... and that's about it. Of course, on the day there'll be a bunch of other guys in front of us, but I reckon we can take them.
Has the World Cup thrown Australia’s first Tri-Nations win in a decade into a different perspective? Yes. Do their back-to-back victories over South Africa in that tournament have any bearing on the upcoming RWC11 quarter final between the two teams? No. Continue reading
SA & Samoa share a contemplative moment
This was a belter of a game in what has been a very good World Cup. Samoa arrived to North Harbour needing to win to have any hope of going through to the quarter finals. South Africa has stuttered against Wales but PdV seemed to have settled on his strongest team and selected it for the match against the Islanders. Continue reading
Bismarck Back for Boks. Bish Bash Bosh*?
Crazy Piet has made a few headlines over the years with his post match comments. You know the kind. As with many appointments in post-Apartheid South Africa, there was some consternation that he had been appointed partly because of his colour rather than his ability. However, PdV is no fool. Continue reading
When Willem Alberts heard his opposite number was Jacques Burger, all he could think of was the next meal. At Fergburger.
South Africa just put an eighty-burger on the hapless Namibians. Continue reading
Superstar, coming through
Mole got up with a pot of coffee to watch SA v Fiji on Saturday morning with memories of a glorious summer’s day in Marseille in his head. That game had been one of the highlights of the 2007 World Cup. The prospect of a repeat performance was quite enticing, if a little unexpected, given South Africa’s tepid display against Wales in the opener. Continue reading
Huge performance, no result
When the Mole is wrong, boy is he wrong. The Welsh tore into the South African pack from early on in the game until about the hour mark, and were the dominant team for much of the match. Continue reading
Matt Williams has been vocally suspicious of Taff hopes in recent days, and it’s pretty funny just how dismissive he is of them. However, one of the writers on the excellent ESPN Scrum.com has made the very valid point that the Welsh are coming into the tournament without the usual hoopla or barely-veiled truckload of acrimony that usually forms the body of their luggage. Continue reading
Breaking News [from somebody else]: Bakkies has an ouchie on his achilles tendon and looks set to miss the SA vs Wales match. Continue reading
Bloodbottler, Childchewer, Meatdripper, Maidmasher and Gizzardgulper Make Cut
Colour me shocked: Pieter de Villiers has gone and picked very close to the best South African squad available to him. There’s an argument for the inclusion of the crafty Adie Jacobs over the more athletic Juan de Jong, and maybe the untrammeled running ability and pace of Lwazi Mvovo over the experience of Odwa Ndungane, but they’re very close calls. Likewise Flip van der Merwe’s youth and aggression gave him a good shot, but de Villiers has opted instead for the lineout skills and leadership that Ulster’s Johann Muller brings to the cause.
Tri-Nations underperformers Ashley Johnson, Jean Deysel and Deon Stegmann are all axed from the backrow to make way for the return of Schalk, Heinrich Brussouw and somewhat surprisingly, Bath-bound Albert Louw. Juan Smith had to withdraw from selection last week due to his failure to sufficiently recover from injury, and while a player of his calibre would be a loss to any team in international rugby, it could mean that we see Schalk take on the South African No7 blindside jersey [they just had to be different] in a Brussouw/Burger/Spies backrow that looks very tasty. Then again, the wrecking-ball qualities of the Sharks’ Willem Alberts might well be employed on the blindside, or ironman Danie Russouw – who started all three of South Africa’s knockout wins in their successful RWC07 campaign at No8 – could be called into play, in what is an area of tremendous depth for the Boks. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 