Prominent northern hemisphere critic Jeremy Guscott has joined the chorus of naysayers about the currently labouring Springboks.
In his weekly column on the BBC Sport website (www.bbc.co.uk) the former England and British and Irish Lions centre, who kicked a famous match- and series-swinging dropped goal on the Lions’ 1997 tour of South Africa, said he felt the maiden Castle Rugby Championship had been “indifferent” thus far.
“I’ve loved watching the brilliance of (runaway leaders) the All Blacks; they are so much better than the rest but even they look a tad jaded.
“The Wallabies and Springboks have been dreadful by their own standards … the Boks have nothing more than kicking to offer which is embarrassing when Bryan Habana is on fire.”
PRAISE FOR PUMAS
But he did reserve special praise for tournament debutants Argentina.
“The Pumas have been nothing short of brilliant … first game apart (beaten 27-6 by South Africa in Cape Town) they have been extremely competitive and could have beaten both the Boks (in Mendoza) and Wallabies already.
“Without doubt (in their remaining home fixtures) they will give NZ a good run in a couple of weeks and they have a really good chance against the Aussies a week later.”
Turning to the traditional end-of-year tours by the southern hemisphere sides, Guscott said that if Australia and South Africa arrive “in their current form” most of the home unions would fancy their chances of beating them.
“The All Blacks are in a different league right now and I wouldn’t give any home union a sniff (against them) … maybe Wales if they had the game of their lives.”
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September 20th, 2012 at 7:46 am
Well actually there is a lot more than ‘kicking’ to any team that smashes the AB’s in the tight-loose (McCaw excluded)… but there must be more variation from here-on…
September 20th, 2012 at 8:20 am
Well, how can one argue with Guscott, it isn’t like he is far wrong with the fact that we have been unimaginative and poor.
September 20th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Reply to biltongbek @ 8:20 am:
But for missed kicks and botched tries the Boks would have lost only one game this entire season and beaten the mighty All Blacks…
September 20th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 9:01 am:
How ‘poor’ would the Boks have been then?
September 20th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Yep, that is so. The situation we are facing is a worldwide perception that we only kick. And that we don’t have the necessary skills to use our backlines.
The reality is we do kick, however the purpose of those kicks are to create pressure and play territory, we unfortunately aren’t executing those kicks well, they are often too deep so no pressure is created.
As far as not having skills in the backline, well I can’t argue that on the evidence of how we are stuffing up final passes etc.
The only way the perception is going to change is when we execute our backline moves and score those tries when we go wide.
The fact is the tries we scored in this Rugby Championship has not come from backline moves, it was all one pass wonders, inidividual plays and opportunism.
September 20th, 2012 at 11:01 am
Reply to biltongbek @ 9:06 am:
Yep…
September 20th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Well let everyone think that… all that counts is winning.
September 20th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Good player and pretty smart guy.
Besides predictable patterns are easier to counter, we give a away possession and hope pressure causes mistakes.
For me the tragedy is having Habadonna on the wing chasing kicks. Terrible. Just a few angled runs at pace he could have scored plenty more.
September 20th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
The day I will take any pommy or European serious is the day I stop watch rugby…..