Category: Rugby

Late changes to South Africa’s team smacked of mind games, but reinvigorated New Zealand remain in the hunt

The margins are slim in South Africa this past fortnight and not just on the scoreboard. According to aviation experts, one of the two planes flying over the stadium in Cape Town just before kick-off on Saturday came within 12 to 14 metres of hitting the top of the stand which, depending on your perspective, either ranks as highly-skilled piloting or the most gratuitous of matchday stunts.

Something similar could be said, as it happens, about Rassie Erasmus’s ongoing selectorial high jinks. His initial starting XV announced for the second Test bore about as much resemblance to the one that ultimately took the field as Erasmus did to the late, great Dolly Parton, with no fewer than six of the original lineup missing. It had the desired result in terms of South Africa levelling up the four-Test series at 1-1 but was yet another example of Erasmus toying with the game’s supposed conventions.

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• Cape Town stunt sparks major debate over safety risks

• Airlink insist flyby conducted according to regulations

A pre-game stunt involving two passenger jets flying dramatically low over a stadium in South Africa drew huge cheers from the estimated crowd of around 56,000 people, but also sparked a major debate over safety risks.

The flyby by two Embraer jets, operated by local airline Airlink, happened on Saturday before the second rugby union Test between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.

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• Second Test: South Africa 33-26 New Zealand

• Kolisi and Marx inspire world champions to victory

The Boks are back. Level at one apiece in the series and back to what they do best. Blending power and directness, blood and thunder to edge out far enough ahead of New Zealand and withstand a gutsy comeback from the All Blacks. Throw in some brazen mischief from Rassie Erasmus, who swapped his entire front-row just an hour before kick-off, and this was much closer to a trademark Springboks performance after they were unrecognisable a week ago.

They were far from flawless but constantly ferocious and while All Blacks – particularly given how they finished the match – will head back for the third Test still confident they remain in the series because this was not a knockout blow by the Springboks. It was, however, some counterpunch after last week’s humbling. The third Test is scheduled for Johannesburg but they may consider relocating to Manila.

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Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s inclusion may be a classic piece of misdirection from South Africa in their must-win match against New Zealand

On the face of it, South Africa have been beset by disruption before their most significant match since the successful defence of their World Cup title. Rassie Erasmus had sought to lean further on the Springboks’ set-piece strengths by selecting Handré Pollard at fly-half for the second Test against New Zealand in Cape Town, suggesting a narrow gameplan. A return to the tried and tested. A reliance on what he knows best. Then came news of the “niggle”.

Out goes Pollard, who, according to the Friday morning bulletin, suffered said niggle in training on Wednesday and failed a fitness test 24 hours before the match, and back comes the far more adventurous Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu into the No 10 jersey. Feinberg-Mngomezulu struggled in last week’s 33-16 defeat at Ellis Park, as he did on his comeback from injury against Argentina earlier this month, but the 24-year-old has a skill set that has marked him out as a future global star.

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All Blacks withstand scrum onslaught then tear South Africa apart to take a 1-0 series lead in Johannesburg.

Here come the All Blacks!

Led by Ardie Savea.

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