At the end of the Springboks tour to Europe, we thought it opportune to take a look at some of the lessons we have learned from this tour.
1.) Decision making needs to be more astute
The Springboks are to be lauded for trying to play a slightly more open and attacking game, but they need to respect Test Match rugby and their opponents more. Take nothing away from the Irish and the Welsh as they were excellent value for their wins, but the Springboks did contribute to their own downfall by not taking points from kickable penalties in the first half. The same can be said of the game against Italy, where a rush to score early tries saw them declining the opportunity to build up an easy lead in the first 30 minutes. Instead of forcing the Italians to chase the game, they were allowed to defend manfully and spoil around the rucks and malls. Jean de Villiers and Heyneke Meyer would do well to remember the strengths of South African rugby and not try to be a team that they are not. Changing a game plan should be evolutionary and not revolutionary.
2.) The break down is too inconsistent
Play at break down time has also been far too inconsistent when either trying to turn over possession or to protect the ball when they are in possession. At defensive rucks, there appears to be general confusion as to when they should contest possession, fan out or flood the ruck to turn over possession. At attacking rucks there tends to be a fair amount of role confusion as well, with insufficient numbers protecting possession, with too many players standing in channel one waiting for the ball to be passed to them so that they can rumble up field. The unfortunate truth is that their attacking ambitions suddenly become defensive responsibilities as too often not enough work has been done to protect possession. We do have to take note that the Springboks’ best open side flanker, Francois Louw, has been injured and this would have played a role. Richie Grey will have to put in a lot of work to get this element of the game sorted out before the start of Rugby World Cup 2015.
3.) Tighthead Prop is a major concern
There is an old adage in rugby – if you want to win a Rugby World Cup, pick your tighthead prop first. South Africa’s Mr. Reliable, Jannie du Plessis, has been so seriously overplayed in 2014 at both International and Super Rugby level that it is a bit of a wonder that he has not broken down sooner. Aside from the fact that Du Plessis has been over played, not enough experimentation has been carried out with pretenders to his throne to determine who is ready for International rugby. There has been an attempt to turn Coenie Oosthuizen into a tighthead prop, a position he is definitely not suited to. At loosehead prop he had an issue with hinging at scrum time, a habit which is catastrophic for a scrum as you need your tighthead to provide stability. He has also had issues with a neck injury which he could get away with on the loosehead side, but not at tighthead. Golden Lions prop Julian Redelinghuys has been brought into the equation, but his International experience is limited to his game time against Italy. It is noot ideal going into a Rugby World Cup with such an inexperienced tighthead. I for one believe this is where Meyer is playing with fire. In general, the Springboks scrum has been highly inconsistent, ranging between demolishing opposing scrums and being demolished themselves. Scrum guru Pieter de Villiers has a monumental task ahead of him to get this right with just four Tests to go before Rugby World Cup 2015.
4.) Who is the Springboks best flyhalf?
Handre Pollard paid a very heavy price for the poor service that scrumhalf Francois Hougaard presented in the game against the Irish and he was reduced to appearances off the bench. Pat Lambie’s place kicking inconsistency was one again evident on this tour, with some rather easy kicks being pushed past the uprights. His Super Rugby success rate in 2014 was 76%. A world class kicker should have a success rate well above 80%. Rugby World Cups are decided by tight margins and the jury is out if Lambie has the ability to kick the Springboks to the title.
5.) The Springboks are being overplayed
This is an old story, but remains valid. The South African Rugby Union accepted two games in 2014 that fell outside of the International window. The first one was against Scotland in June and then the Welsh game at the end of November. Players like Victor Matfield, Tendai Mtawarira and Duane Vermeulen were visibly exhausted and were out on their feet by the end of the game. The sad news for Heyneke Meyer and all Springbok fans is that even though The Rugby Championship will be an abridged competition in 2015 and there is no June Test window, their marquee players are not centrally contracted and will be subject to a heavy workload in Super Rugby 2015. Their franchise coaches have their own agendas, which is aimed at short term success and not at the long term well being of the players with a view to the World Cup later in the year.
There is a lot of work to be done before the Springboks can claim to be one of the outright favourites, but the work to be done is not insurmountable. Players returning from injury will include Fourie du Preez, Ruan Pienaar, Francois Louw and Flip van der Merwe and all of them would inject a lot more firepower into the Springbok team. The big unknown right now is the extent of captain Jean de Villiers injury as all indications are that he is in in for an extended layoff.
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