Springboks

It was with trepidation that I looked forward to seeing the Springboks take on the English yesterday afternoon. Memories still fresh in my mind of Bok teams being inconsistent, unreliable and frankly just poor.

PDV has taken away any confidence I had in the Springboks aver the past four years as I saw to many matches where we were either not prepared, coached well enough, players that shouldn’t have been selected, untimely substitutes and tests lost in the last 10 minutes.

The Bulls supporters in South Africa on the whole were very happy with the appointment of Heyneke Meyer as he was the Messiah who turned the fortunes around for the Bulls Franchise in the early to late 2000’. I on the other hand was not convinced, the fact was it has been 3 years since Meyer had a hands on approach with a team and I had no idea what his methodology would be in an era where a more modern game plan is required to get to the top.

Now in most peoples view there are only two ways to play the game of rugby, those that believe expansive is the way to go and those that believe conservative rugby is the answer.

I have a different view of how rugby should be played. No matter what style of rugby you believe in, the first requirement is for your forwards to gain control of the set phases and breakdown, without that all the talent in the world won’t help you much.

Yesterday it showed in the first half that when SA do not have control at the breakdown, the chances are they will either get very slow ball with defences already aligned, or they will concede turnovers via penalties or pilfers.

They could not attack effectively during this period and only when they brought more numbers to the breakdown quicker, secured their ruck ball quicker was there a remarkable change of pace in their attack.

So breakdown sorted. The next area of concern was the scrum and lineouts, with John Smit often moving to prop in the past few years and without being disrespectful to a great man, he wasn’t an international class prop. The damage that this did to the reputation of Springbok scrumming would probably linger for yet a while longer, so even I was concerned as to how we would handle the scrums and in specific when Coenie Oosthuizen would come on as he is a penalty magnet at scrumtime.

But for all intent and purposes it went well. So scrum is sorted.

Our lineout was likely to be the most concerning area as the combination of Bakkies Botha and victor Matfield would no longer grace the stadia of South Africa as the undisputed lineout supremo’s. So Juandre Kruger and Eben Etzebeth was always going to be under pressure to perform. I’ll give them a pass mark, nothing more, they didn’t contest the English lineout with much success, and definitely didn’t control the maul well at all (although something can be said about what England got away with in stopping those mauls). So lineout looks promising.

Hougaard needs to forget about what Fourie du Preez did in the Springbok jumper and needs to establish his own style, he proved his ability with one sniping run that almst promised to turn into a five pointer, his combination with Morne Steyn ( to be said not my favourite first choice) was OK, and between the two of them they managed to control some stages of the match, but definitely not an 80 minute performance from them.

The back row of Spies, Alberts and Coetzee was much better in the second half, but it is clear Spies is on borrowed time and Burger is a shoo in when he returns from injury.

I liked the midfield combination of Frans Steyn and Jean de Villiers, although it took 40 minutes for them to start firing and Steyn was not yet at his best ( considering he hasn’t played a rugby match in SA since last year) they look to be a solid defensive pairing and will prove valuable in attack.

Habana was the star of the show alongside Alberts, He counter attacked from deep, chased effectively, beat a number of defenders and looked hungry, JP Pietersen did nothing special, but made no defensive errors either, late in the second half he got a bit more into the game when he started looking for more work.

Zane Kirchner is an overrated, player, his inclusion was supposedly for his “solidity” at the back, but with all due respect, he should go home. This is the only positional change I think that simply has no other option but to add Lambie to the starting XV.

Overall there are things to work on, there were promising signs of what is to come, sure it will be direct, it isn’t as if we are going to start playing tiddly winks with our backs and play “Australian” style of rugby. In fact I don’t want that, I never wanted that, as much as there is criticism of direct play, there is something to be said for direct play at pace, with physicality, speed , execution and variation.

The reality of the situation is in the past we would pick and drive, pick and drive , get slow ruck ball and have no idea how else to break the gain line, the second half yesterday proved, even a little variation done at pace and physicality gained from quick ruck ball and keeping ball in hand is as effective as prancing around like ballerina’s on hot coals.

