The Springboks will be looking to play their more conservative game style in their two Tests against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
The Springboks will be aiming to tighten up their game on their two match tour of New Zealand, after picking up a rebound win over the Wallabies in their second Rugby Championship match in Cape Town over the weekend.
After going with an all-out attacking gameplan for the first Test at Ellis Park, the Boks were punished when the Wallabies fought back from 22-0 down to win 38-22, and thus reverted to a more conservative game for the Test at the Cape Town Stadium and were rewarded with a 30-22 win.
Heading Down Under to face fierce rivals the All Blacks, Bok coach Rassie Erasmus said they took a lot out of the two games against the Aussies, especially with them playing a similar style to New Zealand, and that they would probably play similarly to the second Test, although they would also continue to evolve their game.
Similar threats
“We reckon that Australia are up there with New Zealand in terms of where the threats are. Like the All Blacks, their back three are lightning quick, so this was a good dry run and taste of what we are going to see when we play against New Zealand,” said Erasmus.
“We are trying to please our crowds by winning and playing a better brand and sometimes we get it wrong like we did last weekend (on the Highveld), but sometimes when we get into game likes this where it’s a real grind we tend to find a way.
“We tend to struggle when it’s an open, free-running game. It’s beautiful rugby but you lose on the scoreboard. Overall, we’ll learn from this and hopefully the tighter the matches get, we’ll get more comfortable with it as we have been in the past.”
One aspect that the Boks will need to improve on is their second half performances, as they have now lost three second halves out of six games they have played this year.
In their Test against Italy at Loftus in July the visitors won the second half 21-14, although the Boks emerged as 42-24 winners overall.
At Ellis Park against the Wallabies it was even worse, with the visitors winning the second half 33-0 on their way to their impressive bonus point win at a ground they hadn’t won at since 1963.
In Cape Town it was a tighter affair, with Australia winning the second half 12-10, but they were 12-3 up before Eben Etzebeth’s late try, and if James O’Connor hadn’t missed three crucial kicks in the final 12 minutes it could have been a very different scoreline.
Right direction
Erasmus, however, isn’t worried about that recent trend and believes that the team are moving in the right direction.
“We don’t really count games in halves, we count it on the scoreboard at the end. But looking at it, I don’t think it is a problem with our fitness. I think because they beat us last weekend we were a bit tight when the pressure came,” explained Erasmus.
“They were also confident having beaten us and went for the five points (tries) when they had three (penalty) on offer on a few occasions. At the end we also had a penalty that we could have kicked (to win the half), but we went for the try because we wanted to improve our points difference.
“The end result is that we are (firmly) in it [the Rugby Championship]. We might not have been up there with teams in the second half recently, but I think tonight is another stepping stone for us to get back up there.”
The Boks will named a 36-man squad for their tour on Monday, and a number of players could miss out due to injury.
