FAINT PROMISE NOT ENOUGH

 

(Image taken from BBC)

Well last week certainly didn't go well, England got caned at Vodacom Park. So games like last year's win at Twickenham, were starting to look increasingly flukey. As for us repeating our '03 World Cup win when we meet the Springboks again in Paris, it was beginning to look easier said than done. Repeating the 2000 win over the Boks at the Loftus Versfeld, well that was going to be mission impossible with what we had available on the day.

What we had available on the day was still affected by a virus so the men in white returned to the legendary South African venue of Loftus Versfeld in not very good shape. The Sky Sports lineups led to some players being listed without photos due to their late call ups with names like South African born Matthew Stevens making his England debut. Wilkinson was given the England captaincy due to Jason Robinson getting injured, and there was a feeling of "here goes nothing".

Well England started out a lot better than they did last week but it was still Percy Montgomery who opened the scoring with a penalty though Wilkinson was quick to level the scores with a pen of his own. England went on to have the much better half only for the Boks to benefit from one of the flukiest tries of all time when Ricky Janurie bounced the ball off Noon's head before going over, Montgomery converting. Wilkinson added another pen but that looked like only a drop in the ocean after Shalk Burger surged through for a second Bok try, Montgomery converted again. The scoreline flatted the homeside at that point though and after another Wilkinson penalty, Bryan Habana of all people got sinbinned trying to stop the rising tide. Before the half was out though came the stunning sight of another debutant, Dan Scarborough running through the Bok half with no opposition whatsoever! Wilkinson converting the resulting try and suddenly, England were leading 19-12!

That didn't last though. In the second half, the Boks decided to concentrate on the bottom line and Bathes Botha bulldozed through to turn the game round. Wilkinson equalised with a penalty but once again, England ran out of fuel late on and the result was devastating! A total of four attackers failed to take Piere Spies down, again England gave Habana the ball in the Bok half with predictable results, Montgomery added his own try and converted the lot. Habana then took the mick out of everyone and Spies finished us off with Montgomery converting one last time. Boks won 55-22.

Elsewhere, Wales faced Australia for the second time, this time in the Suncorp Stadium! It proved to be a quiet first half with the only scores being two Aussie penalties from Stirling Mortlock. That didn't mean that it got any better for the Welsh in the second half though. Mortlock added a third penalty early on. Digby Ioane opened the try scoring for the hosts before Mortlock kicked a fourth pen. Drew Mitchell and George Gregan then grabbed themselves a try each and Mortlock converted them both, Australia won 31-0.

Ireland faced Aregentina for the second time in the Velez Sarsfeld stadium. This was another quiet game but it was the Irish who had the worse off day. Frederico Todeshini kicked two penalties before half time and a third in the early stages of the second half. The men in green never looked likely to reply, their attack was completely toothless! Manuel Contepomi put them out of their misery with a late try, converted by Todeshini. Argentina won 16-0.

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