Giteau to beat the rush
13 Jul 2006
Back in the Wallabies starting side, Matt Giteau plans to step his way through the Springboks’ rush defence in Brisbane on Saturday.
The Springboks are playing their first Vodacom Tri-Nations match with a backline that sees three changes to the one that started against France, with Ricky Januarie in for Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie returning to the centres and Akona Ndungane debuting on the wing.
The crucial defensive partnership in this backline will be that of Wynand Olivier and Fourie who have not played together at this level. They will be responsible for the tried-and-trusted rush defence, so it is natural for someone like Giteau to believe that as an inexperienced combination, they are vulnerable.
“If they make the tackle it’s a big dominant hit, if they miss it’s a line break,” Giteau told the Sydney Morning Herald. “At times that rush-up defence can affect us and distract us and put us onto the back foot, and there’s sometimes again we can break.”
Giteau, who will be playing his first international since coming back from injury, has faced the Springbok defensive pattern before, and has seen it both succeed and fail. If the Boks don’t get it exactly right, the likes of Giteau, Larkham and Mortlock are more than capable of breaking the line and setting up the outside backs for a score.
“As long as you can execute well enough, any defence is able to be beaten,” he said.
Wallabies assistant coach Scott Johnson concurred with Giteau’s theory, and a man like the Aussie No.12 will be especially hard for the Boks to keep in check as he has such quick feet.
“They’re coming at you with such speed, it’s nice to use your feet, as it’s hard to hit dancing targets,” Johnson said.
“There’s probably nothing that Matt can’t do on a rugby pitch and we’re extremely fortunate to have the likes of both him and Mat Rogers in our midst.”
24 Comments
13 Jul 2006, 12:14 pm
Los n boodskap sodra ek klaar gepoooooeeeep het!!!
13 Jul 2006, 12:14 pm
ja iam first come boks smash them
13 Jul 2006, 12:15 pm
A backline full of gamebreakers compared to the boks who only have Habana and Fourie. Scary stuff. And they won’t get the ball from a kicking JVDW
13 Jul 2006, 12:15 pm
i dont rate oliver as noumber 12 he can tackle but cant attack i dont think this weekend is gonn be pretty for south afria
13 Jul 2006, 12:18 pm
Klippies
I agree. At best Olivier is a good Provinsial player. Certainly no testplayer he is!!
13 Jul 2006, 12:21 pm
Fourie is seriously out of form! Habana too! Olivier will play 50tests for the boks! He has it all! Giteau is a waste of talent at 12! Too Small! 9 or maybe 10 would be best for him!
13 Jul 2006, 12:33 pm
JC
Don’t you mean Ricky in for Fourie…
13 Jul 2006, 12:36 pm
howzit okes-Im hosting a huge spit for 80 buddies on sat; i need a cracker joke to open with.Does anybody know of a good dig at the wallabies?Seblief manne!
13 Jul 2006, 12:39 pm
watch out matt, os has your number…
13 Jul 2006, 12:45 pm
Pienaar,
Those are some big claims buddy … becareful ot that humble pie … it don’t taste all that great.
I actually reckon Giteau is gonna make Olivier his b*tch on Saturday. Giteau is just such an intelligent and creative player …
13 Jul 2006, 12:55 pm
do you want a joke:
how bout: Sophie Ellis Bextor has been found head-butted to death in the French World Cup team’s hotel.
Police are saying it was murder on Zidane’s floor.
13 Jul 2006, 13:19 pm
rather have the likes of barrit or even butch on the inside centre positions,olivier is better suited to the outside centre position
13 Jul 2006, 13:28 pm
What I don’t understand about the rush defence is why you would play it without a flyer at open-side flank?
It seems to me that that defence’s weakness is that it allows a player with a step to move inside his man, and then he is behind the line. That is when a quick loosie cleans him out, as he is basically stationary for a moment.
Therefore, at the very least you need a quick flanker, and preferably scrum half to act in cover.
So why does Jake White play the rush defence with Januarie (in current bloated form) and big, slow open sides?
13 Jul 2006, 13:32 pm
Chiefs fan….
You do know that spies is 8th man,so if big joe can get there in time spies will defintly get there ,spies used to be a wing….
just for your info he is 107kgs and best recorded 100 metre sprint is at 10.7 secs
surely thats enough to cover the rush defence weakness…..
13 Jul 2006, 13:35 pm
So shouldn’t they be playing the other way round? The quick man on the side and the slower off the back — that’s the normal practise.
13 Jul 2006, 13:36 pm
I saw Spies play a bit in the U21′s btw, and he did look good. I don’t think age is an issue: he’s older than loads of guys who have started for Oz or NZ (Toeava, for example).
13 Jul 2006, 13:37 pm
dozer:
a Canadian walks into a bar on the outback of the oz outback.
Canadian: ‘scotch and soda please’
Barman while fixing the drink: ‘your not from here are you mate’?
Canadian: ‘no i am from Canada’.
Barman: ‘from Canada, where is that and what do you do’.
Canadian: ‘north of the usa, and i am a taxi
dermist’.
Barman: ‘taxidermist, what’s that do you need a vehicle to be a taxidermist’
Canadian: ‘ no i mount animals’
Barman: replies to rest of the bar, don’t worry guys he is one of us!
13 Jul 2006, 13:37 pm
I think big joe will be quick enough for the job,i think they need spies for second and third phases…
13 Jul 2006, 13:38 pm
lol @ green blood
13 Jul 2006, 13:59 pm
Lets be Honest I am not sure why or how Wynand Olivier made the springbok set-up let alone starting … his ability on the rush defence has been well documented in the super 14 where he has had shockers leaking tries to NZ teams … And you know what the Aussies know this … The pretty blonde is gonna get screwed by the sheep shaggers …
13 Jul 2006, 14:01 pm
About Januarie … his defensive record and starts surpass Du preez’s by far … remember in the Bok Jersey he has made the most number of tackles in games surpassing the likes of Schalk en cO.
13 Jul 2006, 14:59 pm
dozer:
A ventriloquist walks into a Ozzie outback pub, where a dog and cat and a sheep are wandering around in the pub. The vent. says to the barkeep “Want to see that dog talk?” The barkep says “Everyone knows that dogs dont talk!”. So as the dog s sniffing the cat, he makes it say “I’m going to have you for breakfast soon, *****” and as the cat turns around to bat the dog away with its paw, he makes the cat say “piss off stinky, I’v got your number!”. The barkeep’s jaw nearly hits the ground in amazement.
So the vent.turns to him and says “Wanna see the sheep talk?”. The barkeep goes white and blurts out “The sheep LIES!”
13 Jul 2006, 15:27 pm
In wynands mind he must weigh in at about 120kgs, if one takes into account how often he tries to crash it up the middle. If Jaco decides he is going to pass on the day (lets all pray he does) they can use wynand as a decoy at 12 and employ a skip pass and take him out of the equation
13 Jul 2006, 22:02 pm
24!!!!!!!!!!! JAAAAA!
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