Written by Neville Huxham, on 27-11-2007 06:05

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If winning is everything, then the Boks got it all.

But the fact is, it was a dumb match for the SARU to agree to, since there was nothing to prove and an unnecessary 90 minutes of pain for the players who had just come through the gruelling RWC series of very, very hard games.

Nothing to gain really in terms of rugby - if you don't count the R6.5 million that SARU scored out of the game. 

As for the match itself, and specifically the role played by Chris White: White displayed his usual bias against the Boks - witness the TWO Yellow Cards!  His motive was clear - since the Welsh were not really making any inroads, despite their best efforts, White decided to increase the odds for the Welsh by sending off two Bokke.  That ensured the Welsh got  plenty of possession, but in the end, it just wasn't enough.

The face-shoving incident deserved a Yellow Card to the guilty Welsh player, but White showed his inconsistency by only awarding a penalty. He knew that to send off the Welshman would have guaranteed that the final tally would have been an even greater humiliation than the final 34-12. 

And for White, the memory of 36-0 against the Lions was still rankling. And it showed.

What more can we say.

There's a chance for some of the Aussies and the Kiwis to do some damage in the Barbarians game - so we'll have to wait and see how that turns out - and how the ref on the day plays his hand.

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