Predictable Reaction to the Drubbing

You heard it here first folks, the most predictable response from South African rugby to the massive loss has begun with calls for the sacking of the coach. Jake White's posturing before the Tri-Nations over reputed lucrative offers to coach northern hemisphere teams may come back to haunt him. I hope he had a good manager who secured a lengthy time frame for him to consider any offer as I'd say White's present position is about as secure as Paris Hilton's viceo antics. For more on that, well the rugby anyway, click here. Former players have even joined the calls for the coaches head, again predictably as they even used to do so in my day.

To continue the predictable reaction to the thrashing dished out by the Wallabies, Jake White also took the oppotunity to blame the referee for his side offering up 49 unanswered points to the Wallabies. He even had the captain Smit chip in as well. While Honiss might not be an expert in front row play, surely exhibited in the suspect call he made in penalising the Springboks for collapsing the scrum when they had driven the Aussies back about 10 metres and had them on the run, his performance was nowhere near as bad as the South African team who were comprehensively outplayed in all facets of the game. For an entertaining collection of responses from the media, click here. Victor Matfield can have no complaint over his yellow card, that is one thing for sure.

Finally, the predictable response from New Zealand's coaching staff came out today. To be fair there isn't much else to say other than surely the Springboks can't be that bad twice in a row. The Africans were once a mighty force on the international rugby stage. At the weekend they were made to look like a second rate rugby nation, definitely not worthy of having a pool at the Rubgy World Cup dedicated to them. For comments from Henry on the Africans, click here. It is unlikely that they can be this bad again this weekend against the All Blacks who will have to, again predictably, assure the nation that they are not complacent about the match and endure the usual cries of "beware the wounded bok". Better break out the boerwurst for the boys I think, that might get them cracking, although given that they all looked beefy enough and far too fat, that idea might need to be considered a bit further. Click here for more on the likely build up comments from the All Black camp.

Objectively you would have to give the All Blacks convincing favourite tags to take the match in Wellington this weekend. Natuarlly they will be wary of the performance by the Australians at Suncorp Stadium which is fast becoming a graveyard for visiting teams, and it will be difficult for the players and coaching staff not to have in the back of their minds the game next weekend. That must wait, and doubtless Graham Henry and his men will be prepared to reap the whirlwind of a rampant and confident Australian team. Until then I shall keep an eye out for items of interest in the build up to the match this weekend, check back for more as the week passes.