Ken Borland

A neck-and-neck contest such as the 100^th Test between the Springboks and the All Blacks last weekend invariably comes down to decision-making and South Africa forwards coach Deon Davids on Monday admitted that they could have made better choices in the last 10 minutes of the epic encounter in Townsville.

The Springboks were leading 17-16 and their brilliant pressure game continued to produce opportunities for them to close out the game. But unfortunately, front-foot ball, when the momentum was with them, was kicked away too often and the All Blacks were able to counter-attack and earn the penalty which fullback Jodie Barrett slotted to give them a thrilling 19-17 victory.

“We’ve looked in-depth at our game-management in the last 10 minutes. You must remember the players were under tremendous pressure, there was a lot of pressure towards the end and great intensity.

“But we will be the first to say we could maybe have made better decisions at some stages. But things happen and there are different reasons for why things go wrong.

“Sometimes it had to do with communication. A player has to decide what to do in a split-second based on what is in front of him.

“But we will need to learn from it and, based on the quality of players we have, I am sure we will be better this weekend against the All Blacks. We try to paint scenarios based on what we expect and past experience, and the challenge is then for the players to make better decisions,” Davids said.

The 53-year-old former Southern Kings head coach is also a backer of having good mobility in the loose trio when playing New Zealand. Kwagga Smith’s outstanding performance certainly justified his selection in the starting XV, while Siya Kolisi led from the front in a wonderfully defiant performance that suggests the Springboks management will stay with the same balance amongst the loose forwards.

They have a potential problem on the bench though because replacement flank Marco van Staden, who made a real impact when he came on in Townsville, has suffered a shoulder injury. He did not train on Monday and must be considered doubtful for Saturday. Jasper Wiese is the obvious replacement, but is a tighter loose forward than the pacy Van Staden.

“The players bring different strengths and we know Kwagga’s fast over the field, he’s an explosive runner and he has a very high work-rate. Against New Zealand you need players than can give you that.

“Duane Vermeulen and Siya are both ball-carriers, lineout options and they play well in the wide channels. So it’s a combination that can deal well with our plan and what the opposition will bring.

“In terms of selection, we lost the game in the last minute but it’s a different situation if you win. We will be asking questions over what is necessary to get a good result on Saturday and in terms of what we are building towards.

“We are excited to get another chance to put it right and we are proud of the players because they implemented the plan very well, but we lost a nailbiting match,” Davids said.

Decision-making is normally brilliant in the offices of SuperSport Park but out on the field at Kingsmead on Friday the Titans made a number of wrong decisions that saw them lose their crucial T20 Challenge match against the Dolphins by seven runs and be eliminated from the playoffs.

Their mistakes started in selection as ace spinner Simon Harmer was left out of the side for seam-bowling all-rounder Grant Thomson. It left the Titans with just one specialist spinner, while the Dolphins’ pairing of Prenelan Subrayen and Keshav Maharaj thoroughly dominated the first half of the Titans innings, conceding just 35 runs in their first seven overs combined.

Thomson did not bowl and batted number seven, and although he hit the first ball of the final over for six, he had little impact on the game. Off-spinner Harmer, who has an economy rate of just 5.13 in his 83 T20 games, may well have been able to deal with left-hander David Miller, who was the key batsman in the Dolphins innings, his 49 not out off 35 balls lifting them to 151 for six.

Sending all-rounder Dayyaan Galiem in at number three did pay off for the Titans as he scored a plucky, unselfish 45 off 39 balls to lift a flagging run-rate that saw only 26 runs scored in the powerplay of six overs.

But when Dean Elgar was dismissed by the impressive Kerwin Mungroo (4-0-29-2), the Titans needed 101 from 60 balls but sent in Sibonelo Makhanya instead of Heinrich Klaasen and Chris Morris, who have shown their finishing ability at international level.

By the time Makhanya was also dismissed by Mungroo, for 15 off 13 balls, the Titans needed 55 from 26 deliveries, the required run-rate having increased to 13.09.

Morris came in next but failed, before Klaasen gave the Titans hope with a courageous 29 not out off 14 balls.

But with 14 runs needed off three balls, the Titans were thrown a lifeline as Ottneil Baartman bowled a head-high delivery way down leg which was called no-ball and went for four byes.

That left the Titans needing nine off three balls, but Klaasen could only hammer the free hit straight to Miller at extra cover. Inexplicably he took the single, leaving tailender Lizaad Williams to score eight off the last two balls.

Williams failed to score as Baartman found the blockhole with the last two deliveries.

The Dolphins had won the toss and batted, and went on the attack from the outset as Sarel Erwee (33 from 20) led them to 62 for one after seven overs.

The Titans attack fought back well, Lungi Ngidi leading the way with an outstanding three for 20, but their batting has not been at its best in this tournament and their demise sees the Warriors play the Imperial Lions in Saturday’s playoff, which will decide who plays the Dolphins in Sunday’s final.

