Australia 30: South Africa 17
Match Report
The World Champions lose for the second time in as many games, to the same opponents. However this time the game was beyond doubt well before the final minutes. Blockbusting performances by Samu Kerevi, Taniela Tupou, Len Ikitau, and Marika Koribete combined with South African incompetence gave Australia the result by the 60th minute.
Things began when Faf de Klerk went to the bin for cynical stupidity. Etzebeth had just been penalized for not rolling away after a Taniela Tupou carry. De Klerk then proceeded to put his hands in the ruck, hold on to the ball making it unplayable, and then when he did release it, he immediately slapped Nick White's arm forcing a bad pass. The referee had no choice but to bin him, it was blatant, cynical, and stupid. From the resulting line-out, Australia pulled a dummy maul, played one phase, and then went wide to Len Ikitau who was able to slip the tackles of Handre Pollard and Marvin Orie before touching down the five-pointer. South Africa could only muster a penalty goal before Australia had another line-out inside at South Africa's five-meter line. After a failed maul and three phases, Taniela Tupou made a break smashing through Pollard, Franco Mostert, and Makazole Mapimpi. He was finally brought down by Fran Malherbe, but the damage was done. White and Cooper had quick ball and after some neat work from Tom Banks, Marika Koribete offloaded to Ikitau who doubled his personal tally on the day. Pollard kicked 2 more penalties and Cooper also kicked one before Lachie Swinton was marched to the naughty chair for a high tackle on Daune Vermeulen. Pollard knocked another penalty over to round out the first half's action.
The second half began with a bang. South Africa worked their way into the Australian 22 and with a penalty advantage, de Klerk nudged a grubber in behind the defensive line and Lukanhyo Am raced through to ground the ball. For the next 15 or so the play was largely in between the 10 meters lines and was really only punctuated by another Cooper penalty goal. At 59 Damien de Allende got rocked by Reece Hodge and knocked on. From the resulting scrum, Australia played two phases before Michale Hooper and Izack Rodda worked the ball back to the left touchline to a waiting group of players including Tupou who rumbled over Nkosi before throwing a brilliant offload to Koribete who ran in for the third Australian try of the game. South Africa continued to plug away but the game was slipping from their grasp, mistakes crept in, an inaccurate clear out from Steve Kitsoff led to a steal by Reece Hodge and turnover ball for Australia. The ball went wide to Kerevi in the three passes he ran into the tackle of Eben Etzebeth and Siya Kolisi, Kerevi, however, managed to get a brilliant offload to Pete Samu. Samu made the line break and raced down into the South African 22 before Willie Le Roux was able to stop the rampaging flanker. Samu was able to present the ball quickly and cleanly for McDermott who fired the ball left for Koribete to finish off. South Africa had the chance to get back into the game, Australia was more than willing to offer them up in the last 10 but the World Champions looked blunt, out of ideas, and frustrated. That frustration would get to Jasper Weise who would be yellow carded for a reckless clearout in the closing minutes. After a maul to run the clock down the ball was kicked out to end the game, Australia finished deserving winners.
Australia was fantastic their Polynesian contingent in particular stood out, they had come under unwarranted and unfounded criticism from some certain depths of social media. Koribete and Ikitau will get all the plaudits for their try-scoring exploits, but credit goes to Folau Fainga'a and Samu Kerevi. Kerevi was fantastic he is unbelievably good at getting his team going forward he does not always make clean breaks but it seems that every time he gets the ball he just gets his shoulders through the line enough to put the other team on the back foot. He is almost a guaranteed source of go forward to the Wallabies, and he is versatile in how he does it he can go inside or outside and above all, he now knows when to give the pass. That was the one thing missing from his game before the pandemic but now his timing of the pass has allowed him to become even more of a threat in the midfield. It will be intriguing to see if that development continues to him being used as a distributing option, but that will come down the road. Fainga'a had one of those performances where he put everything together, his line-out throwing was tidy, his work in the loose was excellent and in defense, he was a reliable tackler. That was a performance you had to have an eye out for but it just makes you think that the 2 jersey is his to lose now. Taniela Tupou looked borderline unplayable his carriers were extremely effective, he laid the platform with powerful carries for two tries and made the telling pass for one. The only blemish on his performance was getting pinged once or twice at the scrum. Quade Cooper also had a quiet but good game, he kicked his goals and made his tackles, this was the sort of business-like performance that he so often did not come up with in his younger days. Australia will play Argentina and on current form, it looks like they will be able to outclass them comfortably.
