Breakdown dominance boosted Boks
16 Jun 2012
SIMON BORCHARDT says South Africa’s match-winning first-half performance against England was a result of their ability to win quick ruck ball.
During the first 40 minutes at Kings Park last week, the Boks were guilty of committing too few players to the breakdown which allowed England to slow things down and reorganise their defence. During the first half at Ellis Park, the Boks ruthlessly cleaned out the opposition at ruck time and got quick second-phase ball that resulted in forward momentum.
Before this series, Heyneke Meyer was criticised by some for picking a ball-carrying openside flanker instead of a fetcher (like Heinrich Brussow) but Marcell Coetzee has more than justified his selection over the past two weeks. He got over the gainline regularly in Joburg, as did blindside flanker Willem Alberts, which allowed the Boks to suck in England defenders and then send the ball wide. It was no co-incidence that the Boks lost momentum when Alberts left the field injured in the 52nd minute.
The game got a bit loose at times in the first half, which suited the other member of the Bok loose trio, Pierre Spies. The No 8 always looks good when he gets possession in space and is able to build up a head of steam, and England didn’t do enough to close that space down.
The Boks also benefited from a much improved showing from Francois Hougaard. The scrumhalf provided good service to his backs while his boxing kicking (another weak area of his game) was far more accurate. The hang time of his first box kick, for example, was long enough to allow the Boks to reclaim possession and set up the attack that led to Bismarck du Plessis’ try.
While the Boks were keen to run the ball in the first half after they’d earned the right to go wide, they also made good use of the boot. JP Pietersen’s chip in behind the England defence saw the Boks win a 5m scrum (and a penalty that made it 15-3) when Ben Youngs was tackled in his in-goal area. And just before the break, Frans Steyn’s excellent grubber was collected by De Villiers, although he was unable to put Pietersen away in the right-hand corner.
What will concern Meyer, though, is that his side was unable to capitalise on a 19-point lead after 20 minutes and allowed England to get back within four late in the game. The hosts conceded a few penalties at the breakdown and scrum, and were unable to get the go-forward that had characterised their impressive first-half performance until the final minutes of the game when Pietersen’s try put the result beyond doubt.
The series has been won, but the Boks will be hoping to make it 3-0 with an 80-minute performance in Port Elizabeth.
22 Comments
16 Jun 2012, 19:32 pm
Good assessment, Simon.
But we could dominate the tackle point because our alignment on attack was superb.
We stood a lot flatter, and our passing was very accurate.
In fact, we dished up some of the best Bok rugby in the last 15 years during the first half.
We also make a lot less handling errors, which is very encouraging.
16 Jun 2012, 20:00 pm
… and we need to get a goal kicker from somewhere …
16 Jun 2012, 21:13 pm
Why was the Bok scrum such a mess? I dont know why Simon doent mention this facet of play.
16 Jun 2012, 21:16 pm
> What will concern Meyer, though, is that his side was unable to capitalise on a 19-point lead after 20 minutes and allowed England to get back within four late in the game
If MS kicked over all his kicks we would have had a good buffer and the Poms would
have faded
16 Jun 2012, 21:19 pm
I say give Jantjies a chance at flyhalf. His kicking percentage is in anycase better than Morne’s.
I think he will also get the backline running better.
16 Jun 2012, 21:20 pm
M. Steyn must Go
16 Jun 2012, 22:09 pm
Not sure how you finf praise for Spies apart from a couple of lineout steals
Any Game coudl be seen as loose where he is playing since he is always ensuring he is not involved in any contact at ruck time
He actually runs back away from rucks in the pretence of standing off to create defensiveline yet he never tackles and on attack to be a ball carrier yet Coetzee and Alberts always end up carrying the ball up (and more effectively)
So what is he actually doing ?
16 Jun 2012, 22:54 pm
@victoriabok(victoriabok)-4: Even if you had a 40 point buffer this isn’t an England team which would fade, there’s no quit in them.
16 Jun 2012, 23:37 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-8:
Yes but you can’t defend the whole afternoon, and if you’re 40 behind your forwards` motivation to work hard for the ball would go, and the backline would run everything and potentially make more mistakes especially if you kept them under pressure
17 Jun 2012, 00:51 am
Seriously Morne Steyn in getting kicking coaching from Louis Koen? I think it should be the other way around…
17 Jun 2012, 09:48 am
@NoAshelyJohnsonInBokSquad=NoJustice!!!(Murph)-7:
Rubbish. Spies hit a lot of rucks from what I saw.
17 Jun 2012, 12:02 pm
What game were some of you watching? We dominated the scrums until we subbed Bismark and Jannie. Spies had a great game – great running with ball in hand, no other 8 in SA could have done that. The lad is class and its good to see Meyer have faith in him.
The only let down was us disrespecting the Poms in the second half, conceding those two soft tries – the line-out mess up on our line and the quick take penalty by Youngs.
The only poor player was Morne, get rid of this ponderous plodder I say. He messed up a few attacking options by taking the ball up himself instead of distributing. He is the weak link
17 Jun 2012, 12:16 pm
We are all singing Spies’ praises today ,but if we look closely at the game he,most of the time,never hit back the tackler in most of his carries,considering his much bigger than most of the English pack of forwards.We need to accept the fact that he is only good when he operates in space in front of him.For all his suspiciously acquired upper body mass he rarely dominates opposition players in tackles on attack or defense.
17 Jun 2012, 13:26 pm
The first half was some of the best rugby I have seen the Boks play. I agree with HM, if we can put this first half and the Durban second half together, that would be close to where we want to be.
17 Jun 2012, 13:31 pm
And I agree that maybe we should give Elton Jantjies a chance. He might just surprise a couple of people. Drop Morne’ down to the bench, this way we also get rid of Meisiekind : )
17 Jun 2012, 20:29 pm
@SjamBok(SjamBok)-10:
The shoe is on the other foot
17 Jun 2012, 20:30 pm
Morne defended very well. I would not drop him, but replace him in the last 30 with Lambs.
17 Jun 2012, 20:38 pm
We are so screwed if Olivier is starting at inside centre- would prefer Meyer switching De Villiers to inside centre and picking Engelbrecht. Wouldnt tinker with flyhalf at all- certainly not to play Jantjies. Goosen is destined for the position in the future and Steyn will be an OK backup. Keep Lambie at fullback imo, hate seeing players switching positions.
17 Jun 2012, 20:39 pm
@Saffex(Saffex)-12: Spies had a good game but lets not get carried away calling him class he’s cost us bigtime for a while in many important games the last couple of years. Let’s see if he can keep this kind of form up.
18 Jun 2012, 00:10 am
Morne needs his previous kicking coach by the looks of things. One should be averaging a 70+% conversion ratio. However everybody has an off period , this is probably his. So he just needs to get the mojo back. Dropping a man because he has a couple bad days should never happen. This is the disgraceful action that happened to Pinaar and look what it did. Destroyed his confidence and has ruined the last few years of his career.
But I do think if he is having an off day, ****** how many other kickers were available to do the duty, that someone else should get a go. I think Pinaar, F Steyn, and Little lamb should hav had a shot. He should be man enough to say himself hey, someone else have a go my alignment aint there today.— selfishless=> team player.
18 Jun 2012, 08:07 am
The Bok bench is below their best.
18 Jun 2012, 08:34 am
I don’t think Spies likes contact, because after running sideways across the field for an age and gaining many meters in the stats thingies, I have noticed he often seems to slow down before contact and not accelerate like Alberts, Bissie and almost every other player.
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