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Ken Borland



Springboks, showed, week, long time, rugby, lacked, sharpness, nous, previous, weekend, well-beaten, All Blacks, Ellis Park, keeping, wits, about them, first half 0

Posted on September 26, 2022 by Ken

All Blacks coach Ian Foster seemed to burn with righteous indignation when he criticised the New Zealand media for a “vicious onslaught” against him, following his team’s pressure-relieving 35-23 victory over the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday evening.

Foster was widely expected to be fired if the All Blacks had suffered a second successive loss to South Africa, which would have been their sixth defeat in seven outings. But his All Blacks team showed glimpses of past glories as they stretched the Springboks out wide with a rapid offload game, won the breakdown battle, stood up well in the set-pieces and defended as if their lives depended on it.

“The stress has been good for me, I guess, I’ve lost one kilogramme,” Foster wryly observed. “It comes with the job but it has been a pretty vicious onslaught, particularly from the New Zealand media.

“Calling them popgun selections I feel is quite insulting to players who are giving their all for their country. But these times are the best test of character.

“I’m intensely proud of that performance. I could not be more proud, to do that at altitude with the game swinging around – there were times we could have won and times we could have lost.

“It was 0-0 for a long time and you could feel it was a real arm-wrestle, but that’s what South Africa are like here. You have to bide your time and we wanted to target the second half and tired legs with the way we wanted to play,” he said.

For the prudish, a Springboks versus All Blacks Test at Ellis Park could be one of the more grosser experiences: the crowd is almost baying for blood, coarse language flows freely and within the first 10 minutes there was a fight in the main grandstand.

But Foster, feeling vindicated, relished the occasion as the All Blacks produced their staple response to the pressures of playing in Johannesburg, notching their fifth win in their last six games there.

“It’s a pretty special occasion and the All Blacks versus Springboks rivalry often generates moments like this. I would like to thank South Africa for their contribution to this amazing spectacle,” Foster said.

“We are very proud to hang on to the Freedom Cup, it is very important to us. The performance today was the result of the last two-and-a-half weeks, this team has reformed and reshaped a bit.

“I saw the same character last week as well, but we did not get the bounce of the ball and did not play well enough. Sometimes a dramatic change just comes from playing more together.

“Long-terms success often starts with adversity. I said last week was our best performance of the year because I saw some signs of competitiveness. This game needs patience, which some people don’t have,” Foster said.

All Blacks will be under pressure to quickly reverse poor results 0

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Ken

With the 2022 Rugby Championship now two weeks away we take a look at the form of the four teams involved, with today’s focus on the All Blacks.

What they did in July

All Blacks coach Ian Foster will be under immense pressure to very quickly reverse the poor results that saw New Zealand set all sorts of unwanted landmarks in going down 2-1 to Ireland. They were Ireland’s first ever wins in New Zealand, it was the first time they had suffered consecutive defeats at home since 1998, and they became only the third All Blacks team to lose a three-Test series at home.

Losing four of their last five Tests has seen New Zealand drop to fourth in the world rankings, their lowest ever place since the rankings began.

The All Blacks romped to a 42-19 win in the first Test at Fortress Eden Park, but the score was inflated by their ability to take their chances better than Ireland did, and 42% possession and 40% territory were warning signs.

A determined defensive effort by Ireland enabled them to win the second Test 23-12 in Dunedin, and the speed and intricacy of their attacking play, as well as monumental defence, saw them beat the All Blacks 32-22 in the decider in Wellington.

What they did in the Champs in 2021

The All Blacks showed no hint of their waning fortunes in the 2021 Rugby Championship, winning five out of their six matches to claim the title with a seven-point lead in the final standings over Australia.

New Zealand had already clinched the crown with a game to spare as they beat the Springboks 19-17 in Townsville, the 100th Test between the two great rivals.

The All Blacks’ only defeat came in the last game as the Springboks rebounded to beat them 31-29 with the last kick of the match, the following weekend.

The campaign started on a high for New Zealand as they hammered Australia 57-22 at Eden Park, retaining the Bledisloe Cup and notching the most points they have ever scored over the Wallabies.

Australia were stiffer opponents in the next match, going down 21-38 as the All Blacks’ discipline faltered with a red card. They were also disrupted by a couple of key injuries, but two intercept tries sealed the win.

New Zealand used a lot of fringe players in their two Tests against Argentina, but saw the Pumas off comfortably – 39-0 on the Gold Coast and 36-13 in Brisbane.