There is still a lot of work left to do, there is still a lot of improvement necessary, but the one thing that stood out to me yesterday was that Meyer is prepared to play with ball in hand.

And that we haven’t done for a very, very long time.

Nice article Bilt,

80% lineout success rate is not what the boks are used to and that needs to improve.

The Boks defence was also less miserly than normal with 12 missed first up tackles and a success rate under 90%. Again not what the boks are used to even under pdv. 17 turnovers conceded is also not a great stat but at least control of the breakdown inproved.

I think your bring a bit harsh on Pieterson, he made more yards than habana, picked up an assist, made tackles in defence whilst Habana did nothing. Both he and habana got turned over twice though.

Englands big weakness in the scrum was exposed with a 43% success rate demonstrating SA superiority in the setpiece. Honestly I think the boks should have scored more but the English defence was pugnacious. Steyne missing kicks that he normally would have slotted should have put the game out of sight early and then I think English heads would have dropped and more tries would come. I have a feeling though that had wales played as they did yesterday against the boks the result would have been very bad for my boys. Thank god we were only playing Genia.

Good review Biltong.

Difficult to judge the breakdown contest as the ref just let anything go. Not sure next weeks ref will be so lenient there.

Scrum looked good once England brought on their non-international class subs, before that it was even bar the early engages.

Agree Habana and Alberts were a class above every one else. F Steyn looked impressive too.

Tycroes, I agree with you on Pietersen, I didn't mean to sound negative about him, he is in fact one of my favourite boks.

Our problem in the first half had a lot to do with players running away from their support, not looking to combine with a support runner and then getting turned over. and yes we should have scored more tries.

But there was a marked improvement in the second half as the players started to find their recievers.

Steyn kicked like a donkey yesterday but showed a bit more in general play, but you are right this game should have been won with more accurate goal kicking.

The english scrum stats are misleading though as they engaged early in their first three scrums, so their stats aren't evidence of their ability.

The missed tackles will improve, I think the players will get more organised in defence by next week and it should prove tougher for england.

yappysnap wrote:Good review Biltong.

Difficult to judge the breakdown contest as the ref just let anything go. Not sure next weeks ref will be so lenient there.

Scrum looked good once England brought on their non-international class subs, before that it was even bar the early engages.

Agree Habana and Alberts were a class above every one else. F Steyn looked impressive too.

A 43% success rate in the scrum? sorry I saw the England front row getting exposed badly yesterday.

Would a lot of that percentage come from the early engages and then the final 20's man shaming? The couple of scrums before that that weren't early seemed pressured but we dealt with it.

TycroesOsprey wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Good review Biltong.

Difficult to judge the breakdown contest as the ref just let anything go. Not sure next weeks ref will be so lenient there.

Scrum looked good once England brought on their non-international class subs, before that it was even bar the early engages.

Agree Habana and Alberts were a class above every one else. F Steyn looked impressive too.

A 43% success rate in the scrum? sorry I saw the England front row getting exposed badly yesterday.

Not really. There were a few free-kicks for engaging early, but except towards the end (with all the subs) England's front row did ok against a very strong SA unit.

biltongbek wrote:Tycroes, I agree with you on Pietersen, I didn't mean to sound negative about him, he is in fact one of my favourite boks.

Our problem in the first half had a lot to do with players running away from their support, not looking to combine with a support runner and then getting turned over. and yes we should have scored more tries.

But there was a marked improvement in the second half as the players started to find their recievers.

Steyn kicked like a donkey yesterday but showed a bit more in general play, but you are right this game should have been won with more accurate goal kicking.

The english scrum stats are misleading though as they engaged early in their first three scrums, so their stats aren't evidence of their ability.

The missed tackles will improve, I think the players will get more organised in defence by next week and it should prove tougher for england.

Definitely think the boks will improve and at altitude it could be messy for the Sais, However one thing you can say about the English is their bloody minded defence. Other than that I think they are caught between styles. At the moment the English havent got the pack to bully sides and havent got the creativity in the backs to play a running game. However with catt as backs coach they will improve as well. If it was at sea level I think the English would stand more of a chance.

