Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
24th October 2003
Half time SA 24 - 6 Georgia
Fulltime SA 46 - 19 Georgia
Ref: Stuart Dickinson

OK OK, a slight exaggeration. It was the Bok B side. But boy, did the Georgians rip into that game spurred on by a nearly full house. At times they made the Boks look extremely ordinary. It was great to see!

Unfortunately I can't single out any of the great individual performances by the Georgians as no human can possibly pronouce their names, although their No.12 was outstanding - breaking the advantage line almost at will. Their whole forward pack performed brilliantly with some very large boys. The halfback was a fiesty little bugger who constantly got up the Jaapies nose (always good to see).

For the Boks, sure a few players stood out...but really...come on!? Danie Rossouw the loose forward and Derek Hougaard the young 1st five looked great. But the forwards in general where lethargic and sometimes outshone. Is this really the depth of SA football???? If so they have some serious problems in the Republic. At halftime the Boks had a reasonably healthy lead. But seeing the 2nd half the Boks only won 22 - 13 you can see just how well Georgia played!

I have to mention the crowd. Who would have believed Georgia v SA would entice 35,000 spectators? That is an amazing effort...it certainly would NOT have happened in NZ. I think maybe Australia getting sole hosting rights is a good thing. Their bigger population makes filling the grounds a little easier. Makes some of the suggestions from NZ'ers (including myself) that some of these games would attract noone look ever so slightly naive. Sometimes its easy to forget Oz has 5 times the size of NZ's population...mind you given the fact we regularly kick their arse in all manner of sports its not surprising we forget...

All round a most entertaining game to watch!