All About South African Rugby
In a match that was highlighted by too much interference by the touch judge South Africa managed to pull off a 36-16 win against Wales at the Millenium Stadium. Percy Montgomery got sent off with about 10 minutes to go because of 2 erroneous calls by the touch judge.
The first was for a spear tackle which clearly was not; Percy tackled close to the Welsh try-line and turned the Welsh player to try and secure the ball. How this was interpreted to be dangerous and deserving of a yellow card is un-explainable. The second yellow came with about 10 minutes left in the game when the touch judge (this guy clearly does not like Montgomery) called the referee over to explain that he needs to be carded for a high tackle on the little Welsh Shane Williams.
Percy had a terrible day with kicking duties and the Springbok forwards could get no hold on the game. At the end of this game one could feel they were robbed of a good test match by the constant shrill of the refs whistle. The Welsh commentators did the game no good either with very biased comments.
If it was not for the refs in this match perhaps the scoreline of 36-16 would not have had the feeling of flattering the South African rugby side because of the last-minute try scored by the Springboks. All in all not quite as exciting as the England and New Zealand match but we cannot expect every single Test match to be as good as that.
South Africa go to play Wales today at the Millenium Stadium facing the backlash of the Welsh Dragon after the humiliating defeat they suffered at the hands of New Zealand last week. South Africa shook off a difficult match against Argentina and have travelled many a mile to get to where they are now. Cardiff via Buenos Aires is no short flight plan. A new fly-half in Meyer Bosman sees the Springbok squad change 14 of the 22 that faced Wales last year. Wales have undergone their own changes since that test and even more so after the hiding they got from New Zealand a week ago.
On current form it looks like South Africa will take the match, what everyone will be looking out for is how easy they make it for themselves.
Date - 09/08/2005 - South Africa are now in second spot and have at least this to celebrate. They take on the Brumbies in Perth coming into the game with quite a bit of confidence and having a chance of keeping the Tri-nations trophy and possibly clinching the number one spot in the world rankings.
Date - 08/08/2005 - Andre Markgraaff resigned from his post with SARU, the South African Rugby Union.
This comes after the most recent spats in the press last week, one of which claimed he had threatened coach Jake White to have him fired. Markgraaf denied this and also stated his reason for resigning from his post were mostly due to a loss for the passion of the game.
Date - 03/08/2005 - What better way for the Sprinboks to celebrate their recent home victories over Australia than to take the number 2 spot away from the same team?
As seen on the log on the All About Rugby Home Page the Sprinboks are only 0.08 points behind Australia in the world rankings and if they beat New Zealand at home on 6th August they will take the number 2 spot.
