Wales V South Africa

Thursday, November 11, 2010

2010 and beyond

On 6 November 2010, the Springboks will have the honour of being the first Test team to play Ireland at their new home of Aviva Stadium. Because of the historic significance of this match, the Boks have already agreed to wear their change strip to allow Ireland to wear their regular green. (Normally, the home team changes in case of a colour clash.) The match will be the opener of their first attempted Grand Slam tour since 2004, with the Ireland match followed by encounters with Wales, Scotland and England. The Boks will follow up the tour with a match against the Barbarians.

The Boks began their 2010 Test campaign on 5 June, defeating Wales 34-31 at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Controversy arose prior to the game as Bath-based Butch James was withdrawn from the team at the last minute due to the refusal of Premier Rugby, which runs England's Premiership, to grant James permission on the grounds that the match fell outside the IRB-recognised June Test window. The victory over Wales was achieved without some of the regular Springbok stalwarts such as Fourie du Preez, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Pierre Spies, Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen.

Afer defeating Wales, the Springboks headed back to Cape Town to play against France on the 12 June for their second international in 2010, which they won 42-17. The Springbok victory over the French was their first since 2005. Victor Matfield believes the victory will give the Springboks a psychological advantage over the French as they may meet in the knock out stages of the Rugby World Cup 2011. The crushing victory over the French was achieved through five tries with Pierre Spies , Guthro Steenkamp , and Francois Louw each scoring one try and Gio Aplon, the 75kg wing, scoring two tries. Their final preparations for the 2010 Tri-Nations tournament includes two internationals against Italy. In the first test a lacklustre Springbok team beat Italy by 29-13.The Springboks acquitted themselves much better in the second test crushing the Azzuri 55-11.

The Boks were widely fancied to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland in the first Tri-Nations test of 2010. The Boks had only previously won twice at Eden park, the last time being in 1937. However, the first test of the 2010 Tri Nations campaign turned out to be a nightmare for the Boks. They went down 32-12 and in the process conceded four tries. Since then, the Boks lost consecutive tests to again succeed both the Tri-Nations trophy and Freedom Cup to the world number one ranked All Blacks, as well as lose the Mandela Plate and second place IRB World Ranking to Australia.

.Buy now autumn rugby tickets because people wait through out the year for the autumn rugby tickets and they buy tickets rapidly.yourticketmarket is a side which sell the tickets of all sports events like cricket,basketball,hockey,tennis,rugby etc.Concert,festivals,events,theatre tickets are also available on this side.

2009: A full trophy cabinet and a disappointing tour

The 2009 season began as one of the more successful in the post-apartheid history of South African rugby. The Boks' 2009 international campaign began with a closely-fought 2–1 series win over the Lions. They followed it up with a convincing win in the Tri Nations, sweeping the All Blacks and losing only to the Wallabies in Brisbane. In the process, they added the Freedom Cup (against New Zealand) and the Mandela Challenge Plate (against Australia) to their trophy cabinet.

However, the Boks' busy year finally took its toll when they toured Europe in the November Test window. They lost their top spot in the IRB rankings with a loss to France, while a midweek side lost two non-Tests to Leicester Tigers and Saracens. The first-string Boks returned to defeat Italy, but were beaten by Ireland to close out the year.

Nonetheless, the Boks were named IRB International Team of the Year, beating out Six Nations Grand Slam winners Ireland.

Rugby World Cup 2007

Grouped in Pool A at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, they opened their campaign in Paris with a 59–7 victory over Samoa. Next up was England at the Stade de France, where the Springboks triumphed 36–-0. The third pool game against Tonga in Lens was more competitive and they narrowly won 30–25. The final pool game against the USA in Montpellier produced a 64–15 win.

Having won all their pool games, they advanced to the quarter finals to defeat Fiji 37–20 before accounting for Argentina 37–13 in the semi-finals. They prevailed 15–6 over England to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for a second time on 20 October 2007. Some members of the English media claimed that the match was controversial because they felt that an England try was disallowed by the Australian fourth official. The Springboks won the match joining Australia as the only other national team to have won the trophy twice.

