Boks in record win over England
Brad Morgan
28 May 2007
The Springboks got their season off to a record-breaking start by crushing England 58-10 in Bloemfontein on Saturday. It took the home side some time to get going in both halves, but once they did there were fireworks.
Something that would have really made coach Jake White happy was the impact of the South African bench. After he had put the complete compliment of substitutes on the field, the Boks scored 28 points in the final 10 minutes in an impressive finish. White has long spoken of having depth at each position for the World Cup. From the results achieved on Saturday, it appears his wish might have been granted.
Brilliant Burger
White was surely also thrilled with the performance of flank Schalk Burger, who was named man of the match. Last season he suffered a serious neck injury against Scotland that put his future in rugby in doubt. However, this season he returned strongly for the Stormers in the Super 14.
Against England he was everywhere the ball was, and he was a force to be reckoned with, both on attack and defence.
Brian Habana continued the fine form he exhibited in the second half of the Super 14, scoring two tries, the second of which was an especially good effort, while Butch James enjoyed a good outing at flyhalf, and his strong defence kept England flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson in check.
At the back, Percy Montgomery, playing his eighty-first test, and a record sixty-sixth at fullback, turned in a solid showing. His vision set up Habana's second try, while he was flawless with the boot, landing all 10 kicks he took at goal.
Early penalty
The Springboks were on the board in the second minute of the game when England gave up a penalty at a ruck and Montgomery punished them with the boot, as he would do all afternoon, slotting the kick to put SA 3-0 up.
When the first scrum was awarded in the fifth minute, it was reset four
times. That, unfortunately, was to become a regular theme in the game.
Afterwards, Springbok captain John Smit complained about illegal England tactics in the scrums, but expressed his belief that the referee would deal with it before the second test in Pretoria. A not-so-subtle bit of psychology?
After seven minutes, with most of the play having taken place in the middle of the park, England had an opportunity to get on the scoreboard after Smit was penalised for entering a ruck from the side. Wilkinson was just wide to the right with his effort.
Montgomery extended South Africa's lead to six points in the sixteenth minute with a penalty after England was trapped offsides.
First try
The first try of the contest came up after 23 minutes. Juan Smith did well to gather a sloppy tapped-down ball after England threw in at a lineout inside their 22-metre area. After three quick pick-and-drives the ball was moved smartly left where
good hands from Jean de Villiers and Montgomery opened up the flank for winger Ashwin Willemse to run in an easy five-pointer.
The successful conversion put the Boks into a healthy 13-0 lead.
Shortly afterwards, England centre Matthew Tait, who looked sharp on the attack all afternoon, made a nice break. Once he was brought to ground the ball was moved right where it found flank Chris Jones.
In an effort to prevent the movement from stalling he lobbed a long pass out to the right. It went too far and Habana was quick to pick the ball up on the bounce and pin his ears back as he flew down the sideline. England skipper Jason Robinson raced across to try to prevent Habana scoring, but it was too late as he dived across the line to complete an 80 metre scoring run and increase South Africa's lead.
Montgomery added two points with the conversion and suddenly the gap had opened to 20 points.
English score
On the half hour
England scored its first points of the game when Wilkinson landed a penalty from inside his own half, just clearing the crossbar. 20-3 to South Africa.
Montgomery was presented with another shot at goal when the Springboks won a penalty at scrum time and, again, he did his job perfectly to once again open the difference to 20 points.
With halftime approaching, South Africa won a turnover in their 22 metre area. However, England was quick to put defensive pressure on the Boks and it appeared there wasn't room to launch a counter-attack.
Not so. De Villiers sold a neat dummy in the midfield and suddenly the field opened up before him. He raced up the middle as two defenders flew in from wide to try to cut him off. Showing excellent vision, De Villiers turned the first one inside out, then cut back left to wrong foot Iain Balshaw as he ran in on cover-defence.
Halftime
With a big smile on his face, De Villiers crashed over the
tryline. Montgomery converted and the halftime whistle sounded with South Africa 30-3 to the good.
The strong finish to the half made it appear that the English would be overrun in the second half, but that didn't happen…for a while at least.
Showing good ball retention, and maybe helped by a Springbok team that appeared to have gone off the boil, England played the game in the South African half after the restart. It became clear that the visitors were trying to establish a territorial advantage by not kicking the ball out and trying to force SA to do just that.
South Africa had dominated the possession stakes in the opening stanza, but England quickly began to even that statistic.
England try
After putting the Boks under pressure in their 22-metre area for some time, the South Africans conceded a penalty for straying offsides. Instead of taking an easy shot at goal, captain Jason Robinson opted for a scrum.
Executing
well, the English moved the ball swiftly to the right as the backline shifted across. Out wide, space was created for winger James Simpson-Daniel who went over in the corner. Wilkinson's conversion never looked like missing and England trailed 30-10.
South Africa, with lots of substitutes coming onto the field, finally seemed to snap out of the lethargy that had been plaguing them in the second half. The man to get the scoreboard moving for the home side was, deservedly, Schalk Burger.
SA hit back
After a powerful run by Pierre Spies had punctured England's defences, the livewire flanker was on hand to win the loose ball and crash over the tryline. Montgomery, predictably, converted to make the score 37-10.
A few minutes later, Ruan Pienaar gathered a kick downfield from the English. Running onto the ball at pace, he threw a superb dummy to beat one defender. He then drew a second man inside before passing to Francois Steyn for an
easy run in.
The successful conversion upped the score to 44-10. It also saw the Springboks equal the most points they had ever scored against England.
With four minutes to play, Percy Montgomery made a break through England's defensive line. As the tacklers closed in on him, he grubbered the ball towards the English tryline. A number of Englishmen were closing in on the ball, but Bryan Habana was flying after the ball.
Beautifully done
As Jason Robinson went to fall on the ball just short of the English tryline, Habana dived, gathered cleanly, and his momentum carried him across the tryline. It was beautifully done. Montgomery showed vision to nudge the ball through as he did. Habana showed great speed, then great commitment with his dive, and superb concentration to snare the ball, despite a lot of pressure from the defence, to score.
Montgomery knocked over the conversion once more and South Africa led 51-10.
Then, as
time ran out, the Boks launched one final attack. James kicked diagonally towards the right hand touchline. Steyn made the catch and, with some mazy running, ran into the England 22. When he was stopped the ball was quickly moved to the left. James dummied a pass to the inside before passing wide to prop CJ van der Linde who ran in South Africa's seventh and final try.
Montgomery's conversion brought the final score to 58-10 and, mercifully for England, the final whistle sounded.
Fits and starts
It was a game that South Africa played in fits and starts. However, once they got going they proved difficult to stop.
Coach Jake White was not happy with the Springboks' play from first phase ball – scrums and lineouts – and said the team will be working on those aspects of its game before the coming test at Loftus Versfeld.
The problems with reset scrums prevented South Africa exerting their dominance in the set pieces, although there
were signs that the Boks had England's number in the tight phases. SA skipper Smit hinted that the collapsed scrums had a lot to do with the English trying to prevent South Africa dominating the scrums.
Smit was not as accurate as he would have liked to be at lineout time, but that will surely improve as he gets another week to work with the Bulls' lock pairing of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha.
If the Springboks find their accuracy and improve their first phase execution in Pretoria, England could be in for an even more torrid time in the second test.
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