Well, I thought England would’ve been a bit more challenging opposition, probably the strongest of the touring Northern Hemisphere sides. The first win for the Springboks for 2012 and the first win for Heynecke Meyer of his coaching tenure.
I must admit, I was a bit doubtful about our chances of winning the first encounter, but the Boks made me proud. After all the question marks about team selection, I’m glad to have seen it pay off and we got the win. Obviously, there were some issues and little costly mistakes, so we could have scored more tries, but that will come. What a win for our first game together, we beat the English !! Stuart Lancaster and his men must realise, that winning in South Africa will only get harder from now on, as we start building momentum and shaping our team, the English will have to produce a better effort should they want to beat us here in the Republic, with the past weekend probably being there best opportunity to get a win in the series.
All in all, I’m satisfied with the win, well done to all the players and coaching staff, you guys pulled it through. Clearly there were some hard words by the coach during the half time break, because the Boks came out firing in the second half and it was awesome to watch with some really brilliant moments at times.
As for our captain courageous, Jean de Villiers, he had a brilliant game and he was excellent in leading by example and also finishing off a well deserved try, partnering with Frans Steyn, they are a really impressive centre pairing, and can’t wait to see them back in action again this weekend.
The impact of the bench players was exceptional, but obviously it would seem like that, because Patrick Lambie showed his brilliance, but also it must be said, that Zane Kirschner did not have a bad game, but there still is no comparison between the two, Lambie definitely in a class of his own.
Hopefully there are no injuries or niggles to our players and I hope its a good week of preparation for the second Test.
Well done Bokke !!