After the World Cup

2008 was a mixed year for the Springboks. Going into the year as world champions, they were under pressure to perform. In January 2008, history was made when Peter de Villiers was appointed as the first ever non-white coach of the Springboks. De Villiers's first squad included ten of colour and managed two victories against Wales (43-17 and 37-21) and one against Italy (26-0) in Incoming Tours. They had an ultimately disappointing Tri Nations ending up last with only two wins. They did manage a historic triumph in Dunedin, a city in which they had never tasted victory in over 100 years. The Springboks did enough to beat Wales and Scotland before thrashing England on the end of year tour . This was good preparation for the upcoming British and Irish Lions Tour.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

New millennium

In 2005 the Springboks defeated an embarrassed Uruguay by a world record margin. Zimbabwean-born new cap, Tonderai Chavanga, scored a record six tries in the match, surpassing Stefan Terblanche's previous record of five. The side finished second in the Tri-Nations that year, losing their final match to New Zealand. The springboks thought they had the match before Keven Mealamu scored the match winning try for the All Blacks in the 27-31 loss. The year ended positively with close victories away from home against Argentina, among others.

With several new players aboard, the 2006 Springboks defeated Scotland twice in South Africa, before a loss in a closely contested match to France ended their long undefeated home record. A very bad start to the 2006 Tri Nations Series saw them lose 49–0 to the Wallabies. The Springboks put together better games in the following two matches, losing in the final minutes in the second test against Australia. Answering the call from many South African supporters to play a more expansive style of rugby, coach Jake White fielded a far more adventurous team. They broke South Africa's five game losing streak by beating the All Blacks 21–20 at Royal Bafokeng Stadium—the first time a Test match had been played at this rural venue near Rustenburg. The All Blacks' defeat to the South Africans was their only loss of the year. The highlight of South Africa's tour to Europe was the 24–15 win over England at Twickenham, after a loss to Ireland and one to England the previous week. A South Africa XV also played a World XV on this tour at the Walkers Stadium in Leicester.

In July 2006, Springbok coach Jake White told the press he had been unable to pick some white players for his squad "because of transformation"—a reference to the ANC government’s policies attempting to redress the racial imbalances in national sport.

New millennium

Percy Montgomery running the ball for the Springboks against Samoa in 2007, with Jaque Fourie supporting on the outside.

At Twickenham in November 2002 England defeated South Africa 53–3 which was their worst ever loss. An increasingly frustrated South African side began physically targeting England players during the match, with footage showing captain Corné Krige as a leade. In the 2002 and 2003 seasons, the Springboks also lost by record margins to France, Scotland and New Zealand. They defeated Argentina by only one point, and were easily defeated in the quarter finals of the 2003 World Cup.

During a pre-World Cup training camp, there was a highly publicised dispute between Geo Cronjé (an Afrikaner) and Quinton Davids (a coloured). Both were dropped from the team, and Cronjé was called before a tribunal to answer charges that his actions in the dispute were racially motivated. Cronjé was eventually cleared. Later, the Boks were sent to a military-style boot camp in the South African bush called Kamp Staaldraad (literal English translation "Camp Steel-wire", idiomatically "Camp Barbed Wire"). After the World Cup, then- coach Rudolph Straeuli was under fire, not only because of the team's poor results, but because of his role in organising Kamp Staaldraad. He eventually resigned, and in February 2004 Jake White was named as new national coach.

The Springboks then swept Ireland in a two-Test series and defeated Wales during their opponents' June 2004 tours of the Southern Hemisphere. Next came a win in the most closely-contested Tri Nations in history—their only Tri Nations trophy since 1998. In November 2004, the Springboks went on a Grand Slam tour of the Home Nations. They were decisively defeated by England, and lost controversially to Ireland. They then won a hard-fought match against Wales, and prevailed comfortably against Scotland. The Springbok resurgence was honoured with a sweep of the major International Rugby Board awards. The Boks were named Team of the Year, White Coach of the Year, and flanker Schalk Burger Player of the Year.