Yeah, I think England are between a rock and a hard place with tuilagi.

how fast is he?

Possibly the best position for him would be at wing, he seems determined to run over players and has enough belief(or perhaps too much selfbelief), so he doesn't look like passing, as strong as he is, you know you must commit to him, you needn't worry about the support runner as he will take contact before even considering to offload.

That mkaes him an easier target than he should be, as there is no hesitation.

But without him in midfield England have no penetration his inclusion and moving farrell to ten i the 6 nations saw a marked improvement in their game. if hes going to be at 13 then England need a 12 who can create. but I have no idea who that is going to be. Maybe twelvetrees but I havent seen enough of him to judge fairly.

biltongbek wrote:Yeah, I think England are between a rock and a hard place with tuilagi.

how fast is he?

Possibly the best position for him would be at wing, he seems determined to run over players and has enough belief(or perhaps too much selfbelief), so he doesn't look like passing, as strong as he is, you know you must commit to him, you needn't worry about the support runner as he will take contact before even considering to offload.

That mkaes him an easier target than he should be, as there is no hesitation.

He's pretty fast. Not really top level speed but certainly quick for a centre. I think people are being harsh on his performance yesterday. England specifically looked to use him as a ball carrier and he did that very well. The problem yesterday was that we were beaten up a bit up front and lost the kicking game.

Shouldn't forget that it's not like Tuilagi can't pass - his highlights reel from the past two seasons shows that.

Hi,Biltong gentlemen take a deep breath and apply some logic,Boks got the win but it was a one score game.Forwards job is to secure ball for the backs,backs to use that ball.England in the 6Ns got a couple of wins they maybe should`nt have,missing key players[as are the Boks].With Farrell at 10 and Tuilagi England lack penetration .Tuilagi must learn to trust his wings,Farrell is better at 12 with some one like Flood directing traffic.Before going overboard with yesterdays results.ALL the teams want to sit down and look at the videos,2 matches were within one score[loosely].The AllBlacks lost shape when they cleared the bench,next week at Altitude the Boks may fill there boots.The Boks yesterday had a side with only a handful of caps forward and a bucket load behind it showed.It showed rewind to the RWC matvch versus Wales ,the first minute try
was beautiful to watch then it was all downhill.The Boks now have a balancedthree quarter line give Haban a a chance and the ball he will still score try`s.There are many ways to play Rugby not one or two,do the basics right,let the ball do the work and you will score tries.BUT put things in perspective this is NOT 2003,England do not have an dominant pack by the best standards.Measure your Scrum against France,Argentina or the AllBlacks they are the current benchmarks.Finally Ritchie McCaw was not satisfied with the AllBlacks yesterday.To many Penalties conceded.,Breakdown area needs work,to many tackles missed,an intercept try conceded SBW needs to work on his offloads etc.One match at a time for SH the 4Ns will be the acid test.

SA deserved their victory yesterday... physically they just wore ENG down.

The only issue is that they were left behind at the breakdown... by ENG (which is surprising as ENG don't tend to be regarded as famed breakdown world leaders).

May be rustiness creeping in... even though we have had 12 rounds of SR thus far.

If ENG had an attacking game plan, SA could have been in trouble. The scoreline probably flattered ENG a little but ENG would have been toe to toe if they learnt to attack with the ball.

Lambie offered so much more than Kirchner.... good at what he does but it sort of limits your options to one move.

I think SA will have too much for AUS in the pack this season but for NZ they badly need Schalk back.. Coetzee looked a bit off the pace. Its his first cap and all but I don't see him as a future starter now or in the next few years bar injuries.... I'd say Kolisi would be a far better prospect going forward.

Morne did far better than many expected... I think its going to be very difficult to prise that jersey away from him.

Srcum time was good for the boks... thought the ref was wrong to penalise from the go.... it sets the precedent for the entire match. Early engagement in the first couple is just over eagerness... just re-set to calm things down. May be a free kick technically but good refs control matches not set them towards a penalty-freekick every scrum... when 2 packs are both competitive.

SA were better in the set piece although not overtly dominant until ENG brought on subs who are simply not test class. Bring on Schalk though and this pack will be very very strong.