South Africa looked out of ideas and frustrated, they had plenty of chances to capitalize and Australia's ill-discipline but were left kicking to the corner and futilely setting rolling mauls which gained some ground but didn't do much else. It was very noticeable that they rarely resulted to pick and goes in the opposition 5 meters instead they played wide earlier the usual. This is perhaps an effect of the news rules; if you are held up over the line, it is now a goal-line dropout instead of a five-meter scrum. It feels like that was always going to be the case, any forward-oriented team was going to suffer as a result of that rule change, the Boks will just have to adapt. At the scrum, the referee refused to reward their sporadic dominance. In phase play their forwards were able to get go-forward aplenty, but the backs just had no creativity. They were making an effort to play it was noticeable that Pollard was wider and flatter than usual and was bring in the midfielders well, but it was generally uninspired. South Africa typically targets an opponent who is physically smaller or slower. The Aussie backline had no such weaknesses, the Boks got a little joy out of targeting Hodge and Koribete with box kicks but with the things that are mentioned above, it did not matter. South Africa was well beaten. They have been found out, the limits of their game are clear to see. If you can neutralize their driving maul, match their forwards around the park, and limit them to shots at goal then you stand a good chance of winning. The fix is not a straightforward one Currie cup watchers will be thinking: call up Johan Goosens. There are myriad permutations of backline shuffles, it is clear that the problem is in the backs and maybe in the conservatism of the game plan. It is clear that changes are needed, while the conservative game plan may have been enough to outclass Argentina and batter the Lion into submission it is clear that it just cannot generate enough points to take Australia or New Zealand. We will see what happens when they face the All Blacks next week, but it is not an exaggeration to say that the Boks have their backs to the wall.
New Zealand 36: Argentina 13
Match Report
New Zealand is the newly minted world #1, and they looked every inch of that prestigious rank. Last week they blitzed Argentina off the field with slick back play, off turnover ball. This week the All Blacks were still slick and lethal off turnover ball but played with an added physicality and nous in the tight.
The All Blacks started the game well and were camped on the Argentine line for the first 2 minutes but Argentina was saved by their captain Julian Montoya coming up with a beautiful steal at the ruck. The reprieve was only temporary, Argentina was caught napping in their fringe defense by a quick pick and go from Hoskins Sotutu, he made the break and fired a pass to George Bridge galloping up in support, Bridge was hauled down on the line. It looked like he might have been held up over the line but the ball slowly made its way back onto the All Blacks side to the waiting Ardie Savea. Savea looked like he would try and burrow over himself but instead flicked the ball for the charging Patrick Tuipulotu to crash over. Emilio Boffelli and Jordie Barrett exchanged penalties before the All Blacks began to turn up the pressure they kicked to the corner and looked to set the driving maul. Argentina had other ideas though and defended the maul brilliantly, Thomas Lavanini came through the middle of the maul, wrestled Samisoni Taukei'aho to the ground, and made the ball unplayable; giving Argentina the put-in at the scrum. They were promptly mangled in the scrum and Pablo Matera was eventually penalized for offsides. The All Blacks opted for another scrum, Sotutu and TJ Perenara ran a play down the blindside and Perenara sold Santiago Carreras with a dummy brilliant dummy and dove over. Tupou Vaai scored to end the half; the All Blacks had been pounding away at Argentina's line when Sotutu capitalized on some chaos from a messy ruck and flicked it for Vaai to cross unopposed, Jordie Barrett kicked the conversion to end the half.
