Ken Borland

The Ford Pumas pulled away from the second quarter as they smashed the SWD Eagles 70-27 (half-time 35-6) in their Absa Currie Cup First Division match at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday.

The bonus-point win was vital for the Pumas as they try to prevent the EP Kings from getting too far away from them at the top of the log. The Kings temporarily stretched their lead to 13 points with their victory the previous evening over the Valke, but the Mpumalanga side ensured the gap returned to eight points at the end of the 10th of 14 rounds of league play.

If the match had been overseen by the police rather than referee Joey Salmans, the Pumas might have been charged with assault with intent to cause grevious bodily harm as they steamrolled the Eagles, a dominant pack and their powerful runners in the backline running amok.

Flank Jaco Bouwer scored a hat-trick of tries and wing Wilhelm Loock crossed twice in the space of four minutes either side of halftime. Flyhalf JC Roos also kicked with tremendous composure and accuracy as he succeeded with all nine of his conversion attempts and replacement lock Christo le Roux kicked the 10th just for good measure.

The Pumas began on the right note as Bouwer scored in the first minute and a second try by centre Jerome Pretorius gave them a 14-3 lead after the first quarter.

The home side’s tight five were in firm control and the Pumas’ loose trio capitalised with Uzair Cassiem and Bouwer scoring tries in the 24th and 32nd minutes respectively, before Loock was able to make good ground down the left and score just three minutes before the break.

Two penalties from fullback Elric van Vuuren were all the Eagles had to show from the first half, but they can take some credit for battling on gamely right until the final whistle and they scored three tries in the second half.

Loock showed that he can turn on the after-burners as he scored straight from the second-half restart and, given the flood of scoring that saw the Pumas grab four tries in the previous 17 minutes, it must have felt like years for the 2 000 home supporters before they crossed the tryline again in the 58th minute through lock Nqubeko Zulu.

Roos converted to stretch the lead to 49-6, prompting the Eagles to bring on most of their bench and they did have an impact, relatively speaking of course.

A try by replacement hooker Wayne Khan cut the deficit to 13-49 with Van Vuuren’s conversion, before Pumas star Bouwer found the space to barge over for his hat-trick try in the 69th minute.

Centre JW Jonker also found the gap to score six minutes later, but the Eagles had the reserves and the determination to score twice in the closing stages, the impressive Van Vuuren grabbing tries to give him a tally of 22 points from the match.

But the Pumas fittingly had the final say as replacement wing Ashwin Scott scooted over in the corner for their 10th and final try.

SCORERS

Ford Pumas – Tries: Jaco Bouwer (3), Jerome Pretorius, Uzair Cassiem, Wilhelm Loock (2), Nqubeko Zulu, JW Jonker, Ashwin Scott. Conversions: JC Roos (9), Christo le Roux.

SWD Eagles – Tries: Wayne Khan, Elric van Vuuren (2). Conversions: Van Vuuren (3). Penalties: Van Vuuren (2).

http://www.supersport.com/rugby/currie-cup-first-division/news/120901/Pumas_smash_Eagles

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer said on Saturday that the Springboks will have to put up an impenetrable defensive wall against Australia when they meet in their Rugby Championship match in Perth next week.

“Australia are a dangerous side when they get quick ball, especially their backs, who are unbelievable. If our defence is not 100%, they will punish us,” Meyer told reporters in Johannesburg on Saturday.

While the Australian public are tearing into their team after two straight losses to New Zealand, including a 22-0 defeat in Auckland last weekend – the first time in 50 years that the Wallabies have not scored a point against the All Blacks – Meyer said Robbie Deans’s charges still had the ability to hurt the Springboks.

“Australia are a very good team and we don’t have a good record against them. New Zealand are just a way ahead of everyone at the moment and nobody’s giving us a chance in Perth next weekend.

“Australia have a very good pack which you cannot underestimate and it should be a very good contest at the breakdowns. We need to be very direct and if we kick aimlessly, they are very good at counter-attacking.

“They will definitely test us on defence because they run different lines and they have a more backline-orientated team. I’m very realistic and I know how tough it’s going to be against the Wallabies,” Meyer said.

South Africa’s new coach is not expected to make radical changes to either the Springbok game plan or personnel, despite the disapppointing 16-16 draw against Argentina in Mendoza last weekend.

