Not very good

First of all congratulations to Fiji. What an effort. Just like France and England showed the value of heart and passion, so did Fiji who threw everything at the Boks.

To the Boks, well done for refocusing and grinding out some forward dominated tries at crucial times.

But oh, why did the Fijians ever get the chances they did? Was all the talk this week about keeping it tight a bluff or did the Boks forget the script?

As good as Francois Steyn has been thus far (truly one of the finds of the tournament and likely to be a Bok great), his option taking exemplified some poor thinking by the Boks. Steyn held on a fraction too long at times and then fluffed passes in the tackle. At other times, going to ground, setting up clean ball and clearing for position would have been the better option. Given all the talk about the game plan, one would think this would have been automatic.

Instead we created opportunities for the Fijians in our half. Then we hopelessly messed up our defensive alignment. And then we fell off an alarming number of tackles. The result was a number of overlaps. If Fiji had focused on drawing their men and putting the ball through hands, they might well have run out winners.

The Boks must have benefited from watching yesterday's upsets. John Smit said as much in post-match interviews. Perhaps then another scrape will shape their execution as they head to the more difficult prospect of Argetina (surely?) and then England or France. Just as England benefited against Australia from having played for their lives to get there, perhaps South Africa will be better prepared as a result of the scares against Tonga and Fiji.

In the mean time, I take back every criticism I ever made of JP Pietersen. His try saving tackle was crucial today. If Fiji had gone up on the scoreboard, we might not have pulled it back. Well done.