Boks: peaking at the right time?
Brad Morgan
3 November 2003
South Africa raised the World Cup ante with an impressive 60-10 dismantling of Samoa in their final pool game. With a dominating performance from the Springbok front five, the Samoans - so impressive against England the week before - were never given a chance to challenge Corne Krige's men.
The South African domination began from the first whistle, as Victor Matfield fielded the kickoff and the Boks then drove the ball up smartly with a powerful maul. Captain Corne Krige broke off the back, sprinting down the right hand touchline before being hauled in.
From the ensuing maul, Joost van der Westhuizen broke blind, and when the desperate cover defence finally reached him he passed inside to Joe van Niekerk. The classy flanker was steaming upfield and easily outpaced the flailing defenders to crash over for the first of South Africa's eight tries.
It was a great start for Rudolf Straeuli's charges, one that staggered the Samoans, and a
blow from which they never recovered, despite a furious effort at the start of the second half to get back into the contest.
Best of the year
It was the Springboks' best performance of the year by a country mile, and it was the big men that set it up. From the very first scrum the front row of Christo Bezuidenhout, John Smit and Faan Rautenbach laid down the law to the Samoans, putting them in reverse and swinging the scrum as they sought to do. It was a supremacy that continued throughout the game.
Behind the front three, the locks, Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield, were magnificent. They caused the Samoans plenty of problems in the lineouts, poaching many balls throughout the match, while in the loose they were simply spectacular, getting around the field at a fantastic clip, making tackle after tackle, and thus setting up the loose forwards to roam free.
And the Springbok loose trio, who have been in fine form throughout the
World Cup, produced their most complete showing yet, thanks to the hard work put in by the tight five. Bok skipper Corne Krige set a brilliant example, showing up very well both on offence and defence, while Juan Smith enhanced his rapidly growing reputation as a hard-working, skilful and fast eighthman.
Joe van Niekerk was, as usual, superb in all facets of play. Unfortunately, Van Niekerk provided one of the few low points for the Springboks, suffering a serious injury to his right knee which has ruled him out of the rest of the World Cup.
It is a big loss not only for South Africa but for rugby fans in general, because one cannot but help be enthralled by his big-hearted game.
Solid halfback play
Behind the Springbok scrum, Joost van der Westhuizen turned in an assured performance in the number nine jersey, mixing up his game nicely with good option-taking, while he also protected flyhalf Derick Hougaard well.
And speaking
of the young number 10, he slotted in with few problems to his role as the man pulling the strings behind the Springbok pack. Apart from two uncharacteristically shoddy dropped goal attempts, he was solid and looked the part.
Centres Jorrie Muller and De Wet Barry stood up well to the strong-running Samoan midfield, while wingers Theunis Delport and Ashwin Willemse also did their bit to stifle the attack of the islanders, which was how the Springboks scored most of their points: by using turnover ball effectively.
Fullback Jaco van der Westhuysen showed he is going to be a big loss to Springbok rugby when he continues his career in Japan. He has fantastic running and ball-handling skills, and scored what was possibly the try of the game.
The Samoans, for their part, were never given the opportunity to hit the stride they found so quickly against England. Certainly, they gave it a full go, and early in the second half they gave the South Africans plenty of anxious
moments as they launched wave after wave of attack, even though they had gone into the break trailing 31-3.
Unfortunately for Samoa, they lacked the sparkle they showed against England. Maybe their huge effort against the English had taken too much out of them for the clash against the very physical South Africans.
A warning
Amid all the euphoria of a classy win, however, Samoan assistant coach and All Black legend Michael Jones sounded a warning to the Springboks. He suggested that New Zealand would expose Corne Krige's line-up when the two teams meet in the quarterfinals.
Coming from Jones, one must assume that this is not a case of sour grapes; he is not that type of man. He said the New Zealanders are used to producing high-level performances week in and week out, something that Samoa have not yet mastered.
Nonetheless, Jones said the Boks are looking better and better, but a showdown against the All Blacks could be the
ultimate test. However, given the hard time that Wales gave New Zealand before finally bowing 53-37 to Reuben Thorne's team, the idea of the ultimate test could be applied to both teams.
For the moment, though, South African optimism is high, both among the team and it supporters.
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