Willie le Roux’s Bok future hanging by a thread after greatest indignity
No fullback ever wants to be stepped in a one on one situation- it’s their job to tackle. That is only made worse when they are stepped by a forward. With that in mind, South Africa fullback Willie le Roux will not be watching a replay of their win over Argentina on Saturday in a hurry.
The 33-year-old was stepped, and savagely so in the second half in Durban, and the worst thing about it was that it was by flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez. Actually, the worst thing might be that he did not even touch the flanker, not even close to touching him, as he ran in for the try.
This was a low moment for le Roux, and it made the score 17-14 to the Boks with 35 minutes remaining. In a match where the hosts needed to win by 39 points or more to win the Rugby Championship, this try effectively ended those hopes.
“We had a plan to go full on to win the Rugby Championship,” head coach Jacques Nienaber said after the match.
“We were on task up to minute 35 and then they got a penalty and the score before half time changed the dynamics.
“I think we can’t fault the effort from the players. We all sat down and bought into giving it as good a shot as we could – unfortunately we came up short, but you must never take a win in the Bok jersey for granted and we won’t. It’s special.”
Captain Siya Kolisi said: “We had some great, great moment in the Rugby Championship, and we also had some weak moments. We were looking for consistency.
“We know we can win against anyone in the world on our day, but today was a big step forward because it was a third win in a row and we want to take that momentum with us into the end-of-year tour.”
Take a look at the step:
