The lights were on but no-one was at home!
Adnaan Mohamed – Sport24
That is how Springbok wing Bryan Habana described last week’s humiliating Tri-Nations loss to the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland.
“The All Blacks played with great intensity. We disappointed ourselves in the way we arrived there on the day. We let ourselves down. It’s always tough to bounce back when you lose your first game on tour,” Habana said at the team hotel on Tuesday.
The Springboks have another opportunity to set the record straight when the tackle the All Blacks at the Westpac stadium on Saturday.
“The great thing about it is that you get another chance the following week. Hopefully we can get our mental preparation right so that we can put up more of a fight come Saturday afternoon,” said Habana.
The Bok-winger said they allowed the All Blacks to really lift their intensity for 80 minutes.
“There were periods in the game where we had a sniff of coming back. We were on their try line but they kept us out. For an All Black side to keep a Springbok-side tryless is quite a feat.
“On attack they also showed why they are the number one team in the world at the moment.
Habana says he expects the conditions to play a huge role in the outcome of the game.
“It will be my third time playing in the Cake Tin (Westpac stadium) in a Springbok-jersey. I will never forget 2008 how difficult the rain and the wind were to handle.
“International rugby gives you the opportunity to test yourself in the most difficult conditions. But conditions are something that we don’t have any control over. It will be the same for both teams. At the end of the day the team that is able to use these factors to the best of their ability, will come out victorious,” he explained.
The speedster believes their accuracy and execution was not where they wanted it to be last week. They will have to raise the bar if they want to win the game.
“Last week we were on the back foot for most of the game. After the yellow card everything started going against us and it was difficult to come back.  The physicality in last week’s Test it was not any different to what it was in Hamilton, Durban and Bloemfontein last year.
“Part of the solution is a change in attitude. All the role players will have to stick to the systems,” he added.
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July 13th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Jirre tog, is dit ek of praat hulle amper meer as laasweek?
Hoop net hulle speel helfte so goed Saterdag soos wat hulle praat voor die tyd.
July 13th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
that is why I hate press… as a coach. You can’t open your mouth without someone making a story out of it
July 13th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
BTW For all those stats freaks out there:
http://www.ruggastats.com/games.aspx?G=98
July 13th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Interesting:
83 Ball carries
3 line breaks
3 off-loads
We also KICKED LESS than the AB’s!!
We kicked 21 times
AB’s kicked 26 times
Possession:
57,58% to the AB’s.
AB’s and their kicking tactics
July 13th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Reply to JT @ 1:47 pm:
NZ: for every 2,2% of possession the AB’s kicked the ball.
SA: for every 2,0% of possession the Bokke kicked the ball.
July 13th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Reply to JT @ 1:49 pm:
So every 2,1% of the game time there is a kick!! Consider all the time lost for scrums and setting up line-outs and restarts that is a shit load of kicks…
BUT it is NOT an increasing trend compared to the game I watched last night from 1981
July 13th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Gurthro Steenkamp was the Springbok making the most tackles on Saterday – making an mazing 23 tackles , assiting with another 7tackles, only missing 2 tackles
At least one was switched on!!
July 13th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Reading into this our game-plan… Now most of you think it is all about kicking!?
Lets see:
RJ: 4 kicks, 54 passes and 6 Ball carries.
MS: 11 Kicks, 18 Passes and 3 carries.
IMO that points to a balanced attack considering that most of the kicks were under pressure from own half. Perceptions
July 13th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
For an All Black side to keep a Springbok-side tryless is quite a feat.
=====
Remember worse, like 0-28.
Not to mention the OZmobs 0-49.
July 13th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Most damning stat:
83 Ball carries
3 line breaks
3 off-loads
Says it all.
July 13th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
So the big question… Who was the culprits other than Bakkies!?
Burger – 5 handling errors!
JdP – 3 handling errors!
Tackles:
Bekker – 5 tackles made 3 missed!
JdP – 8 tackles made 4 missed!
Smit – 9 tackles made 3 missed!
Burger – 21 tackles made 3 missed!*
WO – 22 tackles made 3 missed!*
*I can live with that!
July 13th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Reply to Boertjie @ 2:21 pm:
3 off-loads means off-load in the tackle. Which tells me we are losing the contact hence dying with the ball. On the front foot in contact you look for the off-load.
July 13th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Boertjie will kill you for saying something negative about Bekker and will point out that Juan De Jongh with his step would have been much better than Meisiekind
Anyway here is some poephol statistician this morning on 702
“We spent USD40 billion on the world cup but only USD15 billion was just on World Cup infrastructure, so that is just a drop in the ocean, the far largers portion was spent on national infrastructure development…
Excuse me but the way I see it
40 / 10 = 4 x 25 = 100 and thus percentage
15/10 = 1,5 x 25 = 37,5% of the spend was just to upgrade soccer stadiums and buikld bus stops around the soccer stadiums…
That is not just a small fraction…
Just a thought
July 13th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 4:27 pm:
And now they wonder what to do
with the Mbombela stadium.
Even mention of an open air
restaurant.
I wonder what will be left of
it after a year?
July 13th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
SA will bid for 2020 Olympics
SASCOC has announced that it would formally oversee a bid for the 2020 Olympic Games to be staged in South Africa.
=====
After the fook up concerning
the team that went to Beijing?
Have they ANY idea of what you
need – in one city – to host
the Olympics?
And after that? Only the Olympic
village can be put to good use.
July 14th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Reply to JT @ 2:15 pm:
Now we know why they lost.
Not enough kicking!
July 14th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Spies gained 50m
Not bad for a guy with no skills eh?
Januarie made -17m.
He must be a f^(3king good mechanic.