Springboks Escape Utter Humiliation This Time

South Africa’s Springboks, last week’s sorry excuse for a rugby team (they lost their first Tri Nations test match, against Australia, 49-0, in one of their worst defeats ever), magically morphed into this week’s reasonably-perky union footballers, falling to a far-superior All Blacks side in Wellington by just a whisker less than half their opponent’s score.

Translation: two years ago we won the Tri Nations, last year we came (a very close) second, and this year we’re going to be dead last.

• Further ruggerama: Live Match Blog (BBC) | International Rugby Board | KEO’s Rugby Blog