Fixtures

August 6: Mbombela, v South Africa

August 13: Johannesburg, v South Africa

August 27: Christchurch, v Argentina

September 3: Hamilton, v Argentina

September 15: Melbourne, v Australia

September 24: Auckland, v Australia

Foster gives Boks their due; Nienaber delighted 0

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Ken

All Blacks coach Ian Foster gave the Springboks their due after the world champions had edged out the new No.1 side in the rankings 31-29 in their thrilling Rugby Championship Test on the Gold Coast on Saturday, while South African coach Jacques Nienaber was delighted with the belief his side showed and the improvement in their play.

Like the previous match between the two powerhouses, it took a penalty at the death to decide an epic encounter, but Foster was fulsome in his praise of their conquerors.

“It was a massive arm-wrestle, South Africa were superb, they came with huge attitude, carried hard and moved us around. They had a very strong third quarter and got us a bit flustered, but I was very proud with how we got back,” Foster said.

“Then we just lost a bit of discipline in the last two minutes. We just weren’t as accurate as we needed to be at one ruck and we were beaten in that moment.

“We were up against a foe whose playing style we know can suffocate you, we showed we can deal with it, but we need to deal with it for longer periods.

“We got a bit muddled in the third quarter and in the last quarter we struggled to play with ball-in-hand in their half, but we hung tough. It was a tough old game and the Springboks probably played their best game today.”

Nienaber also pointed to the result being decided by a couple of decisive moments.

“The margins between one and three in the world are so small, last weekend against New Zealand and in the first Test against Australia we lost in the last plays of the game, but this weekend fortunately we got the opportunity to win.

“We’re not at our 2019 level yet, the balance in our game was a bit better today, but we’re not there yet,” Nienaber said.

“The players never doubted, they never lost focus although there was a lot of white noise and justified criticism after the second Test against Australia.

“They never veered off what we are trying to do. But the margins are so small, one misread and you can get punished, and this week we got the last call of the game. We try to take the emotion out of it and look at ourselves objectively.”

That being said, the Springboks did manage to sheal themselves out of their shells a bit on attack, their ball-in-hand skills being highlighted by a moment of handling magic by Lukhanyo Am that led to their first try and will be celebrated everywhere in South Africa from a hut on an Eastern Cape hillside to a luxury North Coast beach house.

Replacement flyhalf Elton Jantjies produced a top-class display of how to finish a game, a lovely pass helping wing Makazole Mapimpi score, followed by a fine drop goal to go with a couple of penalties.

“We had opportunities like this against Australia and last week, closing the game and getting the result, we’ve been in that position.

“The coach encourages us to take opportunities if we see them and we just tried to stay aligned in the last five minutes when a lot happened. We showed our belief and executed our plan,” Jantjies said.

All Blacks expect Boks to play with more width 0

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Ken

 

New Zealand are expecting South Africa to play with more width than in their previous meeting when they clash in a Rugby Championship Test in Soweto on Saturday, assistant coach Ian Foster said on Tuesday.

The All Blacks scraped past the Springboks 21-11 in Dunedin on September 15 with the visitors missing 20 points at goal.

But the South Africans bounced back to form with a morale-boosting 31-8 win over Australia in Pretoria last weekend, scoring five tries.

“They seem to have the intent to play with more width than they did against us in Dunedin and they may chuck a few different things at us on Saturday. We’ll need to assess where the threats are and make the adjustments.

“If you want to play expansive rugby, then there is the risk of errors and we’ve been through that process. It’s not something that comes naturally,” Foster told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

But the All Blacks are also expecting the Springboks to still bombard them with high kicks on the highveld.

“We still expect high balls and a tough physical battle through the forwards. Some things don’t change,” Foster said.

“We pride ourselves under the high ball, but the Springboks have put us under pressure with it in the past and they punish you if you drop it. Plus it goes a lot higher at altitude! We’ll have to work together as a unit at the back,” fullback Israel Dagg added.

The All Blacks also won in fine style at the weekend, beating Argentina 54-15 in La Plata to clinch the Rugby Championship title, and the world champions said the small details that had been lacking in the campaign thus far seemed to have clicked against the Pumas.

“We were pretty satisfied but the margins are still very small.

The pack definitely stepped up in Argentina and it was great to see the plans finally come together,” hooker Keven Mealamu said.

 

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