Ken Borland

Coach Jacques Nienaber said on Tuesday that the Springboks need to return to their “soul”, and one of their usual strengths they have sorely missed over the last fortnight has been physical dominance on the gainline.

The South African team is known for massive ball-carries and bone-crunching defence, both of which were strangely absent from their defeats against Australia.

So when the decision was made to give hardworking utility forward Franco Mostert a break and play him off the bench in Saturday’s Test against the All Blacks, it was surprising that the Springboks did not take the opportunity to play a big ball-carrier at blindside flank (such as one of the Du Preez twins), instead opting for the pace and Sevens skills of Kwagga Smith.

Nienaber explained on Tuesday that this particular selection was a balancing act.

“If you want to get a result against New Zealand then you have to test them in various areas. Physicality is obviously one area we enjoy, but you can’t only bring physicality, you need to test them in more than one department. You have to look at the balance of your pack and weigh up ball-carriers against players who can cover width and scramble for you.

“We have a lot of strong ball-carriers in the pack and Kwagga can carry in a different way with his evasion skills and timing of his carries, he brings those Sevens skills. You don’t want to have too many of the one kind of player. Franco has been a real stalwart for us this season, playing 80 minutes after 80 minutes, and moving him to the bench is purely to give him a bit of a break,” Nienaber said.

The Springbok backline has also missed some cutting thrust, some penetration, and Nienaber has looked to boost that department by returning to a 5-3 bench, with Elton Jantjies and Francois Steyn recalled to the matchday squad.

While the Springboks tried to go wide more often last weekend, they were not direct enough to create space for their wings and Jantjies is adept at playing flat and getting his backline away, while Steyn can hopefully make big metres across the gainline.

“What Australia did really was beat us with our own game, they changed completely from how they had played in the games against France and New Zealand. We probably got caught up in that a little and played twice the amount of rugby that they did. We probably pushed things a bit, but we need to play when it’s on, when the opportunity is there. We forced a few carries.

“The pressure from ourselves as a team is probably more than what the public put on us. We are all – coaches, management and players – in it together and we have been open and honest with each other, we can talk straight up with each other. We take the criticism, it is tough to swallow, but I would worry if there was no criticism – it shows that people feel something for the team,” Nienaber said.

Springbok team: Willie le Roux, Sbu Nkosi, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Duane Vermeulen, Kwagga Smith, Siya Kolisi (captain), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Trevor Nyakane. Bench – Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Marco van Staden, Herschel Jantjies, Elton Jantjies, Francois Steyn.

Coach Jacques Nienaber said it was the worst Springbok performance in three years as they succumbed to a 30-17 defeat at the hands of the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday, which would seem to be a fair call based on how thoroughly dismal South Africa were in so many departments.

It started at the breakdowns, where the Springboks conceded a dozen turnovers on attack, the defence was astonishingly ineffective as South Africa missed 20 of their 88 tackles, and they were too lateral with ball-in-hand and poor in the basic skills of handling and passing.

“I was disappointed with every department of our play today, we were beaten hands down. We have to figure out quickly why because I can’t put my finger on a reason at the moment and we have a massive challenge coming up next weekend against the All Blacks. We get tested differently by our Sanzaar partners and it has been a big eye-opener for us.

“It definitely wasn’t just our worst performance this year but our worst since 2018 when we lost to Argentina in Mendoza. We weren’t great at everything. The defence was not up to standard, it’s the first time we’ve conceded four tries since against New Zealand in 2018. We did have a bit of attacking opportunity, but there were lots of errors, too many with ball-in-hand,” Nienaber said after the match.

Skipper Siya Kolisi said he was shocked by how poorly his team had played, describing their preparation as being good.

“We’ve been training very well but then every single guy made mistakes today. You make a mistake at one maul and then it carries through to the next maul. We were losing things which we are normally good at, like physicality. Oh we need to look at ourselves alright and pull tighter together. We were well-prepared for this game but we just couldn’t enforce what we had planned.

