The Rugby Championship continued...
Mike Penistone looks back at how New Zealand avoided defeat and at the continuing momentum build of the Wallabies
The hundredth test match. All Blacks v South Africa (19-17)
All Blacks avoid a mugging…just.
Team play is……
“Using the ball is a blend of understanding with attitude; of team awareness with individual virtuosity; of practised patterns with spontaneous reaction. The blending is elusive and short-lived”.
This test match was anything but a good example of team play!
They say rugby is a game played in heaven; it must be because De Klerk, Pollard and Le Roux kept kicking the ball up there. Fortunately, gravity determined the outcome.
Pre covid I had the joy of working with the most talented group of 16-year-old players I have ever worked with, and they were South Africans, on tour in Italy. They had playing knowledge, were concerned about performance and therefore you had to challenge them at training. They had a love of the product, Rugby Union.
They would not have endorsed this South African approach to playing the game!! And this was not a one off.
One studio commentator described the game as spectacular test match rugby. He is delusional if he thinks the public believe that!
The recent Lions tour did the game a dis-service, no-one talks about it.
Compare the 100th test to the 9 try thriller at Ellis Park, Johannesburg a few years ago.
I have a real soft spot for South Africa it is a unique place to visit.
Their DNA for rugby will never change but their playing approach at test level must. There is an abundance of young talent in school and Varsity rugby let’s hope it can influence the coaching of the National side.
As an aside the South African club side’s now playing in the United Rugby Competition in the Northern Hemisphere, all lost this weekend, Bulls to Leinster, Sharks to Munster and Stormers to Benetton. (Italian team)
Maybe the red lights are flashing?