Miles behind the All Blacks

Photo: www.sarugby.com / Touchline

The signs were there in the Argentinean match. They were still there in the Welsh match. The signs that the Boks were below par and would struggle against the French were proved true in last night's match.

Jake White has mentioned the performance of his backs after each match. He should examine that of his forwards more closely.

I often talk about how loosies should be tied together with an invisible piece of string. Loosies hunt in packs. The French pairing of Nyanga and Remy Martin showed the Boks how it is done last night. Schalk tried hard. Our man of the previous two games, Juan Smith, was strangely quiet. And Jacques Cronje was his usual failure at international level.

South Africa is desperately missing Joe van Niekerk. Wikus van Heerden would have been a better option in the loose trio. That would have meant that Juan Smith would have had to move to eighth man. Or Solly Tsibilyka, meaning Schalk Burger would have had to move to eighth man. Frankly, both of those options would have been better, and, I must say, pretty exciting.

But just as loosies hunt in packs, so tight fives need to work as a unit. Someone on the Keo site commented that he hoped the Bok tight five would be covered by "die spreekwoordlike kombers, maar teen die Walise het dit gelyk asof Percy dit gedra het toe hy by die kant van die veld gewag het" (the metaphorical blanket, but against the Welsh, it looked as though Percy was wearing it while he waited at the side of the field). Last night it looked as though the blanket had got completely lost. The tight five were abysmal as a unit. They struggled to keep momentum going in the scrums, they were pathetically absent in getting stuck in at the rucks and mauls and they failed to consolidate line out ball. All this resulted in massive pressure on their half backs, and shocking ball for the backs. When you get the ball on the back foot, you usually have to bash it up or kick for position. Our inexperienced half backs chose to put up the high ball - with the help from Montgomery.

While Matfield and Botha are the best lineout combination in the world, they are piss-poor in the tight-loose. Jake White once sent Matfield home from Australia due to his patchy contribution. Maybe it is time he had another one of those talks.

Os is an injured man. He talked about the management of his crocked knee in the SA Rugby magazine. He is not managing it. Watch him between scrums and you will see a noticeable limp. The bullocking runs of yesteryear are distant history, and SA should look elsewhere for the 2007 world cup.

John Smit looks tired and it is influencing his ability to contribute and marshal his troops on the field. I believe Schalk or Monty should be given greater vice captain responsibilities. It would allow Smit to be rested or substituted. After the Tri-Nations we know Smit is our best, but the pressure has taken its toll.

Our half backs were a disaster. I am a big fan of bringing in Bosman as a bet on the future. But Michael Claasens is not international class. Add to the woes the dismal efforts of the forwards in protecting him and the guy didn't have a chance. I cannot see how Jake White could talk of making space for Claasens due the benefit of keeping his Free State combination together. Hardly a combination - Bosman has hardly played with the first fifteen. The writing was on the wall early on, and Jake White's shocking record of poor use of substitutions continued - Bolla should have come on.

I was so happy to see Monty's driving tackle on Thomas Castaignède early on. Monty's defence has been robust over these last two matches. But it was to a false sign of things to come. Monty's kicking out of hand and at posts was poor. He was not as abysmal as some have made out and hardly worth the mention Jake White gave his lack of practice leading up to this match. Look elsewhere, Jake. But all the same, not the performance we needed from the senior pro. Towards the end of the match, Monty started to take the ball at flyhalf, and the line looked instantly better. It would have been good to see more of this throughout the match. In fact, when Monty put up his hand after Pretorius' injury, he should have been given the flyhalf job. It would have been good for a player looking to contribute more, and perhaps the better option than giving Bosman almost 160 minutes.

It is difficult to comment on the outside backs, other than to say De Villiers defended well and Fourie's try was well executed. Other than that they did not see much of the ball.

The French were good. Not brilliant, but certainly better on the day. Yannick Nyanga and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde were something special and are stars of the future. Frédéric Michalak is quite a general for someone so young. But other than the fact that the French have their traditional flair and punish on the counter attack, the Boks have more star potential.

And that is why this loss is more galling. If the Boks are to challenge the All Blacks for number one, they can only lose to the brilliant performance of an opposition rather than their own sub-standard play. The All Blacks have become clinical. When they play a sub-standard opposition they play the same rugby they dish up against the best. By comparison, it is difficult to know which Bok team will turn up for a match.

An unconvincing start to the tour

The first match of an away tour is critical. It sets the pace for the remainder of the games and lets the team get a feel for playing with one another again.

The Argentinean match will have left the Boks with more questions than answers.

Jake White was wrong to start with an all new back row today. Combinations make teams look good, and the loose forwards should be tied together with an invisible piece of string.

Having said that, White did not have much choice after the injuries to Big Joe and Pedrie Wannenburg. But I would have started Schalk today. Perhaps the way to bring in Solly Tyibilika (a good player who deserves some game time) would have been to start Schalk as eighth man with Solly and Juan Smith as flanks. Or to have started with Juan Smith, Schalk Burger and Jacques Cronje and bringing on Solly in the second half.

But one of South Africa's most established combinations looked jaded and in Bakkies Botha's case, invisible. Victor Matfield began to show some class in the second half.

John Smit also looked a shadow of the player who silenced his critics in the Tri-Nations. He missed a tackle on Contempomi that resulted in a crucial Argentinean try. It was a shocking attempt.

When the forwards look poor it is difficult for backs to look good. Bolla will be disappointed with his return to the Boks with an up and down performance. It showed why Neil de Kock was the preferred choice for Western Province during the Currie Cup.

Andre Pretorius' injury is nightmare stuff for Jake White. Nightmares because Brent Russell did not show the tactical nous required to step up to the plate. White might be forced into selecting Monty at flyhalf rather than blooding Bosman for the Wales match. He needs a cool head and strong boot at flyhalf and Monty is one of his few options.

The Boks talked of using today's match as a true test of their forwards' strength and a good chance to prove their backs could attack through phased play. Yes our front row and set scrum looked good. But that's where it stopped. If the backs were going to create, they need the forwards to show some patience in setting up the phases. They needed to use their wings the way the Aussies use Taquiri and the All Blacks use Rokocoko by bringing them off the blind side and into the line on attack. When Habana joined the line in the flyhalf channel, he kicked the ball.

Today was not a disaster because the Boks were pushed by an Argentinean side that has beat the French and pushed the All Blacks close. It was a match that is cause for grave concern because it was a match that the Boks needed to get things right in, against a strong side. They needed to get things right in order to know themselves better. So that they could perfect things against Wales. So they are prepared for the French.