The Springboks went down 30-23 to the All Blacks in an incident-filled Vodacom Tri-Nations Test at a capacity King’s Park Stadium in Durban on Saturday.
This was despite Bok flyhalf Andre Pretorius scoring 18 points via a try, two penalties, two conversions and a dropped goal. The halftime score was 17 for each side.
The emotion was tangible during the singing of the national anthems and when the adrenalin-charged Springbok team faced down the All Black Haka, the 52 000 fans in King’s Park knew they were in for a fierce battle.
Unfortunately that emotion boiled over into aggression and the Test was interrupted by an ugly and unprecedented incident at the start of the second half when a 43-year-old Bok fan from Potchefstroom ran onto the field and attacked Irish referee Dave McHugh.
McHugh, who was setting a scrum at the time, was tackled by the crazed fan who somehow managed to get onto the field. Players from both sides tried to separate the two and McHugh was injured when the players collapsed on top of him.
He was later stretchered off the field and replaced by English linesman Chris White.
Rian Oberholzer, managing director of South African Rugby (Pty) Ltd has described as the unprecedented incident as deplorable.
”What happened was unacceptable,” said Oberholzer at a hastily arranged press conference at the stadium. ”SA Rugby and all of its supporters apologise to Mr McHugh for this unfortunate incident —
that kind of behaviour does not belong at any rugby match,” he said.
”I guarantee that he will never again attend a rugby match in South Africa for the rest of his life,” promised a visibly upset Oberholzer.
”When we host Test matches in South Africa we do not expect people to behave like this. ”Those who support the Springboks, and indeed rugby, should know that they should behave responsibly and with respect, most especially towards referees, the players and
other spectators.
The game was not quite a rugby spectacle, but certainly gave its fair share of excitement. Both sides were guilty of too many handling errors.
The All Blacks were stunned in the first minute, after controlling play from the kick-off, when hooker James Dalton latched onto a loose ball that was then recycled quickly.
Left wing Dean Hall beat off a tackle close to the touchline before offloading to a galloping Werner Greeff. Greeff was hauled down metres from the tryline, but the nippy scrumhalf Neil de Kock was on hand to score his first try for his country and put the Boks in front.
The home team, who tackled ferociously throughout the first half, had no answer to a piece of brilliance by Durban-born New Zealand flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens, who sliced through a gap to put centre Tana Umaga away. He in turn set up fullback Leon MacDonald for the second try of the match in as many minutes.
It was clear from the opening exchanges that both teams were keen to play an expansive game and the crowd were treated to some wonderful running rugby in the first half.
Some fantastic defending in the opening stanza kept the All Blacks at bay. First Greeff made excellent ground to deny Umaga a try in the corner, before left wing Dean Hall was first to a chip through with four New Zealanders in close attendance.
However, the Boks could do nothing about Irish referee Dave McHugh’s contentious decision to award a penalty try for a high tackle on Umaga by centre De Wet Barry.
And moments later he disallowed what would have been right wing Breyton Paulse’s 15th try for the Boks apparently for obstruction by Dalton at an earlier ruck.
Nevertheless, the crowd’s disapproval soon turned to jubilation when Pretorius chipped and gathered minutes later to put the Boks back in the lead at 17-12.
However the All Blacks breached the Bok defence soon after to draw level, when right wing Doug Howlett rounded the defence to score out wide.
The second half started with the ugly incident involving McHugh and the game was stopped for 10 minutes while some sense of sanity was restored.
When the game did eventually restart, the Boks went on the offensive. The introduction of Bolla Conradie and Brent Russell by coach Rudolf Straeuli fired up the home team.
A number of attacking forays by the Boks came to nought, mainly due to bad decision making and determined All Black tackling.
Pretorius, however, who had a blinder, put South Africa back in front with another penalty and then his first ever dropped goal for SA, after the penalty was matched by Mehrtens.
South Africa began to play with imagination and could have scored if flank Joe van Niekerk had managed to offload to a flying Paulse with the All Black defence stranded with 20 minutes remaining.
Instead it was the steady boot of Mehrtens who levelled matters again, before centre Aaron Mauger scored a converted try after sustained pressure by the New Zealanders to give them a 30-23 lead as well as a bonus point.
When Pretorius missed his first kick of the game with five minutes remaining, the All Blacks were safe and must now wait for next Saturday to see whether they are the new Tri-Nations champions.
Pointscorers:
Springboks (23): Tries: Scrumhalf Neil de Kock, flyhalf Andre Pretorius. Conversions: Pretorius (2). Penalties: Pretorius (2). Drop goals: Pretorius.
All Blacks (30): Tries: Fullback Leon MacDonald, right wing Doug Howlett, centre Aaron Mauger and a penalty try. Conversions: Flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens (2). Penalties: Mehrtens (2). Drop goals:
Teams:
Springboks:
15 Werner Greeff (WP), 14 Breyton Paulse (WP), 13 Marius Joubert (WP), 12 De Wet Barry (WP), 11 Dean Hall (Lions), 10 Andre Pretorius (Lions), 9 Neil de Kock (WP); 8 Bob Skinstad (WP), 7 Joe van Niekerk (Lions), 6 Corne Krige (WP, captain), 5 AJ Venter (Sharks), 4 Jannes Labuschagne (Lions), 3 Willie Meyer (Lions), 2 James Dalton (Falcons), 1 Lawrence Sephaka (Lions).
Reserves: 16 Ollie Le Roux (Sharks), 17 Faan Rautenbach (WP), 18 Victor Matfield (Bulls), 19 Hendro Scholtz (Lions), 20 Johannes Conradie (WP), 21 Adrian Jacobs (Falcons), 22 Brent Russell (Lions).
All Blacks:
15 Leon MacDonald (Canterbury), 14 Doug Howlett (Auckland), 13 Tana Umaga (Wellington), 12 Aaron Mauger (Canterbury), 11 Caleb Ralph (Canterbury), 10 Andrew Mehrtens (Canterbury), 9 Justin Marshall (Canterbury); 8 Scott Robertson (Canterbury), 7 Richard McCaw (Canterbury), 6 Reuben Thorne (Canterbury, captain), 5 Simon Maling (Otago), 4 Chris Jack (Canterbury), 3 Greg Somerville (Canterbury), 2 Tom Willis (Otago), 1 Dave Hewett (Canterbury).
Reserves: 16 Mark Hammett (Canterbury) or Andrew Hore (Taranaki), 17 Joe McDonnell (Otago) or Kees Meeuws (Auckland), 18 Marty Holah (Waikato), 19 Sam Broomhall (Canterbury), 20 Byron Kelleher (Otago), 21 Daryl gibson (Canterbury), 22 Jonah Lomu (Wellington).
Referee: Dave McHugh (Ireland).
Linesmen: Chris White (England) and Alain Rolland (Ireland).
– Sapa