The Springboks showed they could yet cause an upset or two at this year’s Rugby World Cup after putting in an impressive performance to defeat the Falcons 74-0 at the Pam Brink Stadium in Springs on Tuesday evening.
The Boks ran in 14 wonderful tries, at times showing silky handling skills, but on too many occasions elementary mistakes caused promising moves to break down.
Another plus was the fact that the Bok defence held firm, keeping a clean sheet, but the biggest concern coming out of this match was the injury to centre Jean de Villiers.
The Western Province midfielder came on as a replacement with about 30 minutes left and immediately made an impact, scoring a try with only his second touch of the ball.
However, the injury-troubled speedster came off the field with about three minutes remaining with a dislocated shoulder.
De Villiers only joined the squad this week following an injury to Gcobani Bobo in last week’s match against the Cheetahs.
It was the Boks final warm-up match before they depart for Australia early next month and the result went a little way to help boost morale in the camp.
The Springboks fluctuated between the sublime and the ridiculous in the first quarter although they built a 19-0 lead, before turning on the power in the latter stages of the half to go into the break 39-0 ahead.
Considering that flyhalf Derick Hougaard only kicked two conversions in the entire match — the Boks opted not to kick at
goal after Hougaard had landed two of his three attempts — the scoreline could have been far more impressive.
The number of handling errors by the backline was ridiculous early on as over-zealousness saw them fluff the good ball won by their pack of forwards against the outgunned home pack.
The Bok tight five was impressive at scrum time, as they should be against this level of opposition, annihilating the Falcons pack on numerous occasions and securing good ball for the backs.
And when the backs got it right they managed to run the Falcons ragged, with fullback Ricardo Loubscher, left wing Breyton Paulse and centre Jacque Fourie all outstanding in the first 40 minutes.
Flyhalf Derick Hougaard though was not to be outdone and put in a first half performance that could well sway coach Rudolf Straeuli to pick him in the number 10 jersey ahead of Louis Koen for the crunch Rugby World Cup encounter against England in Perth on October 18.
The star of the opening half though was without a doubt Big Joe van Niekerk, who showed he is back to his best, notching a first half hat-trick as well as being a handful in the tight and loose.
Close behind him was Danie Rossouw, playing in the number seven jersey, who showed he could well be an inspired choice by Straeuli for this World Cup campaign.
Hendro Scholtz on the other flank was a constant threat and the try conjured up between him and Rossouw was a beauty.
The Falcons, for all their tenacity, simply had no answer to the Boks first-half onslaught, as the large crowd at the Pam Brink Stadium warmed to the Boks.
The second stanza was more of the same and with Straeuli ringing the changes, the Boks continued to pepper the home team’s defence.
Virtually every member of the squad had a decent run at some stage during the match and Straeuli is likely to have a better understanding as to his first choice XV for the World Cup. — Sapa