The Springboks play their last match before the Rugby World cup in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. The general mood amongst the South African rugby public is one of concern for the National team because of results in 2010 and the recent Tri Nations matches. There are many critics eager to point fingers and blame coaches, selectors and players, but the personnel (barring player injury) won’t change before the World Cup kicks off.
While results have been far from pleasing this year, the message from the Springbok camp was that focus remained primarily on performances and preparation for the World Cup. The Springboks’ disastrous away leg of the Tri Nations was just that - disastrous - but it was nowhere near the full strength team that will be representing South Africa at the World Cup. So we can forget about reading into those matches. This leaves us only one match to analyse and take anything from.
Despite the loss, last weekend’s performance by the Springboks was encouraging in my humble opinion. To put it into context, Australia fielded a team full of players on form and with plenty of match time under their belts. In contrast, South Africa had a team packed with players who where well short of game time and combinations who hadn’t played together in years. The Boks started extremely well but despite the vast experience faded in the last half hour as match fitness took its toll.
What was really pleasing was the ability of the Springboks to make line breaks and create try-scoring opportunities against a very well organised Australian defence. The difference between winning and losing that match was that the Boks weren’t able to capitalise and convert pressure into points – an aspect I suspect will be corrected as players start to gain momentum and game time.
The defensive system employed last year was diabolical, but against a backline as exciting and dangerous as the Wallabies possess, the Springboks held fairly firm in last weekend’s encounter. Improvements have been made and should continue to occur with each match.
This all brings us to this weekend’s encounter against a “weakened” All Blacks team. Make no mistake, if you look at the players that the All Black selectors have selected there is nothing weak about them. It will be a tough Test match in Port Elizabeth, but I have confidence that the Boks will do the job – they have to.
Boks by 5.
While results have been far from pleasing this year, the message from the Springbok camp was that focus remained primarily on performances and preparation for the World Cup. The Springboks’ disastrous away leg of the Tri Nations was just that - disastrous - but it was nowhere near the full strength team that will be representing South Africa at the World Cup. So we can forget about reading into those matches. This leaves us only one match to analyse and take anything from.
Despite the loss, last weekend’s performance by the Springboks was encouraging in my humble opinion. To put it into context, Australia fielded a team full of players on form and with plenty of match time under their belts. In contrast, South Africa had a team packed with players who where well short of game time and combinations who hadn’t played together in years. The Boks started extremely well but despite the vast experience faded in the last half hour as match fitness took its toll.
What was really pleasing was the ability of the Springboks to make line breaks and create try-scoring opportunities against a very well organised Australian defence. The difference between winning and losing that match was that the Boks weren’t able to capitalise and convert pressure into points – an aspect I suspect will be corrected as players start to gain momentum and game time.
The defensive system employed last year was diabolical, but against a backline as exciting and dangerous as the Wallabies possess, the Springboks held fairly firm in last weekend’s encounter. Improvements have been made and should continue to occur with each match.
This all brings us to this weekend’s encounter against a “weakened” All Blacks team. Make no mistake, if you look at the players that the All Black selectors have selected there is nothing weak about them. It will be a tough Test match in Port Elizabeth, but I have confidence that the Boks will do the job – they have to.
Boks by 5.