SA have a lot to be positive about.

Also looked as some stats today and its showing Spies to have made only 1 tackle in the entire match.... and missing 2. I watched the match in a bar so I didn't have the option to properly analyse the match with player detail and whilst I recall him doing god work in lineout (he is becoming a Juan Smith option) outside of this he was very very forgetful.

I recall debating about Spies the other week on his missed tackles which in SR is quite poor, ave. about 2 a match in SR.

I think if Kankowski can get some get time and Vermeulen gets back to fitness he will probably lose his spot.

With the ball he carried more than any other bok but made only 40 metres... about 3.5m per carry.. compared to 6m for Alberts.

A backrow of Alberts, Schalk & Vermeulen... now thats a backrow which would get the bokke hearts pumping

Didn't see the game bit from what I've heard SA dominated where it mattered and with much less prep time than England. Looks like the next two tests could be easier for the Boks.

Well done Biltong!

biltongbek wrote:Yeah, I think England are between a rock and a hard place with tuilagi.

how fast is he?

Possibly the best position for him would be at wing, he seems determined to run over players and has enough belief(or perhaps too much selfbelief), so he doesn't look like passing, as strong as he is, you know you must commit to him, you needn't worry about the support runner as he will take contact before even considering to offload.

That mkaes him an easier target than he should be, as there is no hesitation.

Tuilagi should be used as a strike runner in the centre and you cant deny he is pretty effective considering most of the ball he is receiving is a pop ball into a brick wall of players. His distribution needs to improve but you cant ask him to offload to players that aren't there. If you put this boy into space he will make yards, thats what England need to do more of.

Manu's Boxing Coach wrote:

biltongbek wrote:Yeah, I think England are between a rock and a hard place with tuilagi.

how fast is he?

Possibly the best position for him would be at wing, he seems determined to run over players and has enough belief(or perhaps too much selfbelief), so he doesn't look like passing, as strong as he is, you know you must commit to him, you needn't worry about the support runner as he will take contact before even considering to offload.

That mkaes him an easier target than he should be, as there is no hesitation.

Tuilagi should be used as a strike runner in the centre and you cant deny he is pretty effective considering most of the ball he is receiving is a pop ball into a brick wall of players. His distribution needs to improve but you cant ask him to offload to players that aren't there. If you put this boy into space he will make yards, thats what England need to do more of.

THANK YOU. Tuilagi did a pretty good job yesterday considering the ball he was getting.

I had a feeling Morne would have a shocker with the boot ,first when JDV wanted to go for the lineout at the end of the first half and there was no time and secondly when he took a lot of time to prepare for a straightforward sitter of a penalty. He's been off his kicking game a bit lately and i think it would be prudent to let Lambie kick for posts (should have happened anyway seeing as he's a shark in the shark tank. At leas his tactical kicking was spot on and he was pretty good directing the backline so 2 out of 3 for me.

As for Tuilagi, he's a big brute and he knocked JDv down a few times but he was never going to break the line by looking for contact.Everytime he bumped De villiers off, JDv held his leg till the calvary came . He's got pace he needs to go for the gap .Personally i think JDV won that particular battle seeing as he didnt try go through people when he could go around them (Ashton )

Yeah i thought Tuilagi was the only back actually trying to do stuff...and had to resort to powering it up as there was NO creativity at 10...and the Bok defence was in our face all day.

Ashton made one or two attempts to run....but again difficult when the whole outfit seem devoid of any attacking ideas.

Bullsbok

You're right on JDV there... he's a wise old dog and doesn't care if Tuilagi knocks him flying... he always held on and did his job for the team.

Tuilagi on the other hand failed to make the big inroads ENG needed to get going.

May be a different story against Conrad Smith though. ENG offered nothing in attack, it was quite easy to read... NZ will keep you guess and run at gaps, not men... could expose JDV a little.

fa0019 wrote:Bullsbok

You're right on JDV there... he's a wise old dog and doesn't care if Tuilagi knocks him flying... he always held on and did his job for the team.

Tuilagi on the other hand failed to make the big inroads ENG needed to get going.

