South Africa shut out USA 64-0 Wednesday at Rugby World Cup action, handing the Eagles their first World Cup shutout, and their worst ever World Cup defeat.

With the ground wet, consistent ball-handling was not always possible. And in fact, the first try came from a mishandled ball - South Africa took a lineout, drive ahead, and spun the ball wide.

Only they didn’t. The wet ball squirted to the ground, but backward. Flanker Schalk Burger tapped the ball back to Damian De Allende, who picked up the ball, put his head down, summarily dismissed Danny Barrett with a shove to the shoulder, and was in under the posts.

The Eagles, as expected, played tough defense after that - a lot of defense. Offensively, they tried to put captain Samu Manoa up through the line and work from there, but it was always slow going. They did get a kickable penalty, which Kruger missed, but overall the Springboks were just faster to the breakdown, and the wet ball was spilled all too often. And when it wasn’t, the Eagles kicked.

Still, South Africa had to work for it. 

Midway through the first half, a worrying collision as Blaine Scully went high for a kick, and Bryan Habana sort of went for it and ran into Scully. The US fullback landed on his head - no penalty, as both were going for the ball - and eventually both would leave the game for a short period for a concussion test, which both passed.

South Africa’s speed to the breakdown started to produce turnovers and penalties, and eventually worked their way to another attack. Brett Thompson made a try-saving tackle, and South Africa caught a break as Jesse Kriel was allowed to get up even though he was clearly held in the tackle - Thompson just released him quickly on the ground. Still the USA defended desperately and held up the South Africans in-goal.

 

That was only a reprieve, as the scrum was all about South Africa, and the drive eventually produced a penalty try call from Pascal Gauzere. The try was going to come anyway, but the penalty try call was harsh since South Africa had lost control of the ball at the back of the scrum.

Near the end of the first half, a penalty for the Eagles deep in their own end allowed Blaine Scully to go on a long break. But any hope of a repeat of the great try from 2007 were dashed as the Eagle support work was lacking. The USA did keep the pressure on, though, and had a chance deep in the South African 22. But they couldn’t finish it off, and the half ended.

So a 14-0 halftime lead for South Africa, and moments later it was 21-0 when the Springboks turned the ball over in the tackle, and Handre Pollard sent a pretty grubber kick out to an unmarked Habana.

Moments later the Springboks sent the forwards working the short passes and hooker Bismarck Du Plessis was over, showing what taking the ball at pace can do in short-yardage situations. That made it 26-0.

Continued turnovers in the breakdown allowed South Africa to stay on the attack, and a penalty for not rolling away by John Quill led to a lineout and a fairly straightforward Springbok maul for flanker Francois Louw, and it was 33-0 just past 50 minutes.

Things looked very ominous then. The Eagles’ game plan relies on front-rowers to make ground before the ball is used wider, but the front-rowers couldn’t keep the ball, and the other pack members were, as a group, not able to knock the South Africans off the ball. Hence the turnovers, or the holding-on penalties.

The kicking game also went South Africa’s way. The Springboks got more territory on their kicks, and put more pressure on the USA kickers. That led to a short clearance kick out of the USA 22, an attacking lineout, and a nice backline move to put Habaan in for his second.

From the restart, the Eagles lost the ball, missed some tackles, and then as they were holding up the ball in a maul, the ball squirted out, and Haban jumped on it and scored. It was the South African wing’s third try in the game, and the game that tied him with David Campese for 2nd all-time with 64, and tied with Jonah Lomu for most Rugby World Cup tries with 15. the try made it 47-0 with Morne Steyn’s conversion, and the fractured Eagles looked no closer to scoring any points.

And while referee Gauzere stopped caring about obstruction on the South African mauls or South African failure to roll away, it didn't really matter, as the Eagles missed touch on penalties, made high tackles, missed tackles, and were just not playing as a group. Habana dropped the ball as he chased for his record-breaker, but Louw got his second off a maul to make it 52-0.

The Eagles managed to stop the Springbok maul on the next inevitable penalty, but Kriel was put through one of the many gaps in the USA defensive line. 57-0. 

The bleeding slowed mostly thanks to everyone being a bit tired. Brett Thompson showed a nice move, fielding a kick at his tryline and beating two South Africans to get out of serious trouble. Zack Test challenged defenders several times. But in the end, the Eagles only looked to threaten right at the end of the game, when Thompson, and then Joe Taufete'e made big breaks. But they didn't score, as a bad turnover allowed Lwazi Mvovo to kick the ball ahead. Cam Dolan got on his horse and managed to grab the winger just as both players and the ball arrived at the line; somehow Mvovo got the ball down, despite the effort of Dolan. (Replay indicated the ball might have been dropped, but it wasn't a day for giving the Eagles any breaks.)

In the end, South Africa's kicking game and speed and power to the breakdown crushed the USA effort. The stats tell the story - 61% territory for South Africa, 54% possession, 30 tackles missed for USA, 11 for South Africa, and turnovers given by the USA, 10, eight of which were in their own half.

South Africa 64

Tries: De Allende, Penalty Try, Habana 3, DuPlessis, Louw 2, Kriel, Mvovo

Convs: Pollard 4, Steyn 3

 

USA 0

 

 

 

South Africa	USA
1. Tendai Mtawarira	1 Oli Kilifi
2. Bismarck Du Plessis	2 Phil Thiel
3. Frans Malherbe	3 Chris Baumann
4. Eben Etzebeth	4 Louis Stanfill
5. Lodewyk De Jager	5 Matthew Trouville
6. Francois Louw	6 Danny Barrett
7. Schalk Burger	7 John Quill
8. Duane Vermeulen	8 Samu Manoa (c)
9. Fourie Du Preez (captain)	9 Niku Kruger
10. Handre Pollard	10 Shalom Suniula
11. Lwazi Mvovo	11 Zach Test
12. Damian De Allende	12 Andrew Suniula
13. Jesse Kriel	13 Folau Niua
14. Bryan Habana	14 Brett Thompson
15. Willie Le Roux	15 Blaine Scully
Replacements:	Replacements
16. Schalk Brits	16 Joe Taufetee (for Thiel 71')
17. Trevor Nyakane	17 Zach Fenoglio (for Trouville 69')
18. Coenie Oosthuizen	18 Mate Moeakiola (for Kilifi 59')
19. Pieter-Steph Du Toit	19 Titi Lamositele
20. Willem Alberts	20 Cam Dolan (for Manoa 47')
21. Rudy Paige	21 Al McFarland (for Barrett 58')
22. Morne Steyn	22 Mike Petri
23. Jan Serfontein	23 Chris Wyles (for Scully 26-30, 69')