[imagesource: Twitter / @jaredwright17]

The problem with a Saturday morning Springbok kick-off is that it can derail a weekend.

Case in point our 30-17 humbling at the hands of the Wallabies, in what was easily our worst performance since 2018.

Our much-vaunted defence made 68 tackles and missed 20, while the men from down under made 117 and missed just five.

This Saturday we face the All Blacks for the 100th time in test match rugby, with kick-off scheduled for 9:05AM.

Let’s leave the worry for later in the week and focus on five videos from the past weekend’s action.

We have to start with the red card given to South African-born Ryno Pieterse, sent off for this horror tackle against Bordeaux in the Top 14 on Saturday.

The Castres lock absolutely smashed Bordeaux scrumhalf Maxime Lucu. As far as sending offs go, this is as clearcut as it gets:

Ryno Pieterse shown a straight red card for this tackle on Maxime Lucu #COUBB #TOP14 pic.twitter.com/KA2WuHfTaX

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 18, 2021

RTE reports that he did offer an apology via social media:

“I would like to apologise to Maxime Lucu for my gesture yesterday,” he wrote on Instagram.

“I didn’t master my tackle and I’m sincerely sorry. As I told you after the game, I’m really happy that you’re okay Maxime. Good luck for the rest of the season.”

That’s not going to save him from a very lengthy ban.

In the weekend’s other Rugby Championship showdown, the All Blacks beat the Pumas, all but securing the title.

That comes as no surprise, but what did catch the eye (and ears) was Pumas captain Julian Montoya casually telling opposition scrumhalf TJ Perenara not to be a ‘po*s’:

Wise words from Julian Montoya ‘Hey, don’t be p**s 😂 pic.twitter.com/7ZgEwNhyTD

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 18, 2021

He clearly says ‘don’t be a po*s’.

Montoya plays for the Leicester Tigers, alongside South Africans like Hanro Liebenberg, Jaco Taute, Jasper Wiese, Marco van Staden, and Kobus van Wyk.

Who’s been teaching Julian Afrikaans, chaps?

(Unrelated, but Leicester Tigers also have a chap called Harry Potter on their books.)

Let’s return to the Boks briefly, before we finish on a high.

We were completely dominated at the breakdown and certainly didn’t produce anything close to world champion quality.

Credit has to be given to the Wallabies and their commitment on the day, embodied by this passage of play featuring Marika Koroibete.

From one side of the pitch to the other, and wins the ball for his side:

Just look at Marika Koroibeite here!

Starts on the blindside of the scrum, ends up driving South Africa off their own ruck ball far side of the pitch!

Elite effort.#AUSvRSA #TRC2021 pic.twitter.com/wDNYwznuD9

— EK Rugby Analysis (@ek_rugby) September 18, 2021

Hopefully, this is the week we stop blaming referees for our losses and accept that sometimes, we are just beaten by a better side on the day.

It sure has been an embarrassing few weeks for Mark Keohane. Having called the Wallabies wimps and predicted a sizeable Springbok win in the first of our two showdowns, he first went off on a very strange tangent involving Paul Adams and Temba Bavuma.

Later, when the Springboks lost, he admitted he got it wrong, but predicted the Boks would come back stronger in this past Saturday’s test.

Again, that didn’t pan out.

Just like he predicted a 3-0 series win over the British & Irish Lions, Keo has cemented his place as the South African rugby journalist we would most gladly offload.

I promised we would end on a high, so let’s turn out attention to the Vancouver Sevens.

How about this bit of skill?

That first touch 😯

pic.twitter.com/FswO7PfNJt

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 19, 2021

Sublime.

The same can be said for the Blitzbokke, who followed up their 2019 tournament win in Canada with another title.

From the 5:30 mark below, you can see highlights of our final against Kenya:

Some stats worth noting via World Rugby:

It was the most points scored by any team in a Series Cup final in Canada and included six tries to take their overall tally to 38 for the tournament – again, a new high.

Try poacher extraordinaire, Angelo Davids, was responsible for 10 of them, becoming the first player to hit double figures for a single tournament in Canada and the first to score 10 tries in a Series event since France’s Terry Bouhraoua at Cape Town in 2017.

Ronald Brown was named Player of the Final, which completes a remarkable turnaround after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2019.

Perfect record, perfect 📸#HSBC7s | @Blitzboks pic.twitter.com/ybcISkwBx6

— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) September 20, 2021

[sources:rte&worldrugby]