May be a different story against Conrad Smith though. ENG offered nothing in attack, it was quite easy to read... NZ will keep you guess and run at gaps, not men... could expose JDV a little.

Its a good thing its a 3 test series so JDV can prepare for the likes of Conrad Smith. That one is entirely too smart for his own good. He;s not the fastest or the strongest or possess the best step but he's the smartest ! And eventually brain will always beat brawn .And Frans Steyn needs to get in his attacking rhythm too if we are to keep up in the Rugby Championship (that name is going to take a while to stick )

I still think Frans has been on the croissants again... get on the treadmill.

Anyhow JDV put in a real captains performance. Delighted for the guy... a real team man.

It certainly wasn't entertaining from the Boks but it was very effective. In the first half we could do nothing to defend against the kick chase and couldn't respond either, so you pinned us back in our 22.

I think you'll see a marked improvement from us if we pick Flood at 10 ahead of Farrell. Also, I hope we add Palmer and Haskell to the back for experience and bulk respectively.

Our bench needs a revamp too.

Killer_B_6 wrote:It certainly wasn't entertaining from the Boks but it was very effective.

You thought that wasn't entertaining?

Geez apart from being a bit tense right through the match, I enjoyed the match, in my view it was proper rugby, two equally matched foes, beating each other down, with the odd beautifully worked try.


But then that's me.

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Didn't see the game bit from what I've heard SA dominated where it mattered and with much less prep time than England. Looks like the next two tests could be easier for the Boks.

Well done Biltong!

thanks Tattie, did you see you are lying second, just behind RDW in the summer tour comp?

biltongbek

Entertaining??? Perhaps you didn't watch the match with a bunch of boere & everytime ENG got the ball you heard something along the lines of

"Morgan...Jou ma se ****"... and that was just the commentators.

Joking aside, I thought it was a good contest , perhaps not great for the neutral but very tense chess like match.

The best thing about it is that both teams will change tactics a little as they will have both learnt from the last test. Thats why series rugby is so great... its a war not a battle.

FA, I suppose the value of entertainment in rugby is different for each of us.

I enjoyed the All Blacks match for their pure poetry and balance between forwards and backs.

The OZ game was entertaining but somehow not gripping for me.

I like physical battles, it brings out the neanderthal in me, I enjoyed seeing us run 460 meters yesterday, sometimes I just don't get what the fuss is all about.

But then I am a Boer.

its worrying when a boer says something "brings out the neaderthal in them" that's for sure.

I too thought the game was very interesting , theres soemthing exciting about seeing a well placed bomb and the heat seeking missile that is habana speeding to crunch whoever catches it . I was staring gleefully everytime Brown was waiting for the ball because i knew he was going to get nailed by habana . Credit to him though he didnt drop them and he stood tall.

And my second favourite aspect of the game without a doubt is watching Willem Alberts come from a mile away to get a pop pass and bulldoze the first tackler

I loved his skill at picking up that ball without stopping and almost scoring, that was great skill.

biltongbek wrote:

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Didn't see the game bit from what I've heard SA dominated where it mattered and with much less prep time than England. Looks like the next two tests could be easier for the Boks.

Well done Biltong!

thanks Tattie, did you see you are lying second, just behind RDW in the summer tour comp?

yes mate....more luck than judgement

Certainly knew JDV was a must for this match biltong with Fourie gone and it showed. With Smith it wont be so much a one on one. The AB backline is more complex than that and as Ireland found one on one marking wasnt enough. Two were needed to handle sbw and that opened it up for dagg and co. to come through the gate, confusing the defence. Irish posters have themselves been blaming individuals in the 'who should have taken who' with some of the tries scored.

Whether the steyne, steyn, jdv lineup...all well known to the abs is good enough to hold them out is at best doubtful and Meyer must be thinking getting that combination working by 4N time is the way to go. Its a big call but he probably doesnt have a choice. It just seems that hes gone for safety that will work against most and 'hopefully' against the ab's.

Taylorman, when we look at the backline of last year, it was mostly unsettled with combination of De Villiers and Fourie as first choice, but you had Olivier, de Jongh coming in every now and then as well.

