SA v Argentina

Boks at home again in poor conditions struggled to beat Argentina,scrum going backwards.lineout shaky.
Argentina very nearly got at least the draw they deserved never easy beats in a forward struggle now
we have a real RC.

Disagree, we didn't struggle to beat them, we were never looking like losing.

We did however play very poorly.

Argentina adapted much better to the conditions which suited their gameplan to slow everything down. I doubt there were thirty minutes of rugby in that game.

They took away the six inch hit on the bind, which is in fact illegal.

They competed in every line out and again closed the gap continuously.

They flooded the breakdown and we never adapted.

Pienaar kept arranging the forwards rather than clear the ruck.

Our wings never got a ball from a back line move.

How many kicks at goal did we not take?

Pollard started the game with a restart from the 22 directly into touch, then a restart from the halfway directly into touch, then a receipt of a catch fumbled into touch, any of those errors will cost you points against the AB's and Wallabies.

Our players still have not learnt how to adapt, the same problems that faced them yesterday faced them against Scotland And Wales, both in Nelspruit a year apart.

Unless we learn to adapt on the fly, we will continue to have these poor performances.

The only positive is we now win these games which a few years ago we would lose.

How come Argentina have played SA away in the opening round in each year so far? And this year three of their first four games are away.

Ok, their last two games are at home but the SANZAR countries seem worried that Argentina might get a win if they gave them a home game to start their campaign for once.

The schedule is the same every year.

Argentina plays away, home, away, away, home, home
SA plays home, aay, away, away, home, home
OZ plays home, away, home, home, away, away
NZ plays away, home, home, home, away, away

Argentina are able to compete in the wet. They spoil the opposition ball and compress the attack. In the dry, those tactics don't work nearly as well and they struggle to close down the space the opposition makes.

I think the games should be rotated to allow different teams to start the tournament. It has to be in the cycle that there is now more or less because it's worked out to minimise the horrendous travel.

Oh yeah, the travel is brutal, but rotating the teams who get a home game first up at least evens it up a bit.

And NZ hopping across the Tasman to Aus does not compare to Argentina's flight to SA.

The weather was dire. Any team would have struggled to put on more than 20 points on the board in that weather. Did you see the size of the hail stones?

Biltong wrote:Disagree, we didn't struggle to beat them, we were never looking like losing.

We did however play very poorly.

Argentina adapted much better to the conditions which suited their gameplan to slow everything down. I doubt there were thirty minutes of rugby in that game.

They took away the six inch hit on the bind, which is in fact illegal.

They competed in every line out and again closed the gap continuously.

They flooded the breakdown and we never adapted.

Pienaar kept arranging the forwards rather than clear the ruck.

Our wings never got a ball from a back line move.

How many kicks at goal did we not take?

Pollard started the game with a restart from the 22 directly into touch, then a restart from the halfway directly into touch, then a receipt of a catch fumbled into touch, any of those errors will cost you points against the AB's and Wallabies.

Our players still have not learnt how to adapt, the same problems that faced them yesterday faced them against Scotland And Wales, both in Nelspruit a year apart.

Unless we learn to adapt on the fly, we will continue to have these poor performances.

The only positive is we now win these games which a few years ago we would lose.

SA didn't struggle to win the game but they weren't able to make it comfortable for themselves and the conditions played a huge factor.

On the scrums, the ref took the 6-inch hit away. Early in the game before a scrum he went to both front rows because of the terrible conditions and said to line up ear-to-ear with your feet more under you because of the turf under foot with the rain/hail.  I thought at the time it was quite a sensible move and probably stopped there being more collapses/slips on the engagement.  From a SA point of view, I think they shouldn't be writing off the Argie scrummaging performance against them as conditions related though. SA have great specimens for scrummaging but refinement in technique-breathing-rhythm would really put them over the top if they are wise enough to learn from it.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:

Biltong wrote:Disagree, we didn't struggle to beat them, we were never looking like losing.

We did however play very poorly.

Argentina adapted much better to the conditions which suited their gameplan to slow everything down. I doubt there were thirty minutes of rugby in that game.

They took away the six inch hit on the bind, which is in fact illegal.

They competed in every line out and again closed the gap continuously.

They flooded the breakdown and we never adapted.

Pienaar kept arranging the forwards rather than clear the ruck.

Our wings never got a ball from a back line move.

How many kicks at goal did we not take?

Pollard started the game with a restart from the 22 directly into touch, then a restart from the halfway directly into touch, then a receipt of a catch fumbled into touch, any of those errors will cost you points against the AB's and Wallabies.

Our players still have not learnt how to adapt, the same problems that faced them yesterday faced them against Scotland And Wales, both in Nelspruit a year apart.

Unless we learn to adapt on the fly, we will continue to have these poor performances.

The only positive is we now win these games which a few years ago we would lose.

SA didn't struggle to win the game but they weren't able to make it comfortable for themselves and the conditions played a huge factor.

On the scrums, the ref took the 6-inch hit away. Early in the game before a scrum he went to both front rows because of the terrible conditions and said to line up ear-to-ear with your feet more under you because of the turf under foot with the rain/hail.  I thought at the time it was quite a sensible move and probably stopped there being more collapses/slips on the engagement.  From a SA point of view, I think they shouldn't be writing off the Argie scrummaging performance against them as conditions related though. SA have great specimens for scrummaging but refinement in technique-breathing-rhythm would really put them over the top if they are wise enough to learn from it.

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of that, it does make sense, you are right, if that is the case then clearly we need to work o wet weather scrumming techniques