Bok player ratings versus New Zealand in the second game of the 2008 Tri Nations in Dunedin. The Boks produced a much improved display to beat the All Blacks 30-28 in their own back yard.
Springbok Player ratings from across the web:
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Best Player: For the second week in a row it is the bustling Enrico Januarie (8.5) who scoops the honours. Another busy, harassing display from the scrumhalf and the match-winning solo try to cap another superb performance.
Worst Player: Cheeky Watson jr (4.1) seems to have benefitted from his father’s relationship with Peter De Villiers by keeping his place on the bench for this week’s game. There can be no rugby reasons for his continued selection ahead of Pierre Spies and Ryan Kankowski. When he came on he looked totally out of his depth and merely succeeded in getting in the way. The All Blacks in contrast could bring on Sione Luaki off the bench to provide immediate impact in the form of a try.
This is merely speculation, but it appears that Luke Watson is being included for the purpose of slowly building up his test cap tally so that he can be held up to be an experienced player when he replaces John Smit as Bok captain. It’s going to be a very hard sell by De Villiers to Bok supporters and it would appear that he needs all the statistical backing he can get…