Well, well, well, what can I say? I expected the mighty Australia to dominate every aspect of Saturday’s game, but it just wasn’t to be. So, let’s understand why.
I decided at the last minute to make my way to Loftus to go watch my team play live. All in all, it wasn’t the backward experience I expected it to be, but let’s just say that a lot more needs to be done to bring South African stadia and infrastructure in line with first-world standards.
Firstly, I suppose I should congratulate the Springboks for their win, albeit blatantly orchestrated and almost every try coming from a series of double-movements, obstructive running and at least two forward passes. Not to mention the arguable interpretation of the rules which saw Australia punished down to fourteen men for the last twenty minutes.
It seemed a completely planned series of events which pretty much ensured that Australia was never going to win the game.
That said, I guess I should hold my hat in my hand today and give credit where credit is due. But if the game was adjudicated fairly and all the right calls were made, then I’d be able to feel more comfortable in saying that the better team on the day won fairly and squarely. So no ‘fair dinkum’ from me.
Seems that even without Morne Steyn, the new boys too were struggling to find the posts, so a major problem looms at first five eighth for the Springrolls.
There were also a number of typical cheap shots around the rucks where certain yellow cards went a begging, but I guess that’s what happens when the ref’s on the local team’s payroll.
I mean really? How is it that a team dominating possession cannot get more points on the board? Something’s amiss.
But Australians don’t do the whole ‘sour grapes’ thing, it’s beneath us, we’d just like more fairness displayed in the game towards both sides on match day.
And so in the end, the local team scraped the win under dubious circumstances and only the brain dead will agree that the better team won.
I was rather amused though when I saw the arrogant comments on Sunday morning from what was clearly a lot of Dutch courage from the night before. Seems the Saffas do enjoy tilting it a bit before, during and after the big games. Of course, the same big mouths would never dare say those same things face to face when sober.
With so much to say then after the rugby game on Saturday, I also noticed how quiet the forums were on Sunday afternoon after the mighty Australia inflicted an eight wicket demolition of the choking Proteas during the T20 game, effectively ending the failed campaign of the chokers of world cricket. Just as well the game was adjudicated outside of South Africa so that match-fixing was eliminated. We can all agree then that an element of justice was rightly served.
Go Australia!
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