Now that Frans Steyn is back in SA, we have more creativity and options at 12 than we had for a long time.

If this midfield combination has a number of tests under the belt it will only improve.

true NZ has more facets to back line play than most and our backline needs to focus more and execute their defence at a top level against the All Blacks.

At this point in time the advantage lies with the all Blacks, but if PDV could get a 5-6 record against the all Blacks with an antiquated plan and absolutely no variation in play, I have confidence that Meyer will get more out of the players.

NZ as any other nation have over the past 4 years knew exactly what we would do and when we would do it. Australia was actually our biggest problem in the PDV era as their smarts got them out of some holes in the past.

NZ with all their skill and talent were still strangled by the Boks in the past 4 years, even though we were predictable, with a little more variation and better coached players, I expect things to change.

Not dramatically, but for the good.

Funny strangled doesnt come to mind when i think of all the tries we ran in. But in any case a steyn steyn jdv 10, 12, 13 lineup cant be called creative when two of the three simply arent and the other is a hot and coldie and largely individualustic in his aporoach. The three have been around for years.

Meyer may be able to get more out of them but creativity wont be one of them.

Tbe abs know the three well and once they start flinging the ball around theyll be smothered out. You dont turn frogs into princes at this level overnight. Sorry but thats how single dimensional two of the players are. Youve been saying it yourself for weeks.

Id say he'll get variation yes but as i predicted meyer will take tried and true into the england series and will get SA fans thinking the M steyn approach is the way to go...then bang. Back to square one at 4N time. I can see its already started. Suddenly all is ok again after one performance.

Meyer is waiting for Goosen.

Once he has Goosen, Hougaard will have matured by then, Frans will be his old self, and with 9, 10, and 12 all being playmakers with Lambie at 15, we will see some good rugby.

That poor kicking from Steyne was strange

Sure hope so. Goosens out the whole year isnt he? A bit too soon anyway. Just think SA will battle for a while yet and it will be interesting to see what lancaster pulls put of the bag this week. Its a setback he'll need to come back from quickly as both coaches make their mark. SA definitely have the upper hand but lancaster seems the type to adapt. Id expect something very different this week.

Meyer must won 75% of his tests, he has left:

At home:
England
England
OZ
NZ
ARG

away:
OZ
NZ
ARG
SCO
IRE
ENG

That's twelve tests, I don't care how he does it, but 8 more victories are required.

BiltongBok:

While I still get angry recalling how the last four years were wasted under PDiv (only an 80%+ win rate with that talent at disposal would've been acceptable), I am full of confidence and optimism regarding the next few years. In Meyer and Rassie, SA has some serious rugby IP.

The players coming through will be sensibly blooded into the team and maintaining a 75% win rate will not be a problem. Meyer does not believe in playing B / C teams as JW and PDiv did. It's all about the strongest 15 and winning matches.

All seems to be falling into place really nicely. SA will never play the same style as the AB's but nore does it need to.

Hi Max, yep I agree, there is the All Black style of play and then there is the SA style of play.

We will ALWAYS be direct, I do believe however we will see our players better coached, better prepared and in better condition.

I think with Meyer leaving ot players some would have expected to be there (Brussow) he made the statement that he isn't going to select players that he doesn't believe can do the job.

I was ery critical of him and rightly so before this match. My biggest conern was he will play too conservative, now ignoring the detractors, I was pleasantly surprised to see us attmepting to run from our 22 in the first five minutes.

As Meyer himself said, the forwards did not put enough effort into the first half, and after some harsh words at hlaf time, you could see they had a talking too.

I think we need to be positive, not overly yet, there has only been one test, but right now, I feel more confident than the last 4 years.

How good was it to see the bench being used properly and making an impact!

Not just a mindless clearing of the subs ala PDiv!

The start is good and i'm sure we'll see a consistent upwards curve in performance.

Well, we've dreamt of a spell with a proper coach since Nick mallet, White and Kitch christie, sadly to have decent coach for only 8 of the last 16 years is a travesty.

Let's hope Meyer can give us 4 years.

