As I watched on TV , the last cross kick by Tonga floating ever dangerously into the arms of one of their flyers, it was game over for the Boks. For all the money it looked a certain try. Never in my years of playing rugby and watching rugby have I ever been grateful to see a ball bounce in touch. Phew…..and never have I been more delighted to hear the sound of a final whistle. The end result…top of the log in our pool with just USA to come. A national disaster had narrowly been averted.

Now that the game is safe, we have never yet lost to an island country, we are not the WC joke (any defeat to Tonga even outside the WC would have made a mockery of Bok rugby) and our world cup campaign is where we want it… we can stand back and take things in perspective.

The narrow win against one of the minnows will actually be to our benefit. A huge wake call after the high against England is probably the best antidote against over confidence and the belief the world cup is ours.

Thank god Jake White braught insurance into the game with a bench full of heavy weights to save our B team from taking us into world cup hardship. Hats off there, coach.

Clearly, this match has exposed the wide gulf between our so called A team and our backup team…the reserve strength of South African rugby. Whilst a team like New Zealand  can field two different teams on any given day and still produce the goods, this is clearly not the case for the Springboks. We can make an argument about the lack of game time of the B team and the lack of time spent playing with each other, but I think if you played the Bok A verse the Bok B, it would be a thrashing by the first choicers.

However going back to the game against Tonga, four penalties were missed by a usually accurate Andries Pretorious and three tries were absolutely butchered. 33 potential points thrown down the drain, that would have taken the Bokke out of sight by half time and secured the game, with out having to call on your insurance policies from the bench.

I have always been a huge Andries Pretorious fan, always preferred him way ahead of Butch James. I always felt coaches who selected James ahead of  Pretorious were highly conservative in their game plan. But Pretorious was awefull…too awefull, missing his kicks at goal, at touch, allowing the Tonga’s to beef it up field…throwing wild passes at shadows. Okay, I read somewhere that this is his first run on start since May. For a man of his pedigree, I find that hollow. Sadly, Pretorious has never quite made the step into international boots which at provincial level, he seems destined for.

More so his bad run on northern hemisphere soil continues.

Our midfield pairing of Wayne Julies and Wynand Olivier…pedestrian … uninspiring…uncreative…bloody shit. Again I have never been a fan of Wayne Julies, I have never believed him Springbok material and was dumbfounded why Jake White selected him ahead of guys like Waylon Murray, Marius Joubert even de Wet Barry as a replacement for Jean de Villiers.

What on earth is Ashwin Willemse doing at the world cup. This guy is not even provincial standard. I am on record going back months ago, critising Jake White for the past four years of keeping Willemse in his world cup planning, when we had,nt seen him on a rugby field due to injury for nearly all of that time. Yet without playing rugby for many years, the coach kept talking of him as one of his frontline wingers. Ashwin Willemse played one Super 14 match for the Lions this year, scored a try in that match when he was presented a ball with an open tryline ahead…after that he went straight into the Bok team…even enjoying the controversial rest period offorded to the Boks for WC preparation…after such an lengthy absence from rugby. Willemse had one blinding international game in Bok colurs in a losing effort against the All Blacks at Loftus in 2003 and has survived since then on reputation alone. In place of this guy we could have taken along an experienced campaigner in Breyton Paulse, other twin Ndugane who is in blistering form in our currie cup, Philip Burger and any number of wingers.

Most of the selections in the Bok team, I thaught were spot on. Not Willemse, not Julies and the absence of a seasoned campaigner such as Breyton Paulse to name a few.

Back to the Tonga match and hats off to the coach for not dithering in emptying his reserve bench in one mighty hit. I was scared he may be afraid of showing his panic and holding back the guys, maybe sending them on one at a time. But he climbed down from previous stances where he has held on when he should,nt have, and he sent them on, this time without concern whether it harms the confidence of the affected players. He took no chances there. Good on the him. The usual arrogant character of White may have seen him holding on a bit longer. Obviously he really wants this world cup.

Our front line guys, I thought showed their class when they came on…showing a pedigree that far exceeds their B team collegues in the same team ( with exception to Wickus, Pienaar and a few others). The calming influence of Montgomery when he came off the reserve bench to take a kick from Pienaar, as if to say, don’t worry, mate…Ill sort this one out. And next thing we were seeing what we hand,nt all day…kicks actually clearing the crossbar.

Three quick succession tries with deft and swift handling, now that is more Bokke like of late and it seemed the annoying Tonga’s were finally shut out of the game.

Then came two yellow cards which seemed to really unsteady the ship…again…after the Boks had stabilized the match.

The first card dished out to Steyn I thaught was a shocker when it appeared that he was being a peace maker in a scrap. The second by Habana, I understood was for a high tackle… (some people say it was deliberate offside)…I thaught was dubious, and for fear of sounding to one eyes….I did,nt see a cardable offence there.

The end result is that our WC campaign is where we want it, the result against Tonga will probably work in our favour in future thinking and preparation. The Bokke fans I believe, need not despair. Rather the wake up call now then later. I beleive this team…at least the front line guys have what it takes to go all the way.

Congrats to Tonga for an enormous performance. You guys give credit to the argument by a chorus of people to include the Pacific island nations in some meaningfull competition. More test’s against you guys need to be played by the likes of us, Ozzie and the ABs.

And finally congratulations to Percy Montgomery for becoming the most capped Bok ever.

Lets get to the business of the competition and find out once and for all who are the champions of the world.