What's wrong with the Springboks?

Question

Under Peter deVilliers' coaching they've won 3 easy tests (Wales and Italy) and lost 3 hard ones (NZ and Aus).

Their win against NZ was lucky - against the run of play and due only to the brilliant opportunism of the valiant Ricky Januarie. As a team they deserved to lose that one.

To me it seems they need better coaching, esp at forward - not in the lineout, but the loose scrums. THEY DO NOT GET ENOUGH BALL FROM THE LOOSE !!!!

Answer 1

I think their coach is too much of an excuse maker.

Answer 2

Fair enough criticism and I agree that it was a lucky win in dunedin although the blacks were lucky not to be down by 7-12 at half time.I think the boks will win the tri-nations this year. They have never been a good team on the road but grow like a foot taller at home and with an away win under their belt good luck to the team that has to beat them at home. I don't know too much about the springboks coach except hes a dead ringer for apollo creed off the rocky movies

Answer 3

What are you talking about? Our scrum and play at the breakdowns  has improved tenfold! And we havent lost 3 hard ones, we lost 2 hard ones- AWAY. If you cast your mind back the Springboks NEVER win away, ever. We won the 06 tri nations without winning a single away game. So for us to beat NZ at home (havent done that in ten yrs) was massive. I completley disagree we didn't deserve it, the ABs played terribly and we played much better. We dominated in scrums, lineouts, and our defense was solid. We arn't a team that plays show pony rugby- we always win with solid defense and breakaway trys. Thats just the way we play. I think de Villiers is doing a great job so far. Pity there is so much focus on his colour and not his ability.  Sucks we lost to the Aussies but we were obviously tired and we pretty much pulled our whole team off the field with 15 mins 2 go (that was weird...). I don't think one loss 2 the aussies away means much at all.

I agree with the person who said Steyn needs coaching, hes my fav player but he makes some odd decisions. The thing is, I think its over-confidence as opposed to a lack of it.

Answer 4

I think the stats paint a different picture, the bokke get more than their share of ball at the breakdown.

Januarie was cleverly nullified by Australia last night - was always going to be after last weekends performance - and the Bokke just didn't get enough fast quality ball to carry over the gain line. When they did get quality ball they didn't finish well  . . . or  kicked it away.

Their back line defence sets were shocking, at times there were huge holes - I know of a few fellas wearing black jumpers that would have been loving the gaps. And I doubt the Aussie midfield will miss the chance next time round.

Steyn is a brilliant talent - but needs to be coached, he does some odd things and his decision making isn't confident or decisive at key moments.

I think Mr Smit's leadership will make a big difference as will the home ground advantage. Still anyones championship, but the Bokke really looked vunerable last night, I can't really say the Aussies played brilliantly - they did enough to win, but they.passed up opportunities to put alot more points on the board.

This guy d**k Muir seems the business, attacking sets are unreal, but he has big issues with his rush defence and coaching Steyn to play with the other 14 guys wearing green.

Answer 5

ok i'm a springbok supporter, and first of all i knw its an age old excuse but the refs interpretations of the break-down were very strange, i thought on a number of occasions the ball was been spoiled by the wallabies, however having said that.....

the springboks are such a quota, race, controlled unit.... SARB (south african rugby board) is a joke and if south africa wanted to win, they would play their best coaches etc... however we instead choose coaches because of their colour etc... jake white wins a world cup and we fire him?! hahaha its a joke!

look at the springboks of 1998. there we had the best possible coach in SA at the time, free to choose the team he wanted... thats y we won the tri-nations in 1998

after 2003 rwc we played so badly that SARB were desperate so they went back to the old tactics of getting the best coach to select the team he wanted and we won the tri-nations 2004

in conclusion its political issues and people who are more concerned about filling their own pockets, than filling the wishes of the people...

Answer 6

They're too one dimensional sometimes..

Answer 7

You can't discredit the performance in winning in New Zealand, that is some going.

Agreed Italy was an easy test and you played against a second string Wales team in 2 tests.

The tri-nations is three very evenly matched teams so don't be surprised when everyone is beating everyone else.

Answer 8

u r right i dont support e4m but correct

Answer 9

You might start by asking how it is that opportunities for those from the ethnic majority in South Africa seem to have as little chance of realising their potential as they did before apartheid was "abolished"! The privaleged minority still rule.

Answer 10

I saw bits of that match. I didn't see all of it but it was clear to me that a lot of there backs didn't wake up enough to keep there form. The scrums from the first row was bad most of the time too. So I think they just need a bit of discipline.

Answer 11

Not playing a settled side. Why was the team of a few weeks ago changed so radically for no reason?

Answer 12

Too much hype.

Answer 13

Well they were battered and bruised from two  weeks with the All Blacks. There is a lot of politics in South Africa though ensuring that everything is equal. I'm not questioning deVilliers coaching ability but I do think he wasn't the best coach available at the time.

Answer 14

there c**p....thats whats wrong...............

Answer 15

Thier kickers need to put it longer

Answer 16

i wonder what games you were watching.

i wont talk about the wales and italy games. those were always going to be guaranteed wins. those games are where you experiment with different combinations of players. experiment with strategy. try out new things. try players in different positions and so on.

the first test against the all blacks was a good index of our performance. the great thing about the all blacks is they always attack. on offense, on defense. they are attacking. that means if you make a single mistake they will capitalise on it and quick.  we were a little lackluster, but the blacks showed is that we need to be perfect.

2nd game. look at the statistics. especially look at the number of tackles the boks made vs how many the blacks made.  they had the ball pretty much all the time. we were fortunate to get it a few times and were able to make use of it when we did. but we played amazing defense. epic defense to eke out that win. when you take risks, as the all blacks do on offense and defense with thier attacking strategy, you open yourself to counter attacks which can hurt you. as we did.

in the 3rd test. against australia.

we just didnt play as well as we did against the all blacks in both previous tests. its almost as though we thought we would be playing wales or italy again. but australia has become a more potent attacking team under deans. you cant underestimate them. they dont play the physical game that new zealand play, but they play a finesse game, so you still cant make mistakes.

i think the reality is after the herculian effort against the blacks the previous two weeks we were due for a loss. we expended too much. and in winning against new zealand AT NEW ZEALAND is so much bigger than losing the first one against australia.  three big games in a row?

i dont think the coaching is at fault. its mental fatigue. and i dont think the victory against the blacks was a lucky run by ricky january. we have had pretty much  always had great opportunistic scrum halves. thats one of our strengths. but the victory belongs to the whole team who all worked hard to achieve that goal.

when you play against wallabies or all blacks you dont automatically get ball from the loose. they dont make many mistakes.

Answer 17

A Wales C Side took them all the way for 70 minutes.

Answer 18

yer ha ,the springboxes are the prob the only reason they won the world cup is because they played againts the 3rd countrys of rugby