Boks give Samoa a hiding

2007-06-09 19:54

Johannesburg - South Africa had no trouble beating Samoa by 35 points to 8 in their one off test at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.

Samoa's passion was evident throughout but they couldn't match the Springboks forwards. The Samoan backline had very little ball and the Springboks punished the visitors whenever they were given an opportunity.

The home side crossed the try line five times as they ran away with victory. The victory was indeed well deserved as the Samoans failed to use their backline and opted to play a forwards based game which played into the home sides hands.

The loose foward trio of Bobby Skinstad, Danie Rossouw and Luke Watson made their presence felt and despite not being seen much on the offensive, the way they competed for the loose ball was impressive.

Watson injured

Debutant Luke Watson said he was happy with his performance, although a rib injury cut his debut short. His role in the team's structure was one of playing to the ball and he performed his duty admirably.

With the improvement in the set pieces the Springboks can move foward from the game with a lot of positives and with the knowledge that they have a number of capable replacements waiting in the wings should the main players fall prey to injuries.

Springbok coach Jake White was content with the performance of his players.

"I was happy with the first half performance, unfortunately we lost a bit of rhythm in the second due to the injuries we suffered."

Although the Samoans started off with a spirited performance in the first half, the Springboks showed their superiority as first John Smit went over the line from well secured possession in a lineout by Bob Skinstad.

The Boks scored their second try when a perfectly weighted pass by Wayne Julies found an unmarked JP Pietersen. The Springbok tendency to find space out wide created a lot of try scoring opportunities but wrong decision making and passes which didn't find the intended player resulted in missed opportunities for the home side. Bok scrumhalf Ricky Januarie had one of his better games in a green and gold jersey as his service was supreme, giving flyhalf Derick Hougaard plenty of time on the ball.

Good scrums

The Springbok forwards were dominant in the scrums - BJ Botha was so forceful that his Samoan counterpart Justin Va'a was sin binned for being the source of many collapsed scrums.

The Ellis Park faithful didn't hide their dissatisfaction with Springbok captain John Smit, whose eagerness to kick did not go down well with the fans.

As promised, White did give the Bulls hooker some game time as he came on in the second half. Pedrie Wannenburg replaced the controversial Luke Watson who had an average game but with more opportunities he undoubtedly would make a perfect replacement for Schalk Burger. Os Du Randt's comeback from injury was impressive as he was solid in the scrums and his workrate was pretty high.

Samoan coach Michael Jones was over the moon with the performance of his players.

"I can only say good things about my team as they played with an amazing attitude in a game in which they pushed the Springbok defence and they stretched the home side at times," he said.

The sin binning of two of his players meant the Samoans were short staffed at critical stages of the game.

"We played a lot of time with two players off the field. That killed our momentum and you can't afford that against a team like South Africa."

- SAPA