Blame it on silly substitutions!

I actually cannot put into words the frustration I am feeling right now … it was anger on Sunday morning, but once the hangover subsided and I had had a chance to take in the game again, it turned into just plain frustration. TANK LANNING on Sport24.

I still truly believe that the Boks had the game in the bag at half time. Sure the lineout was a bit of a shambles – Gert Smal had obviously done his homework and told the Irish the Bok lineout calls and moves, and according to Matfield, even given them some lessons in Afrikaans! But for the first time in a long time, the Bok scrum was on fire, and this in turn, was powering the Boks to a more than solid performance.

So what does coach P Divvy do? He changes the one thing that is working, and goes back to Bismarck at hooker and John Smit at tighthead. And the result: The Bok scrum crumbles, as does the Bok game. And Bismark certainly did nothing to rectify the lineout woes …

The second half saw the visitors coughing up possession in contact – a real theme (and worry) of the tour. All of Jaque Fourie, Victor Matfield, and Danie Rossouw made very public cough ups …

What else does the almighty coach do? He pulls his number one goal kicker from the field … Sure Steyn did not have a great day at the office, but his kicks at goal were pretty long, and when Pienaar hit the post with first attempt, it could only have knocked the confidence further.

I always knew the Bok’s bench management, or lack thereof, to be precise, would come home to haunt them. And haunt them it did on Saturday. Just bloody pathetic …

This is not to say the Boks would definitely have won the game had they not had such a monumental bench brain fart, but they would have at least given themselves a chance.

It’s no bloody wonder the coach lost out on “Coach of the year”. It would have been a travesty had he taken that award …

And I am afraid I do not buy this “The players are exhausted” crap from Div. Anyone seen the All Black results from their end of year tour? Anyone seen the amount of SA players playing in the Baa Baa game on Saturday? Nope, the problem runs a lot deeper than the flippant “exhausted” excuse I am afraid …