Boks victory was unconvincing

Springbok full-back Johan Goosen runs with the ball as Italy's Luke Mclean is left sprawled in his wake during the Test between Italy and South Africa in Padua, Italy. Picture: Paolo Giovannini

Springbok full-back Johan Goosen runs with the ball as Italy's Luke Mclean is left sprawled in his wake during the Test between Italy and South Africa in Padua, Italy. Picture: Paolo Giovannini

Published Nov 23, 2014

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Italy (6) 6

South Africa (8) 22

Padova - In the build-up to this Test, the Springboks spoke all week about how they intended to use the lessons of a horror night in Dublin to ensure that they are in the right frame of mind against lowly Italy.

But a performance riddled with inaccurate play, questionable captaincy decisions and a lack of dynamic attacking strategies saw the Boks labour to a unconvincing 22-6 victory on a clear but chilly day at the Stadio Euganeo on Saturday.

The South Africans kept the Italians in the game largely due to their own mistakes, while skipper Jean de Villiers once again refused to ask flyhalf Patrick Lambie to have shots at goal from penalties on at least three occasions.

All three times the Boks failed to convert the five-metre lineout into a try, although the Boks did eventually score in the first instance after initially losing the line-out.

Italy knocked the ball over the dead-ball line after winning the line-out against the throw, and from the resultant scrum the South Africans put a few phases together before tighthead prop Coenie Oosthuizen barrelled over to put his team ahead at 8-3 after the opening quarter.

The Boks battled to get into their game as they got involved in a few off-the-ball push-and-shove episodes with the Italians and were unable to impose themselves on the opposition.

While the line-out was a great source of possession, the main problem again for the Boks was that they couldn’t make the best use of all the ball that came their way.

They lacked creativity on attack, with one-off runners the order of the day, with the loose forwards and backs not looking to offload in the tackle.

The likes of Duane Vermeulen, Marcell Coetzee, Coenie Oosthuizen and De Villiers bashed it up the middle, but the Italy defence were waiting for them and were successful in swallowing up any Bok ball-carrier.

Bok flyhalf Lambie attempted a cross-kick to JP Pietersen early on in the game, but that was one of the few times that the South Africans tried to stretch the Italian defence and test their big but slow wings Luke Mclean and Leonardo Sarto.

On the few occasions that the Bok backs did get it right, new fullback Johan Goosen showed just how dangerous he could be with a perfectly-timed run into a gap, breaking the line and shrugging off a few defenders. He didn’t have any support runners as he was tackled on the Italy 22, but the move came to nothing after Reinach and Coetzee got in the way of each other and the ball was passed forward.

But one area of progress was certainly the scrums, where Trevor Nyakane and Coenie Oosthuizen passed their acid test against the powerful Italian scrum with flying colours.

Nyakane was probably the best Bok on the day and never took a backward step to giant tighthead Martin Castrogiovanni, while Oosthuizen got on top of, first, Matias Aguero and, later, replacement Alberto de Marchi.

Blindside flank Teboho Mohoje wasn’t far behind Nyakane, with the Cheetahs No 7 bringing explosive physicality and energy in the tight-loose.

Mohoje had arguably his best Test in terms of ball-carrying, with the Italians finding him hard to stop at close quarters.

And after struggling to dispatch a competitive and physical Italian side, the Boks needed a moment of inspiration from debutant loose forward Nizaam Carr to unlock the defence and secure a hard-earned victory.

After coming on in the 56th minute, Carr showed his more experienced teammates how it is done four minutes later when he ran a beautiful line and cut the Italian defence after good build-up work by Bismarck du Plessis, with Carr producing a superb offload in the tackle to put Reinach clean through under the posts.

The Western Province loose forward then proved that he belonged in the Test arena with a forceful display for the rest of the game – he was relentless on defence, carried the ball with finesse and chased hard after the loose ball.

Replacement flyhalf Handré Pollard added the finishing touches in the last minute with a brilliant break from inside his own half, with the Bulls star flinging a wonderful long pass to Bryan Habana to race over in the corner. But Bok coach Heyneke Meyer will be a worried man this morning as his team took a backward step in terms of their attacking game after showing significant progress in the past two years.

The wet conditions were a feasible excuse in the last two weeks, but a sunny and dry day greeted the Boks yesterday, and they should’ve made much better use of their possession.

SCORERS

Italy – Penalties: Kelly Haimona (2).

South Africa – Tries: Coenie Oosthuizen, Cobus Reinach, Bryan Habana. Conversions: Handré Pollard (2). Penalty: Patrick Lambie.

Other international rugby and late UK football in later editions

- Sunday Tribune

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