Sharks CEO John Smit said at the weekend that while he could not publically share his views on the abysmal officiating in the match against the Waratahs in Sydney, he hoped Sanzar would take action following some of the most one-sided decision-making ever seen in SuperRugby.

“I’m sure Sanzar leadership is strong enough 2 do something before we need 2 enquire ,I hope!”, Smit said on social media after being asked if the Sharks would make an official complaint after referee Paul Hoffman, TMO George Ayoub and the assistant referees blew the visitors off the park in a 33-18 defeat.

While coach Gary Gold described the outcome as “a cruel result”, he was restraint personified after a match in which even New South Wales legend Phil Kearns said the Sharks had been “stiffed”. The post-game press conference was dominated by Australian journalists asking how the visitors felt about the refereeing.

“It seemed that some calls didn’t go our way, but that’s the way it goes, I’m afraid. A desperate Waratahs side played well and asked questions of us, but I felt that we answered them. S’Bura Sithole was a bit unlucky not to get his try,” Gold said.

Although Hoffman blew the Sharks out of the water with all the efficiency of an Uzi machine gun, Gold said he was not bothered by the referee being an Australian.

“I don’t mind where the referee comes from, every coach just wants a competent referee. I like to believe there is too much at stake for them not to be impartial, for them it’s about going to the World Cup, so it shouldn’t matter where they come from,” Gold said.

The director of rugby said he had sympathy for Sanzar referee head Lyndon Bray, who was bearing a heavy burden in trying to improve the standard of officiating.

“I know Lyndon is working unbelievably hard to improve the refereeing and it’s a huge responsibility. I have a lot of faith in him, but it’s a difficult vision and the game needs us to give him all the support we can.”

The controversial defeat merely exacerbated a horror year for the Sharks, their ninth defeat in 13 games leaving them 11^th on the log.

Gold said they had to ensure they did not unravel like a cheap hem in their remaining three games.

“We need to show our supporters how much it means to us. We’re in a bad place on the log, but we need to take the punches and man up and we will be better for it. Some second or third-choice players are getting an unbelievable opportunity to play in SuperRugby – guys like Stefan Ungerer, Lionel Cronje, Etienne Oosthuizen, Andre Esterhuizen, S’bura Sithole and Stephan Lewies – and they’ll be better for it,” Gold said.

Legendary Springbok flyhalf Naas Botha says he is concerned that he is not seeing Handre Pollard empowered with more decision-making responsibility in the Springbok team ahead of the World Cup.

While Botha said he was encouraged by the style of play produced by the Springboks in the last two weeks against Australia and New Zealand, both games were ultimately lost and he said better decision-making would have avoided the final-quarter fade-outs.

At the start of the final quarter against the All Blacks, South Africa laid siege to the try-line against 14 men and yet couldn’t score, with Damian de Allende, who had spent the whole match bumping tacklers off, standing unused in the backline.

“We saw that we have enough talent last weekend, but we couldn’t get over the final hurdle in the last two games. The performance against the All Blacks was totally different to what we’ve seen over the last few years, but it should have happened two years ago. Under pressure, we just need to calm down, especially in the last 10 minutes.

“But I feel strongly that the flyhalf should be empowered more. In that crucial period when we just couldn’t cross their tryline, he should make the call to change the game plan because just going to the forwards wasn’t working. But too often the ball is not going to a decision-maker, in that zone you just need to relax and allow someone to take the lead and 99% of the time that should be the flyhalf,” Botha said on Wednesday at the launch of Creative Rugby, a book he has collaborated on with Dr Kobus Neethling, an expert in the field of creative behaviour.

“Handre is a fantastic player, the Bulls’ season hurt him in terms of his confidence, but we saw last weekend that he’s getting that back, his play was good. We’re fortunate to have him, but I’d like to see him take more control. Instead of the scrumhalves kicking up-and-unders from our 22, the ball should go to him to kick long because you don’t want to play in your own half,” Botha added.

The undisputed king of flyhalf play in the 1980s said if South African rugby in general could start thinking creatively rather than going “overboard on game plans”, then the Springboks would once again be world-beaters.

“The All Blacks scored a creative try to win the Test, that 74^th-minute lineout has to be called creative, and the first thing we do is question the legality with Law such-and-such. All international players are equally strong and fast these days, what makes you better then is what you have between the ears. Our players just need to play what is in front of them more.

“We need to think differently. In South Africa, if a team wins they say it’s because they stuck to the game plan, then if they lose it’s because they didn’t stick to the game plan. But great players become bad players because of game plans. You can’t just rock up without a plan, but that should just be a guide, we tend to go overboard on game plans.

“Five years later we’re still doing what worked before, we’re stuck while everybody else has moved on. We have to start thinking differently and think outside the box,” Botha said.