Steve
08-09-2009, 02:11 PM
Boks leave Aussies speechless
2009-08-09 14:34
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Robbie Deans (Gallo Images)
Cape Town - The rampant Springboks have rendered the Australians speechless after the tourists cancelled their media doorstop interviews at their Table Bay hotel on Sunday morning.
Despite their earlier invitation to the media for interview opportunities with coach Robbie Deans and players, the Wallabies' media manager Matt McIlraith told one of the journalists who had arrived at the scheduled place that the conference had been called off.
This turn of events just about summed up Deans' mood on Saturday night as he shook his head when asked to reflect on the Wallabies' defeat at Newlands.
"It (the penalties and yellow cards) certainly makes it a lot harder, when you consider that we (Australia) were playing with 13 men," said Deans.
"Some of the defence was good to take care of that circumstance and having that (Stirling Mortlock) injury the boys stepped out and turned around to win the second half which was a pretty good response under duress."
By halftime at Newlands on Saturday the Springboks had done all the hard yards already and led 23-10 before they signed off with an eventual 29-17 victory, with the Aussies winning the second half points count 7-6.
"Obviously in terms of the game itself it did not assist our prospects," said Deans and for several moments afterwards he shook his head as he struggled to gather his thoughts.
"They (the Boks) converted seven shots (penalties) and that makes life very difficult. We scored two tries to one and under normal circumstances if you're not giving away those kicking opportunities, you're probably in a pretty good position in the game."
Deans had no qualms about the calls of Irish referee Alain Rolland who dished out three yellow cards to the Aussies at Newlands.
"The referee makes decision in game time. He bases it on what he sees, just like players make decisions," said Deans.
"There are some good things that came out of the game for us. Our scrum was excellent, defence was excellent and some of our kick receive work improved significantly from our last outing.
"Some of our work around the contact improved. We still made unforced errors which provided field position and South Africans are very good at converting field position into points."
Aussie skipper Stirling Mortlock was forced to leave the field with a knee injury and was rushed to hospital straight afterwards. However, it was established that the Wallaby three-quarter did not break a leg, but rather suffered a torn cartilage in his right knee. He is likely to miss the Wallabies' next Tri Nations match in Sydney where they'll host the All Blacks on Saturday, August 22.
He was hobbling about the team's hotel foyer on crutches on Sunday morning.
Deans is expecting to have the inspirational flanker Rocky Elsom back in time for their August 22 clash. Elsom had a few stand-out performances for Leinster last season but has since returned to Australia. He did, however, suffer a knee bruise in his 'Man-of-the-Match' display for Leinster in their Heineken Cup final victory over Leicester six weeks ago.
Deans feels that Elsom's lack of recent game time won't deter him from rushing him back in the Aussie side.
Deans was also very pleased with the performances of the Aussie replacements who joined the action at Newlands on Saturday.
2009-08-09 14:34
Email (javascript:void(0);) | Print (javascript:window.print())
http://cdn.24.com/files/Cms/General/d/215/99fa89666cd548159a32fae46f14ec67.gif
Robbie Deans (Gallo Images)
Cape Town - The rampant Springboks have rendered the Australians speechless after the tourists cancelled their media doorstop interviews at their Table Bay hotel on Sunday morning.
Despite their earlier invitation to the media for interview opportunities with coach Robbie Deans and players, the Wallabies' media manager Matt McIlraith told one of the journalists who had arrived at the scheduled place that the conference had been called off.
This turn of events just about summed up Deans' mood on Saturday night as he shook his head when asked to reflect on the Wallabies' defeat at Newlands.
"It (the penalties and yellow cards) certainly makes it a lot harder, when you consider that we (Australia) were playing with 13 men," said Deans.
"Some of the defence was good to take care of that circumstance and having that (Stirling Mortlock) injury the boys stepped out and turned around to win the second half which was a pretty good response under duress."
By halftime at Newlands on Saturday the Springboks had done all the hard yards already and led 23-10 before they signed off with an eventual 29-17 victory, with the Aussies winning the second half points count 7-6.
"Obviously in terms of the game itself it did not assist our prospects," said Deans and for several moments afterwards he shook his head as he struggled to gather his thoughts.
"They (the Boks) converted seven shots (penalties) and that makes life very difficult. We scored two tries to one and under normal circumstances if you're not giving away those kicking opportunities, you're probably in a pretty good position in the game."
Deans had no qualms about the calls of Irish referee Alain Rolland who dished out three yellow cards to the Aussies at Newlands.
"The referee makes decision in game time. He bases it on what he sees, just like players make decisions," said Deans.
"There are some good things that came out of the game for us. Our scrum was excellent, defence was excellent and some of our kick receive work improved significantly from our last outing.
"Some of our work around the contact improved. We still made unforced errors which provided field position and South Africans are very good at converting field position into points."
Aussie skipper Stirling Mortlock was forced to leave the field with a knee injury and was rushed to hospital straight afterwards. However, it was established that the Wallaby three-quarter did not break a leg, but rather suffered a torn cartilage in his right knee. He is likely to miss the Wallabies' next Tri Nations match in Sydney where they'll host the All Blacks on Saturday, August 22.
He was hobbling about the team's hotel foyer on crutches on Sunday morning.
Deans is expecting to have the inspirational flanker Rocky Elsom back in time for their August 22 clash. Elsom had a few stand-out performances for Leinster last season but has since returned to Australia. He did, however, suffer a knee bruise in his 'Man-of-the-Match' display for Leinster in their Heineken Cup final victory over Leicester six weeks ago.
Deans feels that Elsom's lack of recent game time won't deter him from rushing him back in the Aussie side.
Deans was also very pleased with the performances of the Aussie replacements who joined the action at Newlands on Saturday.