Let’s be honest there were not a few people who questioned the selection of the team when it was announced and many could not believe what PDV had come up with. However despite not being in agreement with the selection, before kick off a Justrugby snap survey revealed that over 95% of fans were predicting a Springbok win!
It is the very essence of the Springbok supporter to believe that whoever is wearing the Green and Gold will give 100% and play for the jersey and that should be good enough to beat all comers.
One thing that the victory over the Irish underlines is that South Africa has tremendous depth at their disposal. To have 13 regular players missing, to select players out of position and to play away from home against a team that had been bragging about their dominance of the Springboks and still pull off a victory, even though it was an ugly win, speaks volumes.
It is a win that will wake up the rugby world that the great green giant is still a threat come the World Cup in 2011 and not to be taken lightly.
There were some players who stood out in the Springbok team and played like world champions. Tendai Mtawarira was immense as he dominated in the scrum, marched against the Irish at will and was huge at the breakdown. In fact the entire tight five were terrific as they ground out an impressive moral victory over the hapless Irish. “Beast” Mtawarira has a cult following wherever he plays and to hear 1000’s in the Dublin crowd growling out “beaassst” every time the powerful prop touched the ball must be a performance enhancer for any team.
Naturally the focus of most people’s attention was going to be on how well Zane Kirchener was going to perform at outside centre and for the most part there were not too many alarm bells besides a missed tackle that was not in the script and proved costly. He was there to do a holding job as and probably played to his ability.
One has to admire the gusty determination of Aplon too who for the majority of the match read the game well and was always in position. However the attempted intercept by Habana which created a ball that Aplon could not gather marred what would have been a solid performance from the fullback.
Ruan Pienaar looked good at scrumhalf and seemed to gain confidence as the match progressed and the little that was seen from debutants Lambie and Daniel was in the most part encouraging.
In the context of all the injuries and lack of preparation for the EOYT one would have to be very pleased with the result. A win will also beat the alternative regardless of how ugly it looked.
There is much work still to be done if the elusive Grand Slam is to be won and playing for the full 80 minutes will be one of the areas they need to look at. Still it is great to be able to celebrate the victory and one can only hope this is one of many more to come.