“You change the game plan week-by-week depending on the opposition, but they’re just small tweaks and you still play to your strengths. This whole thing about game plans is totally romanticised and unrealistic. Eighty percent of the game plan is the same for every team in the world and there’s no such things as Plans B, C or D, and you can’t get to Point E on the field if you still haven’t covered Point A.

“The game plan is the same one that wins World Cups and it’s a game plan that suits the Springboks. But the base is not even in place yet and the only time a team really learns is when they’re playing away.

“I’m a guy who backs the players, will give them continuity and once we’ve played away from home then I’ll look at the combinations and be ruthless. We need to get our depth sorted first,” Meyer said.

While Australians are bemoaning their run of 14 defeats in 17 matches against the All Blacks, the current Wallabies can make history against the Springboks in Perth. If Australia win, it will be their fifth successive triumph against South Africa, improving on the four straight victories achieved by the world champion 1999/2000 side.

Meyer said he was expecting a much more fluid game in Perth after the forward-dominated arm-wrestle in Mendoza, which saw the Springboks struggle to obtain any front-foot ball.

“Ja, I think we’ll get much quicker ball against Australia and the game will be more like we’re used to in the southern hemisphere. Against Argentina we didn’t get any quick ball, but we must adapt to the referee. We weren’t accurate enough on our cleaning out and we’ve worked very hard on that this week,” Meyer said.

Australia have scored just one try in their two matches against the All Blacks this year, while South Africa managed four in their games against Argentina, but Meyer said New Zealand and the Wallabies have greater vision than his side.

“Most tries come from broken field possession or turnovers and it’s not about the game plan, it’s about reading the situation. The more experienced players read the situation better and Australia and New Zealand are better at it than us because of the way they are brought up as rugby players,” Meyer said.

South Africa’s players believe in the game plan employed by coach Heyneke Meyer and the environment around the team allows them the latitude to disagree, Springbok captain Jean de Villiers said on Thursday.

Meyer has been criticised in South Africa for a rigid game plan that revolves around the forwards bashing the ball up to get over the gain line, with the backline generally being used to implement the kicking and territory games the Springboks have used in recent years.

South Africa won the first two tests of their series against England in June before drawing the third, and they won their opening Rugby Championship match against Argentina in Cape Town, without a four-try bonus point, before being held to a shock draw last weekend in Mendoza by the debutants in the southern hemisphere competition that was formerly known as the Tri-Nations.

“When you don’t live up to expectations then you will be criticised. But the important thing is that we believe in what we are doing, we are set on a game plan that we believe can produce winning rugby,” centre De Villiers told a news conference at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Thursday.

“We definitely don’t feel like it’s a dictatorship. Heyneke is a new coach trying to get his message across as to how he wants us to play. But we’re all grown-ups, if we disagree then we’ll stand up and say so. We believe in what the coach is trying to do, if that changes, then I believe our environment, the system the team operates in, allows us to have the space to express our views.”

While the Springboks were panned for playing one-dimensional, forward-dominated rugby against Argentina, De Villiers said he felt the backline had been more effective than they were given credit for.

“I’ve looked at the game again and I felt a bit better about it after that. A lot of positives can come out of that game, although there’s obviously lots to work on.

“I thought we attacked really nicely at times, we created space and now the goal is to get the ball into that space. We’re not always using the forwards to get momentum, sometimes we use them to take the ball up and then the next phase we’ll go wide.

“But we have to make sure we protect the ball out wide and not let the opposition spoil it at the ends of the field,” De Villiers said.

The 31-year-old veteran of 77 tests said discipline, the set-phases and adapting to the referee’s ruck interpretations were some of the areas that needed improvement ahead of the Australasian leg of their Rugby Championship campaign that features matches against Australia in Perth on September 8 and versus New Zealand in Dunedin on September 15.

“If we were a mediocre team, then everyone would be happy with our performances, but we believe that we’re a better team than we showed in Mendoza. So these games are an opportunity to step up as a team and show what we can produce.

“We need to learn from our experiences, we can’t make the same mistakes, and we are doing that – we improved from our game in Cape Town.

“But we’re at 50-60% of where we want to be, so obviously we have to improve. The margins are very small in test rugby and it’s the small things that make the difference,” De Villiers said.