Tri Nations Rugby Week 2.

South Africa 28-19 New Zealand

Wandered round to the Eagle to watch this one, and as expected it was a comfortable enough win for South Africa. Arrived in time for the pre match anthems and after what felt like 15 minutes of multi lingual anthems and the obligatory Haka the match eventually kicked off.

With, Ulster favourite, Alain Rolland in charge there were always going to be plenty of penalties and if Pienaar had brought his kicking boots South Africa would have been out of site by the half hour mark.  Pienaar did make some amends by finishing of South Africa’s first try and with a few minutes to go to half time the Boks looked to be cruising with the score a 17 – 3 lead.

Despite showing nothing in the back line all half, the Blacks got a lifeline with an individual try from Conrad Smith bringing the score to 17 – 10 which left the Boks ruing the 11 points they left on the kicking tee.

Despite a lot of huffing an puffing in the second half the Blacks failed to make much headway. Rolland continued to penalise their constant infringement at the breakdown and as they began to panic they handed Morne Steyn an easy run in to seal the match.

Slightly more intensity in this match but the Blacks need to find some imagination in the back line if they are going to feature next week.