Review: Boks 30–25 Tonga

Tonga ran South Africa close in their Pool A clash in Lens on Saturday afternoon.

The second string Boks delivered a Connacht-esque performance before Bok blushes were saved by a wholesale substitution of ‘B’ team players for ‘A’ team players ten minutes into the second half.

The Boks played poorly in the first half and lead by only 7-3 at half time thanks to a Ruan Pienaar try. Jake White resisted the urge to make wholesale changes to the dirt-tracker side at half time, but when Tonga’s Kisi Pulu scored ten minutes into the second period to take the score to 10-7 in favour of the islanders, the Bok coach lost patience with his bumbling B’s.

On came John Smit, Frans Steyn, Victor Matfield, Juan Smith and Bryan Habana to inject some class into proceedings. Monty followed shortly after.

The replacements made an immediate impact on focusing the Bok team on the task at hand with John Smit’s leadership making a real difference in this area. Tries by Juan Smith, Bobby Skinstad and Ruan Pienaar within the space of six minutes put them 27-10 ahead. The tenacious Tongans, however, did not give up. Tries by Sukanaivalu Hufanga and Viliami Vaki brought them to within five points with a few minutes to play.

The Boks, down to 13 men at one stage of the game, held on for the win.

Designated goalkicker Andre Pretorius had an absolute shocker with the boot, showing his lack of match practice. Wynand Olivier was useless in midfield – memorably throwing a pass at the boots of Ashwin Willemse when he had the tryline at his mercy. Willemse’s lack of pace was horribly exposed when he had a clear run up the right which was easily snuffed out by the Tongan defence. Ricky Januarie provided his usual slow ball to the backline.

What they said

Jake White (Bok coach)

“We always knew the third game would be tough, but the plan was always to give some of the other guys a game.

“I can’t shoot them all at dawn. If we had kicked our goals and taken those points we should have at the start, it would have been a completely different story.

“They have not played together, and they must understand that this is a World Cup and you will be put under pressure. There is huge pressure when you are young.

“But the substitutes saved me. The senior guys came on and showed composure in a tough game.

“The important thing is that we passed – we might not have done as well as we wanted to but we passed. We didn’t take all our chances and it was not as easy as they thought it would be. They will learn from that.

“In the second half, Tonga did not give up, especially after we scored some great tries.

“Obviously I am relieved and all credit must go to Tonga. I thought they were outstanding, especially when they came back from our big lead.

“They have 10 points on the log, it was a top-of-the-table clash and it looked like it. You must never underestimate Tonga.

“But we passed the test, and if you’d said we would have 14 points at this point, you would have taken it.

“We have three wins out of three so we look forward to next weekend against the United States.”

Nili Latu (Tonga captain)

“When you come into a big game like this, you have to be positive.

“We have had two awesome weeks, and we saw South Africa make changes. We decided to put our best team out and were confident we could put up a fight.

“I am very proud, and we could have even scored a try at the end. We are a different team this year, it’s the best Tongan team that has ever been fielded. I am so proud of my boys.

“We have been watching them. They have the power and speed so the only way we could beat them was by being smart, and giving 100%.

“We needed to bash them up front, get in their faces and we knew they wouldn’t like that.

“Little mistakes cost us, but that’s the game.”

Quddus Fielea (Tonga coach)

“It was one of the magical moments for us, I don’t know what to say.

“It was a fantastic performance from my players. When they put most of their good players on the bench, it showed they didn’t really have a clue what was going to happen.

“But at the end of the day, they came through, and we have to say congratulations to them.”

The scorers

South Africa [30]
Tries: Pienaar (2), Smith, Skinstad
Conversions: Pretorius, Montgomery
Penalties: Steyn, Montgomery

Tonga [25]
Tries: Pulu, Hufanga, Vaki
Conversions: Hola (2)
Penalties: Hola (2)

Yellow cards: Steyn (Fighting), Vaka (Fighting), Habana (Professional foul)