The Trinations 2009

ALIVE AND KICKING

No need for a long, drawn out, analytical post about this year’s Trinations if you ask me.

South Africa won, and deserved to win, but in no way do I consider them unbeatable, and the numbers prove it.

Over the six matches, they won 5 and lost 1, which seems impressive, until you look at the try count. They scored 10 tries yet conceded 11.

It doesn’t take a genius then to work out that it was the boot of Morné Steyn that put the Bokke on top this year, but for him to kick as many as 23 penalties (not to mention Francois’ 5 mammoth ones) in the tournament, his opponents had to concede them each time!

My contention is that both Graham Henry and Robbie Deans were guilty of sticking to their gameplan going into this tournament, rather than adapting to what the Springboks were doing and finding a way to keep the Steyns off the scoreboard. They each had 3 goes at it and only the Wallabies copped on when it was virtually too late.

All I can say is that I very much doubt Declan Kidney will make a similar mistake when making his plans for what has to be the marquee matchup of the Autumn International Series when Ireland face the Boks on November 28.

I won’t say a home win that day will be easy by any stretch, but we certainly have the resources to do it, even if they send their strongest squad here, which they probably won’t.

Still, it will make for a fascinating contest, and who knows…we could very well be on course for a 100% 2009 campaign that day all things going well…

Have I predicted too much?