Australia vs South Africa
Sorry, but I turned off the television set. The Wallabies playing South Africa in Johannesburg have probably played the worst game I’ve seen in 5 years.
In the 68th minute the South Africans crossed to put the score out to 46-8. There are no silver linings, no positives to take away from the match. We simply played pedestrian football… Worse than pedestrian football.
After the seventh try, I turned off the TV in disgust. I’ve sat through worse score lines (I think), but this is the first time in living memory that I haven’t watched until the final hooter. The Wallabies don’t deserve another ten minutes of my life. They are playing so badly that I won’t donate the time.
Where did the team from last week go?
Not a single player in the starting XV deserves a mention. They all played poorly. Mortlock played perhaps one of the worst games I’ve ever seen him play, capped by his “pass to no one” around the 65 minute mark.
The reserves have stepped in and temporarily stemmed the haemorrhage of tries being given away, but seriously, after Pienaar walked straight through and over for a try enough was enough. (It turns out they picked up another try in the 77th minute, but my television had been well powered down by that stage).
Do the Australian team actually practice line out throwing? I’d be in favour of getting a hooker into the side who can throw straight verses any other factor right now. At one point we threw to South Africa with no Wallaby jumpers – on our own throw in!!
Our fundamentals were poor – the basics weren’t there. Passing, tackling, kicking (oh, by the way, thanks Hynes for kicking the ball out on the full leading to South Africa’s sixth try. They really needed that extra possession and territory).
Rubbish play, horrible game. For shame. Back to the drawing board.
Final score: South Africa 53 defeats Australia 8
A dismal failure for Australia who have given up a record margin to the South Africans, including the first four-try outing in Tri Nations to Springbok winger Jongi Nokwei.
It is a time to be embarrassed to be a Wallabies fan (again).
