Mike Greenaway
LONDON: It perhaps speaks volumes for the team ethos of the Springboks that coach Heyneke Meyer last night reacted with bewilderment to a question as to whether Bryan Habana was disappointed that he butchered a fourth try that would have seen him breaking David Campese’s world record of 64 test tries (for Tier One countries).
Habana scored a hat-trick in the Boks’ 10-try 64-0 destruction of a second-string USA team in their World Cup Pool B clash to draw level with the Wallaby great. “I did not know that Bryan was closing in on the record,” Meyer said. “It was not mentioned in the changeroom, nor have I heard it come up in team talks. I know Bryan very well, and he will be the first to say that individual records come a very distant second to the team goals. I know it sounds corny but it really is about the team. Having said that, if Bryan does break the record, we would be very proud that a South African did it.”
The overall record holder of test match tries is former Japanese wing Daisuke Ohata (69), who scored most of his tries against weak Tier Two opposition such as Chinese Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong, and probably the record that carries most weight is Campese’s tally.
Overall, Meyer was thrilled that the team had eventually qualified for the quarter-finals and said that there was no discomfort in the changeroom at halftime when the Boks were just 14-0 up.
“We knew that if we kept our composure and kept wearing them down, we would be too powerful,” he said. “Our set piece was really strong and we felt that if cut down on the penalties and handling errors, the momentum would come and would produce tries.”
The Boks conceded just one penalty in the second half after Meyer admitted that the discipline in the first half was “unacceptable”.
With the Boks turning up the heat and running rampant on the scoreboard early in the second half, Meyer brought on his bench one by one, and he said that the biggest smile of the evening belonged to Rudy Paige when he got the nod to replace captain Fourie du Preez.
“I am delighted for Rudy, so is the whole team,” Meyer said. “He is a very popular member of the squad and a talented scrumhalf that is going to go onto play many games for South Africa. It was a risk for me to take Fourie off early with few backs on the bench, but I wanted to give him the shot he has been so patiently waiting for.
The refrain from the Bok camp was that they would never allow a “Japan” to happen to them again, and they were indeed ruthlessly efficient in dispatching the hapless Americans, who offered little more than determined defence.
The manner in which the Boks went about their business last night was precisely how they were supposed to play in Brighton against a two-tier nation: Respect the opposition by playing with the urgency you would against a top team; play to South Africa’s strengths of tactical kicking, forward driving and mauling; backs taking the ball over the advantage line; dominating the set-pieces and then cashing in after halftime when the opposition are drained of strength and the holes start opening up.
The Boks scored 14 points in the first half and 50 in the second, which pretty much sums up proceedings. However, it has to be said that the South Africans were anything but efficient in the first half, making a number of unforced errors going into contact and, worryingly, conceding a number of penalties. It’s an area of the Boks’ game the coaching staff keep mentioning is a cause for concern, yet the penalty count remains dangerously high considering the challenges awaiting them in the knockout stages where, as Meyer puts it, three points from a penalty either way with be the difference between winning and losing.
The Boks were heavily dominant in the set-pieces, especially the set scrums where the Eagles’ pack was in reverse from the first scrum to the last.
The errors and the penalties repeatedly halted South Africa’s early momentum, and attacks that threatened to yield tries broke down.
The Boks scored just twice in the first half, once in broken play when Damian de Allende was too elusive for the US defenders, evading a number of attempted tackles when he picked up a loose ball on the Eagles’ 22 and the other from a penalty try.
The Boks would have been given a rocket at halftime because of the error count and the response was a try within two minutes, with Du Preez and Habana getting it right this time, the latter picking up a perfectly threaded grubber kick through the defence from his captain.
Three minutes later, Bismarck du Plessis bulldozed over the try-line after a series of strong drives by the forwards and the bonus point, and the quarter-final spot, were secured at 26-0.
At this point, Meyer brought on Willem Alberts so that the loose forward could get a good 50-minute run and give Schalk Burger a deserved rest.
The Boks’ fifth try came from a penalty kicked to the corner for the inevitable drive to the line, with Francois Louw finishing it off.
And Habana notched up his 63rd try in the green and gold jersey when he got an offload from a De Allende break, and the veteran wing tied with Campese just a few minutes later with a cheeky effort down the blind side.
Louw nailed his second, again from an invincible forward drive, and Kriel and Lwazi Mvovo completed the rout late.
Scorers
South Africa
Tries: Damian de Allende, penalty try, Bryan Habana (3), Bismarck du Plessis, Francois Louw (2), Jesse Kriel, Lwazi Mvovo. Conversions: Handré Pollard (4.) Morné Steyn (4).