contact twice in the first half alone when fullback Johan Goosen and Janse van Rensburg had the ball ripped off them.
Wales secured their victory when Tipuric ran a wonderful angle on to a Taulupe Faletau pass to score and end a season of misery for South African rugby with the Springboks lined up behind the poles for the 35th time in 2016.