This morning the South African rugby team lost to the New Zealand All Blacks by 24-17 and I was happy about the result. It is not often you can smile when your team loses, but in this case the match could have gone either way. When I was out during the day I heard people complaining about the referee as the local commentary on television highlighted this. This was not the case and it was the team who were not playing like everyone just expects them to. No excuses just do better next time.
New Zealand scored early on due to one missed tackle and another error of judgement which were soft tries. Conditions under foot were slippery due to over night rain and during the match there were multiple down pours. The set pieces like the line outs did not go to plan and there were just too many errors in the first half. The half time score was 14-3 to the All Blacks and the lead was justified. This was a first half to forget as the SA error count gave them no chance to mount a proper attack.
The second half was far better for SA with fewer mistakes and many more opportunities. SA outscored New Zealand by 2 tries to one and could have scored at least 2 more if they had been clinical. The line outs which are your guaranteed possession started to function far better along with the scrums which saw the home side being penalized regularly and shoved off the ball.
SA lost the game 24-17 and we know New Zealand played to their strengths and had the rub of the green and SA played an average type of game. The positives is that the SA team has far more to bring for next week and they are only know getting into a rhythm.
At the beginning of the season we said they were undercooked and it has taken them 2 and a half games to start playing like they are expected. The standards have been missing up until now and even with a loss there is so much comfort knowing they have a few more gears left in the locker.
The New Zealand crowd was tense and nervous as the pendulum was swinging towards SA the longer the game went on. The last 15 minutes was all SA on attack and I thought a fair result would have been a draw and I am happy knowing it was a close game even though SA played poorly for the first 40 minutes. The rivalry between these two sides is great and if one side was always winning then it would not be fun.
Next week New Zealand knows what is coming and I am hoping for dryer weather as I expect the SA team to run out winners. The first match was always going to be touch and go not knowing what to expect and 7 points difference is nothing. Get the line outs working 100% and retain possession working on certain areas to be more clinical and the result will be far different.
For New Zealand there is not much they can do as their scrum is the best players they have and this is the area they are vulnerable and have weaknesses. This will be exposed next week and New Zealand know this because it was that obvious and one can only imagine if the field is dry then they are in for a tough time and will be on the back foot.