The second half began with Argentina exerting some pressure and winning a penalty which Boffelli knocked over. The All Blacks broke into the Argentine 22 after an offload from Ethan Blackadder found the hands of Sotutu as he glided into the 22. He was tackled about 7 meters from the line and acting scrum-half, Blackadder, fired the ball right for Damien McKenzie to attack a backpedaling Argentine defense and from there a dummy line from Quinn Tupaea and simple hands down the line allowed Taukei'aho to finish the try. Argentina continued to fight and got into New Zealand's 22 after a scrum and a few carries by Argentine forwards coming around the corner, they had the All Blacks on the back-foot and Carreras launched the cross-kick for Boffelli to take and finish acrobatically in the corner. Replacements and the scoreline perhaps caused the All Blacks to lose focus and they let Argentina into the game a bit but just when Argentina looked like they might score the All Blacks turned the ball over and kicked the ball down the field, where Argentina looked to have the situation cleaned up but the ball squirted out the side of a ruck and Tupaea pounced on it. A few phases later and the All Blacks had the ball 15 meters out and a slick offload from Scott Barrett put Vaai through to score his second of the game. Jordie Barrett's conversion ended the game.
The All Black looked truly frightening; if they get quick ball for just one or two phases it looks like they could break any defense in the world. It makes you wonder what will happen if and when they get Richie Mo'Unga and Aron Smith back from baby birth enforced absences. They looked a little unorganized with Damien McKenzie at 10, he usually plays 15 and is unaccustomed to bossing the backline around. Samasoni Taukei'aho seems to have made the third hooker position his own. Asafo Auma looked good last week but his line-out throwing was a bit wayward at times, while Taukei'aho looked assured in all facets of the game and got a try too. Ethan Blackadder looked to be everywhere he did all the dirty work for the All Blacks loose forwards, it felt like he single-handedly neutralized the Argentine loosies. His grunt work allowed Savea and Sotutu to play their natural games. Blackadder will give the selectors a headache at that blindside position, he and Akira Ioane are currently duking it out and neither of them has been able to outshine the other, it will be interesting to see who starts in the South Africa match. The All Blacks scrummaging and work at the set-piece, in general, was very good, they thoroughly bullied the Argentine tight-five. One criticism is the back three, I am not a huge fan of George Bridge on the left-wing, I feel like he is the member who should be dropped in favor of a more powerful option. Since there is not much power in the first-choice midfielders, it needs to come from somewhere. David Havili and Anton Lienert-Brown are run brilliant lines to compensate for their lack of game-breaking power but against a big physical midfield like South Africa that won't be enough. Will Jordan is essentially undroppable if fit. Jordie Barrett could potentially be asked to run the crash ball, he does have some experience playing 12, but that also deprives you of a distributing, kicking, and cross-kick target. Barrett also has a tendency to panic when he is driven backward in the tackle and throws poor offloads to players who are trying to clear the ruck and are not prepared for the offload. Rieko Ioane offers a speedy strike weapon in midfield but I think his utility makes him a better bench option. With all that in mind, I think Bridge should be dropped in favor of a more powerful player on that left-wing like Caleb Clarke or Lecister Fainga'anuku. Backline selection aside the All Blacks look good value for world #1 they play South Africa in a battle at the top of the world rankings.
What is going on in the mind of Mario Ledesma? is the question that must be going through most rugby fan's heads. The decision to start Santiago Carreras at 10 is an odd one. Not that it could be deemed a failure Carreras played well his cross-kick for Emilio Boffelli was excellent and he generally kicked well for a first-time fly-half and it is possible that he could develop into a very good option at 10. He did look unfamiliar with some of the more complex parts of the position like organizing the backline and it showed their backline play was pretty basic. However, why chose a novice fly half when there is Thomas Albornoz who is in good form and more experienced at playing 10. There are larger issues though, the tight-five was well handled by New Zealand. Ledesma will not be pleased by the whipping the Argentine tight-five got in most facets of forward play, the only thing they did well was defend the maul. Scrum time was very problematic for Los Pumas, something that feels very wrong writing but was plain to see. They got pushed off their own ball more than once, which is completely unacceptable at test level. The loose forwards were unable to impose themselves in the game as much as they would have liked, it feels like they were completely outplayed by New Zealand's loose forwards. All in all, it was a sorry night for the Pumas and one can't help but fear for them against an Australian side in excellent form.
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