Rugby Update: Springboks lack in planning- Eddie Jones
Former Wallabies player Eddie Jones, who has also worked as Springboks assistant coach, believes that Springboks chief problem is that they don’t believe in their head coach Peter de Villiers’ game plan.
Springboks are on their most controversial tour of Northern Hampshire currently. Their first crisis came before the start of the tour when they had to take flight to Europe without many star players, who were injured.
Their 2nd trouble was even bigger, when their 2 players Chiliboy Ralepelle and Bjorn Basson were suspended from the international rugby due to a positive dope test and sent back to South Africa.
3rd problem appeared last Saturday, when they lost from a weaker team Scotland, who was at number 8 in International Rugby Board Ratings before that match but jumped to number 6 after the match. Springboks also moved to 1 position down after the
match and standing at number 3 position now.
Springboks are in front of massive amounts of criticism after the defeat. Many fans have no hope from them for the next year’s world cup. But coach De Villiers still believes that their team can win the next year’s world cup.
Eddie Jones said after losing five out of six matches of the Tri Nations and one defeat from Scotland, De Villiers is looking stubborn.
Jones said their coach has a different plan for them but they play with a different plan in the game. Many laws are changed and all the other teams have adopted them and playing according to new laws but Springboks is yet to decide how they want to play.
Jones, who has also worked with Springboks in 2007 world cup, said they need to find equilibrium in their kicking and they should have unambiguous views in their minds that how they want to use the ball in the match. He said, he doesn’t think that Boks themselves
have trust on their plan.
He further gave the example of New Zealand and said, "New Zealand has exposed the way the game can be played. At the start of the season they ran nearly everything, but through Dan Carter they have now added a new aspect to their game with their range
of different attacking kicks. Carter made more kicks than any 10 in the Tri-Nations, but it is a case of when, how and why they kick, rather than kicking for the sake of it."
Springboks are going to play against England on coming Saturday, England is the side who has very capable players, and they work really hard. It will be not an easy battle for Boks.
Jones said he knows that Springboks always loves to play against England and really want to win against them. A win against them will help to recover their confidence.
Even though Springboks performance is not up to the mark but Jones believes that they have huge potential and if they come up with proper planning and follow that planning in the match, then they can beat any team of the world.
Furthermore, Jones said if Springboks injured players recover soon then you can expect good performance from them in the world cup. Moreover, they need to develop a belief in the way they want to play.
Undoubtedly, Springboks is not a bad team but poor planning, few controversies caused them huge damage, and as soon as they fix their problems, they will be a better team.
Tags: