Fantastic to see some rugby at the Cape Town stadium again last night! It’s such a pleasure to make use of the whole precinct and turn the evening into an event … And the Baby Boks did not disappoint!
In fact, it was a thrilling finale to the pool phase of the JWC that saw Wales, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand secure semi final places, but not without some dramatic final moments in Cape Town.
Wales will be seeded one in the semi finals thanks to a rampant 74-3 victory against Samoa to top pool A. Their reward is another clash with New Zealand, who reached the semi finals with a bonus-point 33-12 win against Fiji, ensuring they were the best placed runner-up.
The Boks pulled off a remarkable second half performance against England, scoring four tries to secure the additional bonus point required in a scintillating 28-15 win before a delighted home crowd.
They top Pool B and will face Argentina in the second match at Newlands on Sunday. The Pumas remained unbeaten in their passage to a first-ever semi final, topping Pool C with a 17-12 win over Scotland.
Ireland, France and Australia were all still in with a chance of reaching the final four at the start of the day’s action, but will now join England in the battle for the minor placings on Sunday.
Despite a comprehensive 41-12 bonus-point win over Italy earlier in the day in Pool B, Ireland were undone by South Africa’s victory and will now face England at the University of Western Cape Stadium. Meanwhile, in Pool C, France overcame Australia 31-7 to set up a repeat clash at Newlands in five days time.
Baby Bok coach Dawie Theron was full of praise for his team’s effort after they stormed back from a 0-3 deficit at the break to score four tries and get the bonus point needed to top the pool and qualify for the semi-finals.
“The players never stopped believing that four tries were possible. We scored early and that gave us great momentum.”
Tries by William Small-Smith and Shaun Adendorff in a short space of time saw the South African side to a 14-3 lead. England closed the gap with three penalties, but tries by Pieter Steph du Toit and Adendorff secured the bonus point and the win. Handrè Pollard kicked all four conversions.
“This team showed tremendous guts out there tonight and thoroughly deserves all the accolades from this win. We tried afterwards to name a man of the match, but there were just so many guys who played out of their skin, it was impossible,” Theron said.
The Boks lost regular captain Wiaan Liebenberg and replacement flyhalf Tony Jantjies shortly before kick-off, with Steph du Toit coming into the side as a flank.
Skipper on the night, Small-Smith, said the team never stopped believing: “It was a matter of time for us, as we believed that we could score four tries. It was all we talked about before the match. Everyone gave everything out there tonight.”
Not a great outing for Oliver Kebble though, who was subbed before half time after the Bok pack took some strain come scrum time early in the game. Allan Dell came on to wear the crucial number 3 jersey and seemed to steady the ship.
The revised Bok team that played England:
15. Dillyn Leyds (Western Province) 14. Paul Jordaan (KZN) 13. William Small-Smith (Blue Bulls, captain) 12. Jan Serfontein (Blue Bulls) 11. Pat Howard (Western Province) 10. Handré Pollard (Western Province) 9. Vian van der Watt (Golden Lions) 8. Fabian Booysen (Golden Lions) 7. Pieter Steph du Toit (KZN) 6. Shaun Adendorff (Blue Bulls) 5. Ruan Botha (Golden Lions) 4. Paul Willemse (Golden Lions) 3. Oliver Kebble (Western Province) 2. Jason Thomas (Blue Bulls) 1. Steven Kitshoff (Western Province)
Bench: 16. Mark Pretorius (Golden Lions) 17. Allan Dell (KZN) 18. Khaya Majola (KZN) 19. Braam Steyn (KZN) 20. Abrie Griesel (Blue Bulls) 21. Marais Schmidt (Golden Lions)/Tony Jantjies (Blue Bulls) 22. Tshotsho Mbovane (Western Province) 23. Maks van Dyk (KZN)
Newlands fixtures:
Sunday 17 June:
• 1445 – 5th place semifinal play-off – France v Australia.
• 1700 – Semifinal – Wales v New Zealand.
• 1915 – Semifinal – Argentina v SA.
Friday 22 June
• 1415 – 5th place play-off.
• 1630 – 3rd place play-off.
• 1845 – FINAL.
Ticket prices for the fixtures at Newlands, are as follows:
R50 for reserved tickets on the Grand Stand
R25 for unreserved tickets on the Railway Stand
Season tickets are NOT valid.
The Ticket Collection Office will be open two hours before kick-off. To avoid queues or delays, tickets may be purchased and collected at any Computicket outlet, Shoprite, Checkers or Checkers Hyper stores at any time before the event.
Hi Tank, very happy with the win, but………..our lineouts were shocking. We need to improve that if we want to take the cup !! It’s been a problem in every match, mostly due to the hookers not finding their jumpers. Once or twice the support was a problem and there was one good steal from England – I’m not talking about the one at the back of the lineout. The one at the back: Willemse was unmarked at the front with both his supporters next to him, while England had only one jumper in front with one “lifter”. Surely the lock making the calls could see that Willemse was unmarked, but no, they went to the back and the Poms made an easy steal.
Scrums: it seems that Oliver’s length is counting against him. Having said that, his opponent was quite short (which made Kebble’s task more difficult) but also used illegal tactics: he got a short bound onto Kebble’s jersey (in the chest area:illegally so) while the ref was on the other side and could not see the illegal binding and the “upwards” scrummaging. It was however a good move to replace him with a shorter tighthead. My 2 cents
A great 2nd half played.line outs & throw -ins need considerable improvement however big improvement all round in the players finding each other which is so important in a team game such as Rugby is.Now must be carefull as other teams such as Wales are rampant.Best of luck further to our baby boks!
One has to take one’s hat off to any team who can come back like that and get the job done. Tank, I think someone needs to get hold of young Kebble and get his basics right – obviously not much was done whilst he was at the London Irish Academy – IMO where he is at the moment, props are going to smash him at a higher level where he is not going to get away with just being 130kgs and nothing else.
Shot for the comments guys … Yep, Kebble came up against a pretty good loosehead (and Pom pack) last night, and came seoncd. He obviously needs to learn from that … He is primarily a loosehead and perhaps he should stick to that for the time being. But Kitshoff is the form guy at the moment, so that means to the bench for Kebble … Being tall at tighthead does make it a littlle more difficult, especially against a short squat guy … I am 1.89m so know a bit about that. That said, Carl Hayman is no shrimp and he is the best tighthead in the world. Kebble is young, and will learn his trade over time, but as said, perhaps he should stick to loosehead for now …
The thing about Kebble is that he didn’t just go to London Irish, he also spent time in France with Mont de Marsan. Down there in the south they learn to scrum before they learn to read.