A few points from my view:

1) Alberts is going to be an animal for SA if they continue to play this way, the man thrives off of the big carries and big defences and with the Boks offering threats out wide and through the middle the opposition can no longer just target the big bok ball carrier with a gang tackle.

2) Manu loves the gaps more than the contact but the backs moves were so obvious that by the time he got the ball deep he had JDV right in front of him and Frans Steyn coming in from the side to sweep up once JDV was on his backside. JDV was happy to play speed bump (well probably not that happy) because he knew that the slow and deep English attack allowed his inside defence to drift across and cover easily as long as Manu didn't make a clean break. Flood at 10 will change that, we saw with the Joseph break that gave the field position for the English try that by taking the ball to the line with options either side it halts the Boks drift and makes it impossible for them to fly out the line and make the hit. If Manu gets onto a good line from a delayed Flood pass you'll see his speed.

3) Meyer was very clever, he gave the Boks an easy plan A, B and C. Kick chase, get field position with massive kicks and rapid chasers, Plan A. Plan B multiple big carry options off the shoulders of 9 and 10, to keep the English defence honest and stop it drifting wide or dropping the 8 back to cover 15. Plan C wide options, big carrier at 13 but ball playing wingers that had pace. Meant options were available once the ball got wide (I've commented elsewhere on the clever interchange of Habana and JDV). Simple rugby but it works for the Boks as it suits their players down to the ground.

biltongbek wrote:Meyer must won 75% of his tests, he has left:

At home:
England
England
OZ
NZ
ARG

away:
OZ
NZ
ARG
SCO
IRE
ENG

That's twelve tests, I don't care how he does it, but 8 more victories are required.

Thats a tough ask biltong. Winning two of the four against NZ and oz at home will help. 9 Possibly. The england nz and oz away tests look the toughest. England will be wanting blood in the AIs if they lose the series.

Yes, Taylorman, I would think we need to win the rest of our home matches, then a win should be possible in argentina, and then we need to win 2/3 in november.

Hopefully Meyer will send full squads(he did say every test is important) and we can finally put to bed the Irish and scottish losses we had had end of year tours.

formerly known as Sam wrote:A few points from my view:

1) Alberts is going to be an animal for SA if they continue to play this way, the man thrives off of the big carries and big defences and with the Boks offering threats out wide and through the middle the opposition can no longer just target the big bok ball carrier with a gang tackle.

2) Manu loves the gaps more than the contact but the backs moves were so obvious that by the time he got the ball deep he had JDV right in front of him and Frans Steyn coming in from the side to sweep up once JDV was on his backside. JDV was happy to play speed bump (well probably not that happy) because he knew that the slow and deep English attack allowed his inside defence to drift across and cover easily as long as Manu didn't make a clean break. Flood at 10 will change that, we saw with the Joseph break that gave the field position for the English try that by taking the ball to the line with options either side it halts the Boks drift and makes it impossible for them to fly out the line and make the hit. If Manu gets onto a good line from a delayed Flood pass you'll see his speed.

3) Meyer was very clever, he gave the Boks an easy plan A, B and C. Kick chase, get field position with massive kicks and rapid chasers, Plan A. Plan B multiple big carry options off the shoulders of 9 and 10, to keep the English defence honest and stop it drifting wide or dropping the 8 back to cover 15. Plan C wide options, big carrier at 13 but ball playing wingers that had pace. Meant options were available once the ball got wide (I've commented elsewhere on the clever interchange of Habana and JDV). Simple rugby but it works for the Boks as it suits their players down to the ground.

Agree sam, the success of this simple but effective options depends on two things, pace and execution. We do that and someone beats us because they are better, then so be it for now, as long as the focus and commitment remians, and Meyer continues to add value to that simple plan, I will look forward to the next 4 years.

Biltong
A great brutal, effective, performance from the Boks.
I think the scoreline does flatter England.
The 2nd half we were made to look very 2nd class.
So congrats to Bokke on some great rugby.
I hope England can learn and improve from this series.

Thanks mate, it is not good for england on theninjury front, hopefully they can recover and give guys like Jones a full game, he looked very good.