The Springbok second team fluffed its lines against Georgia at Aussie Stadium, but won a hard fought contest 46-19. With a number of places up for grabs in Rudolf Straeuli’s first choice 15, only the Bulls pair of flanker Danie Rossouw and flyhalf Derick Hougaard and Lions centre Jacque Fourie managed to rise above the general mediocrity.
The Georgians’ competitive pack forced the Springboks into countless errors and a total of seven first half penalties from the whistle of Stuart Dickinson, who took time out to remind captain for the day, John Smit, that Georgia were also keen to get quick ball at the breakdowns.
Hougaard’s nerveless performance once again made a mockery of Straeuli’s decision to give him no more than 10 minutes against England last weekend. He kicked a penalty and four conversions, and scored his first try for his country in the 18th minute after Fourie’s slick pass had put him into space.
Rossouw scored the first Springbok try in the 14th minute and straightened the line to allow Joe van Niekerk to score the third in the 22nd minute. That proved to be the end of the scoring for the Boks in the first half as their handling and positional play deteriorated beyond acceptable levels.
Georgian flyhalf Paliko Jimsheladze kicked two first half penalties and added a further penalty and conversion in the second. His replacement Merab Kvinkashvili also kicked a penalty in the 66th minute, before being yellow carded for a high tackle in the final 10 minutes.
Rossouw began the second half in style for the Boks with a dynamic run that ended in a momentum try, ensuring that the bonus point was gathered early enough to concentrate on other aspects of the game. But what actually happened was that matters went from bad to worse.
In the 53rd minute Dickinson’s patience finally ran out and Hendro Scholtz was sent to the sin bin for killing the ball at a ruck. Georgia set up a lineout five metres out and drove hooker David Dadunashvili over the line for the first try by the Eastern Europeans at this tournament. Jimsheladze calmly stroked the conversion and 55 minutes into the match the score was 29-16 to the Boks.
Hougaard put through a clever grubber five minutes later to create a try for Jacque Fourie, then threw a good pass to release a charging Bakkies Botha in the 69th minute to ease the tension.
Botha and Joe van Niekerk, the only survivors from the team that lost to England, did enough to prove they belong in more exalted company, but several other Boks won’t relish viewing the match video. Werner Greeff looked as rusty at inside centre as he had at fullback against Uruguay, while the bumbling play of Stefan Terblanche was a constant reminder of his poor season at international level.
On the other side of the coin there were portents of good times to come when Schalk Burger finally made his debut in the final quarter as a replacement for Van Niekerk. Burger played out of position at eighth man, but put in his normal dynamic display, ending with a classic try from the base of the scrum to wrap up proceedings in the 80th minute.
Ultimately the Springboks were about half as efficient as England against the same opposition, proving for the statisticians that England are nearly twice as good. But then, we already knew that.