Boks brutalised
Embarrassing, abysmal, dreadful, a black day for Springbok rugby. You could throw in a few more choice adjectives. South Africa were simply shocking against New Zealand, getting dominated 57-0 in Auckland. It was a record win for the All Blacks against their old foes and included eight tries, some which were sensational to watch, to none. It was the Springboks’ biggest loss since going down 53-3 to England at Twickenham in 2002.
There had been a few questions about the Kiwis going into this game. They had drawn their Lions series 1-1. The Wallabies had managed to score quite a few tries against them in the past two Tests, and should have really beaten in their last match. A few of their key players have retired in the past few years and a new brigade of stars are coming through. But the All Blacks showed they are certainly not a spent force, not even close to it.
Nehe Milner-Skudder finished with two tries while Brodie Retallick, Scott Barrett, Lima Sopoaga, Codie Taylor, Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Rieko Ioane all got on the scoresheet. The set up for one of Milner-Skudder’s tries, with an inside ball from Beauden Barrett, was beautiful. Barrett finished the game with 17 points, after nailing one penalty and seven of eight conversions.
South Africa were decent against Argentina and inconsistent against Australia, coming into this game undefeated after three rounds. But nothing went right for them in Auckland and they couldn’t handle New Zealand’s ruthless counter-attack. The Springboks missed a whopping 32 tackles and their lineout was terrible, losing five of their own throws. The scrum wasn’t much better with the African side losing three scrums. It just a shocking evening all round for South Africa, the sooner they forget it the better.
Wallabies work over Pumas
Australia earned its first win of the 2017 Rugby Championship with a 45-20 victory over Argentina in Canberra. Israel Folau got a brace of tries and Bernard Foley had a great day with the tee, converting a perfect seven of seven attempts at goal. The Pumas made it hard work for the Wallabies for the first 40 minutes and had the lead 13-10 at the interval. Scrum-half Martin Landajo bagged the first try and Nicolas Sanchez sent over a conversion and a penalty to edge them in front.
But the green and gold turned it on in the second half, running in five tries to blow Argentina off the field. Three of the Wallabies’ tries came in the last eight minutes as the game opened up and the Pumas’ defence fell to pieces. In the end it was a comfortable 25-point win for Australia but one that head coach Michael Cheika won’t be too happy about. The Aussies dropped plenty of ball in the first half and made life difficult for themselves. Number 8 Sean McMahon stood out, racking up 17 tackles and making some strong carries in attack. Discipline was again a problem for Argentina with Enrique Pieretto sin-binned for the final nine minutes. Until the Pumas can sort out the legality issues in their play they are going to continue to struggle in this competition.
