What we’ve learned Five lessons from the Test in Cardiff between Wales and the Springboks, according to SIMON BORCHARDT. Wales are just not good enough to challenge the worlds top two teams There was a lot of talk from the Welsh in the build-up to the Cardiff Test. They spoke about the fact that nine Welshman had been in the British & Irish Lions team that thrashed the Wallabies in the third Test of their series earlier this year. They said they felt they were good enough to beat the Boks for just the second time in their history and for the first time in seven matches under coach Warren Gatland. Captain Sam Warburton even said that his side would not celebrate if they beat the Boks because they expected to win. Warburton did not celebrate at the final whistle on Saturday, because yet again the Dragons failed to breath fire against a southern hemisphere side (they have lost 22 of their last 23 matches against the big three). The Six Nations champions played at home, in front of a 64,000 crowd, and were outscored by three tries to nil by a Bok team that did not play to its potential. Wales may go on to beat the Wallabies this month, but when it comes to the All Blacks and Boks, they are simply not good enough. The Welsh are in serious denial I had to laugh when I logged on to walesonline.co.uk after the game and saw the headline Injury-hit Wales beaten in brutal Millennium Stadium clash. According to writer Gareth Griffiths, Wales came up just short as three major first-half injuries hampered their efforts to claim a southern hemisphere scalp. How is a nine-point defeat, when you concede three tries and score none, coming up just short? As for the injuries, Wales did lose Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams and Adam Jones, but the Boks lost Morné Steyn and just got on with it. The Boks also had to play for 10 minutes with 14 men, following Francois Louws sin-binning, and didnt concede a point. If Wales are ever going to take their game to the next level, and become serious World Cup contenders, they need to stop making excuses every time they lose and look at the deficiencies in their game. Playing in Japan should not count against a player when it comes to Test selection There was talk before the match that Jaque Fourie, who has been playing club rugby in Japan since the 2011 World Cup, could be off the pace in Cardiff. And while he did make an early defensive error, coming out of his channel and allowing Jonathan Davies to break away, he was excellent on defence from then on. He also had a hand in the Boks third try, chasing Fourie du Preezs chip kick along the touchline and passing it back inside to the scrumhalf. Du Preez, who has also been in Japan since the last World Cup, was a worthy recipient of the Man of the Match award with his decision-making and tacking kicking superb. Heyneke Meyer heaped praise on the two Fouries after the game, and rightly so. Bringing them back into the Bok fold was a masterstroke. Willie le Roux can play fullback for the Boks in big Tests Le Roux wore the Bok No 15 jersey for the first five Tests of his career, against Italy, Scotland, Samoa and Argentina (twice), before moving to the wing for the matches against the All Blacks and Wallabies. Le Roux was excellent with ball in hand in the Ellis Park decider, but less impressive on defence. Thats probably why Meyer opted to play Pat Lambie at fullback against Wales with Le Roux on the bench. However, Steyns departure in the 17th minute saw Lambie move to 10 with Le Roux coming on at fullback. Over the next 63 minutes, Le Roux was defensively solid and proved that he could play conservatively in that position. With Steyn struggling with a back problem, Meyer should keep Le Roux at 15 for their match against Scotland on Sunday and give Lambie 80 minutes at 10. Referees must be consistent at the breakdown Alain Rolland was booed just before kick-off when he was shown on the big screen, and there must have been a few players who wanted to boo him during the game too. The Irishman awarded three breakdown penalties early on in the match, two against the Boks and one against Wales, and more would follow. Rolland, though, was too inconsistent in this area of the game, blowing one way at one ruck and then the other way at the next, which created confusion among the players. Rolland also didnt manage the scrums well, as he failed to stand on the side of the scrum where the problems were or to tell the front rows to stand up.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:10:47 +0000
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