Yes, the Boks lost in Brisbane, but the Tri-Nations is still very much alive for John Smit and his team-mates, writes iafrica.com's Rob Peters.

Yes, it sucks to lose, but after a dream start to the 2009 Tri-Nations, the Springboks were due a poor game, and it came in Brisbane over the weekend. The Boks, however, are still in the driving seat, with their fate in their own hands.

The Boks looked flat in Brisbane, and while referee Wayne Barnes continued to show he has not improved since handling the All Blacks-France game during the World Cup, it would be churlish to suggest that he was the reason for the loss.

Sometimes the bounce of the ball simply does not go your way. Bok skipper John Smit said as much after the game and I only hope that he and the rest of the team believe that because they need to put this loss behind them immediately. If it is still weighing on them in Hamilton, where they meet the All Blacks on Saturday, the Tri-Nations may well be lost in the process.

Credit to the Wallabies, they took their chances, while the Boks did not. The Australians were under pressure from their media all week, and as so many teams have done in the past, they used it to motivate themselves rather than let it break them down further. However, while they can be proud of the win, the reality is that the Tri-Nations ended for them before the Brisbane Test — for the Boks it is still alive.

Peter de Villiers and the rest of the management team have some work to do, and it will lie mostly at the door of forwards coach Gary Gold. The Bok scrum was hammered by Australia in Brisbane, while the lineout did not live up to the standard set so far this season. Both will be a cause of massive concern for the South Africans.

De Villiers has again questioned the ref's interpretation at scrum-time, but regardless of how the official calls it in Hamilton, the South African scrum has been creaking for the past few weeks, and needs to be rectified.

Surprisingly, the All Blacks pack has not looked as strong as the Wallabies' this season. The Boks dominated the Kiwis up front in their previous two Tests this season, which will ease their tension during the build-up to Saturday's Test.

Winning in New Zealand will not be easy, of course, and the All Blacks will have had a three-week break by the time they meet the Boks in Hamilton.

The South Africans need a victory in Hamilton to wrap up the Tri-Nations. Two bonus points would do, I suppose. But really, who wants to win it like that? And nobody wants to rely on the Australians to do it for us next weekend...

Winning in Hamilton will be hard, but come now, when have the Boks ever taken the easy route?

  • Do you agree with Rob? How much did the referee influence the result? What do YOU think?
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