What makes a team turn up for the most important game of its life listless, disinterested and lacking in all the aggressive fundamentals that make rugby a game worth playing? That’s what happened to the Springboks against New Zealand as the tigers of the final pool match against Samoa turned into poodles at the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup.
As a result the Boks are on their way home with a few hard-won reputations in tatters, while the All Blacks are into the semi-finals as 29-9 winners at a strangely subdued Telstra Dome in Melbourne.
There was no great secret to the way that South Africa was supposed to play this game. They had to dominate the forward exchanges both at the set pieces and in the loose, make every tackle count and hold onto possession for dear life.
The tight five duly demolished the All Blacks in the scrums and won their own ball comfortably in the lineouts, but every other aspect of the game plan was simply ignored until it was too late.
First phase ball that should never have seen the light of day until half a dozen forwards had linked in picks and drives, went blithely down the back line, which responded as if it wasn’t expecting to see it by knocking it on or kicking it away.
When the All Blacks had the ball their playmakers at scrumhalf, flyhalf and inside centre were allowed to play with utter freedom as tackles were missed or ignored in cavalier fashion. Meanwhile it was the far lighter New Zealand forwards who played the in-your-face game expected of the Springboks.
Incredibly, New Zealand only profited by one first half try after this criminal negligence. It began with the Springboks demolishing an All Black scrum, but when the bad ball reached Carlos Spencer he blithely skipped around two forwards and ran 40 metres unmolested before releasing Leon Macdonald to score.
The centre kicked the conversion and penalties in the 12th and 33rd minutes. Derick Hougaard responded with kicks in the 14th and 40th minutes to send the teams into half time at 13-6.
Early in the second half Aaron Mauger dropped a goal from point blank range. Hougaard responded with a 62nd minute penalty, but the game turned at the start of the final quarter. Hooker Kevin Mealamu received the ball 22 metres out and broke no fewer than five tackles on his way to the line.
With a gun to their heads the Boks finally remembered how to play the game. They drove the ball from successive lineouts to within a metre of the line before Christo Bezuidenhout was tackled into touch. Schalk Burger came on and reminded his team how to tackle, but the All Blacks’ fragile confidence had now been replaced by a familiar arrogance.
It was exemplified by the final try for Joe Rokocoko in the 72nd minute. The Boks were pushed back in a five-metre scrum, which forced Juan Smith to pick the ball up at the base. At the ruck he was dispossessed, Marshall fed Spencer and the flyhalf flipped the ball through his legs to release the unmarked winger.
Macdonald missed the conversion and it will be scant consolation for the Boks that he had a dreadful day with the boot because the melancholy fact of the matter is that on the day it didn’t matter. Goal kickers win (or lose) close games and this was never that, despite the fact that this All Black team is way short of some of its great predecessors.
If the rumours are to be believed, failure to reach the third place play off game should mean that coach Rudolf Straeuli will be asked to tender his resignation from a job that he accepted on April Fools Day last year. If that is the case he will blame a game where his team played like clowns.