Steve
06-23-2009, 10:30 PM
Well! What can one say. Even I got it wrong, well done guys...
Emerging Boks brighten Newlands gloom
by Dan Retief | 23 June 2009 (22:18)
http://images.supersport.co.za/deWaalWillem090623kickingAIbg.jpgWillem de Waal © Action Images
A magnificent try by Danwel Demas on the stroke of fulltime and a touchline conversion in pelting rain by Willem de Waal gave the Emerging Springboks a thrilling 13-13 draw against the Lions at Newlands on Tuesday night.
http://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_left.jpghttp://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_right.jpgPredict the score of the British & Irish Lions tour matches and win great prizes from Blackberry! Click here (http://www.superdreamteams.com/lions)http://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_left_btm.jpghttp://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_right_btm.jpg
Blow-by-blow scoring (javascript:void(0))
The Springboks in waiting, along with a bedraggled Newlands crowd, celebrated as though they had won a game played in atrociously wet and windy conditions.
The Emerging Boks had trailed the whole way. 10-0 after 15 minutes; 10-3 at halftime; 10-6 after 49 minutes, but a penalty by James Hook, in an uncanny replay of the sequence that gave the tourists a win over Western Province, in the 77th minute seemed to secure the Lions’ 100 percent record outside the Test matches.
However, the up-and-coming Springboks showed that they are made from the same stuff as their older brothers as they mounted a big effort to snatch a share of the spoils.
The Boks moved the ball from deep and were awarded a penalty when the Lions joined a maul off-sides. Earl Rose won a superb touch five metres from the Lions line on the left-hand side of the field and the Lions were unable to stop the next compelling bid for glory.
Tiaan Liebenberg threw the ball deep to Duane Vermeulen who spun and fed Franco van der Merwe on the loop. The replacement lock was stopped to the left of the posts and when the ball came back Heini Adams fed Werner Kruger and Jacques Botes to drive in unison and when the ball emerged again Adams let De Waal have it and the flyhalf spun a beautiful skip-pass to his right to send Demas hurtling over the line.
The try was scored in 79:51 right in the corner and De Waal’s conversion, already wide out and difficult, was made even harder when he was hit by a rain squall as he was placing the ball. But the 31-year-old former Cheetah who these days plies his trade at Newlands focussed hard and put the purest of strikes on the ball to send it securely between the uprights to secure a moment which will be savoured by his young teammates for the rest of their careers.
For a large group of Lions their South African tour ended in desultory fashion, both figuratively and literally, as the Emerging Springboks sent out a powerful message about the depth of talent at the southern tip of Africa that is bound to inspire the senior team and make the Lions Test side even more on edge ahead of Saturday’s second and possibly decisive international at Loftus Versfeld.
The conditions were ideal for a team from the sodden isles but the Emerging Boks, impressively led by Dewald Potgieter, were determined to make a game of it and obliterate the obvious difference between the two sides – one team with multiple international caps and the other with none.
The South Africans had probably hoped for a dry, running game to bring their speed to bear but how well they acquitted themselves of their wet weather task. Potgieter and his fellow loose forwards Jean Deysel and Duane Vermeulen constantly caught the eye with their strong runs, the EBoks didn’t stand back in the set pieces and the like of Jano Vermaak and Zane Kirchner did not let those down who have been promoting their elevation to the Springbok side.
At times the Bokkies lacked cohesion and they were guilty of being too individualistic but they went at the Lions with such gusto that you could sense in the last quarter that an upset might be on the cards.
Against this the Lions looked what they were – a team made up of players aware that their Test chances were slip-sliding away and that they were unlikely to play on tour again.
Skipper on the night Ronan O’Gara left the battlefield because of a cut to his mouth but, apart from newly created fullback Keith Earls, none of the Lions would have done much to have convinced Ian McGeechan of the need to call them up to the Test XV.
Donncha O’Callaghan may well be Paul O’Connell’s more natural lock partner, Luke Fitgerald may displace Ugo Monye but for the like of Andy Powell, who has been exposed as something of a show-boater on this tour, Nathan Hines, Shane Williams and Riki Flutey all that’s left is to be positive and supportive of the Test team for what are going to be 10 long days.
With the rain and the wind ebbing and flowing in intensity O’Gara opened the score with a penalty in the 8th minute and the Lions got the first try in the 14th – a superb touch-down by Earls after an attempted kick-through by Kirchner went straight to Martyn Williams who sparked a strong counter-attack in consort with Flutey which was finished by the fullback cutting back across the Boks’ drift defence.
O’Gara slotted the conversion to make it 10-0 and the South African would not open their account until the 35th minute when Earl Rose, whose teacher’s pet status again attracted some unfair derision from the crowd, kicked a penalty.
Rose made it 6-10 in the 49th minute but the scorers would remain untroubled until the 77th minute when O’Gara’s replacement, James Hook, slotted a penalty that seemed to make the game safe for the Lions – but not secure against the strong desire of the Emerging Boks as they mounted their last determined attack.
Scorers were:
Emerging Springboks (3) 13: Try by Danwel Demas (80 min). Earl Rose kicked two penalties and Willem de Waal a conversion. British Lions (10) 13: Try by Keith Earls (14 min). Ronan O’Gara kicked a conversion and a penalty and James Hook a penalty.
