South Africa 46-6 Samoa. Someone finally got the word through to the South Africans that there is a world cup on, and that their presence is required.
After last week’s loss to Japan, something special was needed to reassure the rugby public that the world hadn’t gone completely bizarro.
While there were plenty of nervous moments, the men in green showed that they will be a force to reckon with for the rest of the Cup with a six-try bonus point win.
JP Pietersen bagged a hat trick, but much like last week the moment of the night was saved for after the siren, when crowd favourite Bryan Habana sped away from the Samoan defence to score his 11th world cup try.
Samoa were no doubt the fan favourites as the underdog going into the match, but unlike the almost universal support for the Japanese among neutrals like last week, there was plenty of love for the Springboks among the unaffiliated.
Perhaps it was not wanting to kick a country when they are down, or perhaps it was a real and justified fear for Heyneke Meyer’s safety, but the Springboks were still warmly received in the stadium.
While a look at the scoreboard would suggest Springbok dominance throughout the game, it was not always smooth sailing for the South Africans. An intercept try to Pietersen after 15 minutes settled the nerves, but Samoa remained too close for comfort in the early stages.
Going into halftime ahead 17-6, there were plenty of nervous Springboks in the crowd – with the most nervous being the man in green in the coaches box.
This is not a guesstimation – one look at Heyneke Meyer’s face showed that he might as well have been the most nervous man in England at that point in time.
When Pietersen went across to score his second try in the 47th minute, Meyer’s face was not that of a professional international coach playing a supposed minnow at a World Cup, but that of a man who had thrown his last $20 on the dogs at Dapto. He screamed at Pietersen, willing the winger over the line like his life depended on it – which, at least in a rugby sense, it most probably did.
The Samoans, at 24-6, were still a realistic chance up until the 60th minute, but Schalk Burger’s try opened the floodgates for the Africans. There was some more TMO controversy when a 61-minute Samoa try was disallowed due to a questionable forward pass call, but from there it was all green, as the 1995 and 2007 champions ran in three more to claim a bonus point and go back to the top of their pool.
As the second half went on and as it became clear that we weren’t about to see Japan 2.0, the camera spent just about as much time on Meyer as it did on the South African players. Even as his charges rolled in try after try, Meyer was reluctant to appear complacent, bringing about a range of substitutions and tactical changes with one obvious eye on next Saturday’s Scotland match.
Whether swigging from a scrunched up bottle, yelling into his walkie talkie or adjusting his headset, no-one in the South African camp – or apparently no-one in the stadium – was game enough to sit next to Meyer, even as things got better for his Springboks.
It took until around the 60th minute for the camera to start showing us the Samoan coaching box, but that could have been because they thought it was the private box of the CEO of Big Kahuna Burger.
(The Roar)
