SA player ratings
Oct 08,2012
New Zealand made it six wins from six in the Rugby Championship as they beat South Africa 32-16. Now it's time to rate the Springboks.
15 Zane Kirchner: Who? Hardly featured. Went from hero to zero in the space of a week after making such a big impact against the Wallabies. Hauled off in the 64th minute... why it took that long we'll never know. 4/10
14 Bryan Habana: Made some powerful runs coupled with numerous line breaks, and was rewarded with a try for his efforts. But became less influential as the game wore on. 5/10
13 Jaco Taute: Very busy in the tackle department when he made contact. Found very little space to stretch the legs. 4/10
12 Jean de Villiers (c): Steady if not spectacular but, De Villiers did very well to latch on the ball to put Habana away. Struggled to lift the side during the second-half malaise. 5/10
11 Francois Hougaard: Looked lively in the first half but needed to offer a bit more attacking thrust when the game started falling away from SA in the second half.4/10
10 Johan Goosen: Only lasted a little over 30 minutes before limping off and during that time he missed two early shots at goal and raised the flags with a conversion and penalty. Besides that, nothing much to write home about. 5/10
9 Ruan Pienaar: Oh Ruan, Ruan, Ruan. His rollercoaster ride of performances in the green and gold jersey continued in Soweto. Last week, he was riding high... this week he hit rock-bottom. 3.5/10
8 Duane Vermeulen: South Africa's busiest defender, Vermeulen will feel unfortunate to be on the losing side. 6.5/10
7 Willem Alberts: Made the break that led to Habana's try, and gleefully accepted the challenge of soaking up numerous New Zealand tackles but went missing after the break a wee bit. 6.5/10
6 Francois Louw: Will earn plaudits for work rate but questions will be asked of how NZ came to dominate matters at the breakdown seemingly at will. 5/10
5 Andries Bekker: A mediocre effort by his standards. Made a few mistakes and rarely made a difference at line-out time. 4.5/10
4 Eben Etzebeth: Poached an All Blacks' throw-in at the line-out and took three of his own. But we've seen better from the Bok hardman. Subbed after 59 minutes. 4.5/10
3 Jannie du Plessis: Had his work cut out in a Bok pack which eventually was well beaten by NZ. Got subbed in the 53rd minute by Coenie Oosthuizen, which proved to be pretty costly for the Boks. 4/10
2 Adriaan Strauss: Arguably the most disappointing game in the Bok jersey from Strauss. Effective for the first half hour but then the energy seemed to go from his legs. 4/10
1 Tendai Mtawarira: Crowd barely started the Beaaaast chant before he was shackled by All Blacks defenders. 4/10
Replacements:
16 Tiaan Liebenberg: Came on ridiculously late and didn't change things.
17 Coenie Oosthuizen: Ok, he didn't pull a Dean Greyling but gave away nearly as many penalties. 2/10
18 Flip van der Merwe: Not on long enough to warrant a rating.
19 Marcell Coetzee: Tried to bully tired Kiwi bodies. But needs more time to get into his groove. Not South Africa's answer as a super sub. 4/10
20 Elton Jantjies: Started off superbly when he came on for Goosen, but his confidence only diminished as the game progressed. 5/10
21 Juan de Jongh: Not on long enough to warrant a rating.
22 Pat Lambie: Fairly anonymous, but showed some trademark touches. 4/10
Comments (6)
Oct 08, 2012 at 10:21:25
Habana went from Hero to Zero IMO. He scored a try yes, but also let one slip and gave one away with his rush defence trying to intercept. deserves a 3.5/10.
Oct 08, 2012 at 15:26:07
Those were my feelings at first but on watching it again a few times it was a 4 on 1 situation and his only option was to rush and try to catch man and ball. He was not great but was our best back by 2 country miles.
Oct 08, 2012 at 16:17:11
Etsebeth - 4.5????
Come on Ed!
He was all over the place in the loose, put in some good hits... and terrorised their lineouts!
Oct 08, 2012 at 19:09:00
Your ratings for the forwards are way too low. F Louw had another awesome game. The forwards had a pretty good day at the office. i would rate the lowest for Strauss at 4 to high for Louw at 7.5.
As for the backs i would rate the lowest Hougaart/Pienaar at 3 and the remainder on average 5 to 6.5 .
Oct 08, 2012 at 22:49:44
I think Ed has been bullied by us so many times for too many high ratings that he's gone the other way now. Plus the comments seem almost angry, wonder if he wrote them directly after the game lol..
Oct 08, 2012 at 10:15:20
These ratings are a little harsh. The forwards were not quite as bad as the ratings would suggest. With the exception of Habana, the backs were pretty useless.