“Especially at the breakdowns, we spoke about it on the field but just did not deliver. Losing breakdowns, especially the wide ones, was one of the big things we chatted about at halftime, but then it happened again in the second half. As players we have to take the responsibility for that. I wouldn’t go as far as to say our plan is not working, it’s just we did not implement it properly and we missed 20 tackles,” Kolisi said.

The Sharks, having been humbled in the Currie Cup final by the Bulls, will now head to Europe with a clean slate and looking forward to butting heads against some different opposition, coach Sean Everitt said after their 44-10 defeat at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.
The Sharks and the Bulls have consistently been the best sides in South Africa over the last two years, but the Sharks have not managed to claim any silverware, losing two Currie Cup finals at Loftus Versfeld in nine months and finishing second in the Rainbow Cup.
“We’re looking forward to Europe now, there will be a new energy and fresh competition, plus the Sharks are a team that normally travels well. But we will be looking for a massive improvement on this performance.
“We have quite a few youngsters in our team so every game is a learning experience, an opportunity for them to get better. Our first game is against Munster and we will stay in Ireland in quarantine for a minimum of 10 days, but we will be able to train in that time so it’s no problem,” Everitt said.
While Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for an “almost perfect” display in the final, Everitt tended towards the opposite side of the spectrum.
“In all areas of our game we were not up to scratch. It was down to individual errors, our fundamentals let us down. We had opportunities in the first half but we just couldn’t nail them down, while the Bulls had four shots at us and scored three tries thanks to poor defence.
“I always thought that the team that won the first 30 minutes would have the best chance of winning the trophy, that was an important part of the game. But conceding soft tries, all three of them from lineouts, was really disappointing and not the start we wanted. The decision-making on defence was just wrong,” Everitt said.

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said he will be looking at the replay of their first Rugby Championship Test against Australia again just to check whether they should have been given more reward in the last couple of scrums and whether their chasers were obstructed in getting to the aerial ball, but he was clear that the Wallabies deserved to win and his team lost 26-28 because of their own ill-discipline.

South Africa were leading 26-25 in the final minutes when they dominated successive scrums, but referee Luke Pearce only ordered resets. Then, after the final hooter, the Wallabies wheeled a scrum to isolate the eighthman and won a turnover penalty, which Quade Cooper slotted from long-range, on the angle, to snatch victory at the death.

It was Cooper’s seventh penalty and he also converted Australia’s try in a faultless kicking display in his first Test in four years. But it was those seven penalties conceded which cost the Springboks, according to Nienaber.

“Conceding 23 points off the tee, that sums it up, our discipline was poor. We scored three tries to one, but we gave them 23 points and that’s the reason we lost. We did brilliantly to get back in the game in the second half, but then we lost in the 82^nd minute, again because of discipline, we conceded a penalty. Australia played well and they deserved to win.

“In our third-last scrum I thought we had good dominance, but obviously the referee saw a different picture that didn’t show clear dominance. We need to make sure our pictures are aligned with the referee’s and we knew that it would be a struggle to get our wings into the aerial contest, but it’s tough to say now if there were any line-changes, I can’t say with absolute conviction,” Nienaber said.

The Springbok coach clearly did not want to make excuses and he also did not want to use the fact that his team have recently been released from their Covid bubble and returned to normal life on the largest island in the world, and were playing in front of a crowd for the first time since the World Cup, to justify an unfocused performance.

“We weren’t great today, we were just a bit off our game, especially discipline. It was not a polished performance, so we need to fix those things we got wrong. Conceding anything beyond 10 penalties in a game makes it a real grind to win and we must be smarter than giving away stupid penalties. Our scrums were fairly solid but there were two scrums which Australia got points off at crucial times –just before halftime and then the last kick.

“But it was lovely to play in front of a crowd again, it’s what the players wanted. In the first 20 minutes we were quite dominant, we had control of the game but then we lost it. We created opportunities, we scored three tries and Sbu Nkosi and Lukhanyo Am were both over the line. But Australia are a quality side and this is a tough place to win,” Nienaber said.