In a game where the barbarians played a lot of the better rugby but South Africa finished stronger to steal the draw, both teams probably came away feeling the result felt more like a loss.
Here is my assessment of which players can hold their head high and who left a lot of room for improvement.
BARBARIANS
15. Melani Nanai: 8
Showed great strength to score the first try, ran some good lines and made a few important offloads to keep the ball alive.
14. Matt Fades: 7
Some great skills and a bit of luck allowed him to re-gather his kick for the second Baa Baas try but was generally menacing with ball in hand and made some good meters
13. Seta Tamanivalu: 7
His lovely quick hands allowed the barbarians to stretch the attack from touch to touch time and time again.
12. Richard Buckman: 6
Fairly anonymous in a strong showing from the Baa Baas backline
11. Taqele Naiyaravoro: 9
Made ground with every carry often drawing extra defenders across to try and bundle him into touch before offloading back in field. Terrorised the defence and showed great strength to score a powerful try in the corner against two defenders.
10. Robert du Preez: 7
Kept the backline moving well but missed a couple of conversions which could have made a lot of difference to the scoreboard
9. Andy Ellis: 7.5
Provided snappy service to his fly half and finished Faddes’ break well.
8. Luke Whitelock: 8
Some powerful carries and a menace at the breakdown. The fact that he is surplus to requirements for the All Blacks shows how truly blessed they are in the backrow.
7. Jordan Taufua: 6.5
Carried well and cleared out rucks allowing them to turnover ball
6. Brad Shields: 7
Made a couple of key turnovers which allowed the Barbarians to counter attack well
5. Michael Fatialofa: 5
The weakest part of the Barbarians defence was their lineout defence and gifted the Springboks two soft tries
4. Martin Muller: 4
Same as above and formed the other side of the parting of the seas which allowed Du Toit to waltz through to the line unopposed. Less effective at the breakdown than his lock partner
3. Paddy Ryan: 5
Struggled at scrum time and was penalised a couple of times for folding in
2. Akker Van Der Merwe: 6
Lineout looked ok on their own ball
1. Reggie Goodes: 6
Wasn’t responsible for the scrum issues. Performed ok
Replacements: 8
The replacement front row seemed to shore up some of the scrum issues experienced in the first half, Luke Morahan came on and scored a decent brace of tries and Sam Carter added some much-needed experience to the second row.
SOUTH AFRICA
15. Jesse Kriel: 6
Didn’t see much of the ball before going off injured at halftime, did ok in defence.
14. Sergeal Peterson: 5.5
Struggled to cope with Naiyaravoro’s strength which often caused the inside defence to over commit but took his try very well with a lovely show and go.
13. Francois Venter: 7
Fairly quiet in attack until the final 20 minutes where some quick hands and support for his winger allowed him to go in under the posts and his quick hands also featured in Van Rensburgs’ try
12. Ruan Janse Van Rensburg: 7
Showed some good attacking promise throughout with strong running lines but needs to work on retaining the ball in contact as he got turned over too easily a couple of times
11. Jamba Ulengo: 5
Weak tackle for Nanai’s try and caught out defensively a few times but looked good with ball in hand
10. Patrick Lambie: 6
Didn’t manage to release his backline well and also missed a couple of conversions which could have swung the game
9. Rudy Paige: 7
Distributed the ball well, without doing anything remarkable
8. Nizaam Carr: 5
Fairly anonymous all game barely noticed he was playing
7. Teboho Mohoje: 6
Couple of good carries and clearing out rucks, but the Boks struggled at the breakdown.
6. Roelof Smit: 6.5
For a player considered to be a fetcher he didn’t manage to get over the ball enough, but took his try well peeling off the maul at the right moment to go in unopposed
5. Pieter-Steph Du Toit: 8
Good showing at the lineout, carried well and physical at the breakdown. Even he couldn’t believe how easily he managed to score South Africa’s first try.
4. Rudolph Snyman: 6
Relatively quiet debut did the basics well apart from one unpressured knock on.
3. Lourens Adriaanse: 6
Performed pretty well at scrum time
2. Malcolm Marx: 7
Got his arrows right but didn’t get his hands on the ball as much as he does for the Lions
1. Tendai Mtawarira: 8
Got the better of his opposite number at scrum time and made some hard yards ball in hand
Replacements: 6.5
Etzebeth brought an increased intensity to the forward pack but none of the other replacements really stood out
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images