It is unfair to judge a coach on his first game, but why did Alister Coetzee’s Springboks fail to turn up against Ireland?
When we weighed up the prospects of this tour in an earlier piece, we did suspect that an upset may just be on the cards. What was not predictable though was the abysmal performance that the Springboks dished up. Take nothing away from the Irish, they played all the rugby and were full value for their victory, despite losing CJ Stander to a red card in the 23rd minute. Let’s take a look at a few points that contributed to the Springboks first ever loss to Ireland on South African soil.
The tunnel that the Springboks formed to applaud the Irish off the field was testament to the fact that they had to concede that they were vanquished by a far superior team on the day.
Conservative selections
For a team that was heralding in “a new era”, Coetzee did not necessarily select a team living up to that promise. Right wing JP Pietersen was chosen courtesy of one strong performance for the Sharks and does not offer the same attacking potency of Ruan Combrink. Willie le Roux has been really poor this year and is not the player that set the world alight in 2014. His selection can only be attributed to Coetzee not wanting to make wholesale changes to the Springbok side. Damian de Allende is making his way back from a long term injury and he did nothing on Saturday to justify his selection. While he did beat two defenders, Siya Kolisi does not offer the same ball carrying abilities that traditional South African blindside flankers are known for. The traditional blindsider has been used to batter into defences, putting the chasing pack on the front foot to create phase play. Lood de Jager tried this role occasionally with limited success as did Eben Etzebeth, but his inability to offload the ball makes him very predictable.
Senior players let the side down
The bulk of the senior players in the Springbok would need to take a long and hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are proud of what they delivered on Saturday. They looked flat and uninspired, with no idea as to how to get themselves into the game. The likes of Duane Vermeulen, JP Petersen, Adriaan Strauss and Eben Etzebeth were very quiet on the night and most of the senior professionals did not appear to have the required intensity or attitude to be playing at this level. We can’t apportion too much blame to Elton Jantjes for his slightly off key performance as he was coming off injury when he replaced the concussed Pat Lambie, but the fact of the matter is that as a senior pro he continued to play a very one dimensional game plan, when a more judicious use of the boot was called for. The Irish had great line speed on defence and a grubber kicks and chips over the defensive line would have been a real test for the Irish.
Defensive pattern needs a lot of work
The Springboks were flat footed on defence and seemed to be hanging back, waiting for the collision, allowing the Irish to continually play with front foot ball. Coetzee will have to settle on his desired defensive pattern very quickly as what was on display against the Irish will be easily breached by more attack minded teams, especially with those who have a full complement of players.
Attacking the touchline and not the try line
This is one of the better comments we found on social media over the weekend. The Springboks were guilty of playing very laterally with the ball in hand. The two most guilty of this were De Allende and Le Roux, who gave players outside of them no space to work with after carrying the ball meters towards the touchline. This is very easy to defend against, even for a team down to 14 players. Not straightening the line also means that supporting players cannot run outside or inside lines off the ball carrier to try to breach the defence. An amateurish attacking performance.
Poor execution at ruck time
The Springboks did not field a rookie pack, so their lack of communication and commitment to secure possession was disappointing and the Irish were a continuous threat at ruck time, both in attacking South African possession or protecting their own. Even though they only had a week to prepare, the bulk of this pack were part of the Rugby World Cup squad, so there can be no excuses for forgetting the basics of how to defend a ruck. Too many forwards were hanging around at first receiver or off Jantjes’ shoulder, almost as if the game was an audition to replace Schalk Burger as the midfield battering ram.
The Springbok coaching group of Coetzee, Matt Proudfoot, Mzwandile Stick and Johan van Graan will have to put a lot of work in with the squad this week to deliver a performance more befitting of the green and gold jersey. What they dished up on Saturday will never be acceptable in the eyes of the South African rugby fan and unfortunately for Coetzee and his coaching group, questions are already being asked of their abilities to step up to International rugby.
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