Emerging Boks brighten Newlands gloom
by Dan Retief | 23 June 2009 (22:18)
http://images.supersport.co.za/deWaalWillem090623kickingAIbg.jpgWillem de Waal © Action Images
A magnificent try by Danwel Demas on the stroke of fulltime and a touchline conversion in pelting rain by Willem de Waal gave the Emerging Springboks a thrilling 13-13 draw against the Lions at Newlands on Tuesday night.
http://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_left.jpghttp://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_right.jpgPredict the score of the British & Irish Lions tour matches and win great prizes from Blackberry! Click here (http://www.superdreamteams.com/lions)http://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_left_btm.jpghttp://www.supersport.co.za/common/articles/article_string_right_btm.jpg
Blow-by-blow scoring (javascript:void(0))
The Springboks in waiting, along with a bedraggled Newlands crowd, celebrated as though they had won a game played in atrociously wet and windy conditions.
The Emerging Boks had trailed the whole way. 10-0 after 15 minutes; 10-3 at halftime; 10-6 after 49 minutes, but a penalty by James Hook, in an uncanny replay of the sequence that gave the tourists a win over Western Province, in the 77th minute seemed to secure the Lions’ 100 percent record outside the Test matches.
However, the up-and-coming Springboks showed that they are made from the same stuff as their older brothers as they mounted a big effort to snatch a share of the spoils.
The Boks moved the ball from deep and were awarded a penalty when the Lions joined a maul off-sides. Earl Rose won a superb touch five metres from the Lions line on the left-hand side of the field and the Lions were unable to stop the next compelling bid for glory.
Tiaan Liebenberg threw the ball deep to Duane Vermeulen who spun and fed Franco van der Merwe on the loop. The replacement lock was stopped to the left of the posts and when the ball came back Heini Adams fed Werner Kruger and Jacques Botes to drive in unison and when the ball emerged again Adams let De Waal have it and the flyhalf spun a beautiful skip-pass to his right to send Demas hurtling over the line.
The try was scored in 79:51 right in the corner and De Waal’s conversion, already wide out and difficult, was made even harder when he was hit by a rain squall as he was placing the ball. But the 31-year-old former Cheetah who these days plies his trade at Newlands focussed hard and put the purest of strikes on the ball to send it securely between the uprights to secure a moment which will be savoured by his young teammates for the rest of their careers.
For a large group of Lions their South African tour ended in desultory fashion, both figuratively and literally, as the Emerging Springboks sent out a powerful message about the depth of talent at the southern tip of Africa that is bound to inspire the senior team and make the Lions Test side even more on edge ahead of Saturday’s second and possibly decisive international at Loftus Versfeld.
The conditions were ideal for a team from the sodden isles but the Emerging Boks, impressively led by Dewald Potgieter, were determined to make a game of it and obliterate the obvious difference between the two sides – one team with multiple international caps and the other with none.
The South Africans had probably hoped for a dry, running game to bring their speed to bear but how well they acquitted themselves of their wet weather task. Potgieter and his fellow loose forwards Jean Deysel and Duane Vermeulen constantly caught the eye with their strong runs, the EBoks didn’t stand back in the set pieces and the like of Jano Vermaak and Zane Kirchner did not let those down who have been promoting their elevation to the Springbok side.
At times the Bokkies lacked cohesion and they were guilty of being too individualistic but they went at the Lions with such gusto that you could sense in the last quarter that an upset might be on the cards.
Against this the Lions looked what they were – a team made up of players aware that their Test chances were slip-sliding away and that they were unlikely to play on tour again.
Skipper on the night Ronan O’Gara left the battlefield because of a cut to his mouth but, apart from newly created fullback Keith Earls, none of the Lions would have done much to have convinced Ian McGeechan of the need to call them up to the Test XV.
Donncha O’Callaghan may well be Paul O’Connell’s more natural lock partner, Luke Fitgerald may displace Ugo Monye but for the like of Andy Powell, who has been exposed as something of a show-boater on this tour, Nathan Hines, Shane Williams and Riki Flutey all that’s left is to be positive and supportive of the Test team for what are going to be 10 long days.
With the rain and the wind ebbing and flowing in intensity O’Gara opened the score with a penalty in the 8th minute and the Lions got the first try in the 14th – a superb touch-down by Earls after an attempted kick-through by Kirchner went straight to Martyn Williams who sparked a strong counter-attack in consort with Flutey which was finished by the fullback cutting back across the Boks’ drift defence.
O’Gara slotted the conversion to make it 10-0 and the South African would not open their account until the 35th minute when Earl Rose, whose teacher’s pet status again attracted some unfair derision from the crowd, kicked a penalty.
Rose made it 6-10 in the 49th minute but the scorers would remain untroubled until the 77th minute when O’Gara’s replacement, James Hook, slotted a penalty that seemed to make the game safe for the Lions – but not secure against the strong desire of the Emerging Boks as they mounted their last determined attack.
Scorers were:
Emerging Springboks (3) 13: Try by Danwel Demas (80 min). Earl Rose kicked two penalties and Willem de Waal a conversion. British Lions (10) 13: Try by Keith Earls (14 min). Ronan O’Gara kicked a conversion and a penalty and James Hook a penalty.