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.

The harsher critics of the Springboks are having a field day saying their reign at the top of the rugby world is going to the dogs, but assistant coach Deon Davids said on Monday that the team need to take the emotion out of their review of the back-to-back defeats against Australia as they prepare to face the mighty All Blacks this weekend.

The Springbok game-plan has been the object of much derision from their rivals who could not prevent them winning the World Cup, as well as seeing off the British and Irish Lions. But a strangely flat performance against the Wallabies last weekend, leading to a 30-17 defeat, has raised questions about how keen the Springboks are to keep chasing and tackling themselves into oblivion.

“We will be the first to say our performance has not been up to standard in the last two games and we need to look at the reasons for that. But it’s important to look objectively at our performance, we want to take the emotion out of it as quickly as possible. We need to look at how the plan was executed, did we stay in the task and then move on to the next challenge?

“We can’t dwell on things that are in the past, we have to focus on what we need to improve and what we need to do. And then prepare effectively to make sure we perform the way we need to. Obviously when you lose two consecutive games, it’s natural to get emotional and you can look for reasons that are not actually the case. We need to go back to our strengths,” Davids said on Monday.

The Springboks’ very specific game-plan needs multiple facets of their play to be working like clockwork and Davids is confident they can regain the required cohesion and fervour against the All Blacks for the 100^th Test between the two great rivals, in Townsville on Saturday.

“We understand what we want to achieve, what we want to do with the ball where and when. Against New Zealand, we’ve got to be good in all areas, especially technically. But this group of players has been in this position before, they lost the first Test against the Lions and their first game at the World Cup, but they were able to pick themselves up because there’s a lot of experience in the team.

“I’m confident we will be back at the standard we are used to, even though there are physical and mental challenges due to the circumstances caused by Covid, which will have some sort of effect. But we had an idea of the challenges before we started this campaign and we prepared to adapt to circumstances. There is nothing standing in the way of us giving our best in these next two weeks,” Davids said.

Impressive as the Springboks’ 32-12 win over Argentina was, forwards coach Deon Davids said on Monday that it was far from a 10/10 performance and they will be striving for more consistent excellence this weekend against the same opposition and in the same Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

Although there are unlikely to be wholesale changes to the team, tinkering in the interests of keeping some players fresh and others involved could see as many as 10 players wearing a different number on their backs on Saturday.

And one of the significant changes could come in the No.10 jersey. Elton Jantjies’ tendency to mix some skilful moments with basic errors could see him come off the bench on Saturday, with Morne Steyn starting at flyhalf. Damian Willemse also had a mixed day at fullback and there will certainly be plenty of people excited about the prospect of Aphelele Fassi returning to his regular position.

Captain Siya Kolisi played against Argentina despite having gastric flu and, given his all-out effort during the British and Irish Lions series, there is certainly an argument to be made for him to be rested ahead of the huge challenges in Australasia.

Davids said on Monday though that Duane Vermeulen is still two-to-three weeks away from playing, so who would take over the captaincy is an issue. Eben Etzebeth has captained the Springboks before, although ideally he would be resting as well were it not for the injuries to Rynhardt Elstadt, Jean-Luc du Preez, RG Snyman and Pieter-Steph du Toit.

Kwagga Smith can easily play openside flank and Dan du Preez could come in on the blindside, but an injury to Marco van Staden could force the Springboks back into a 5-3 bench.

Davids also confirmed that scrumhalves Herschel Jantjies and Faf de Klerk are also still unavailable for this weekend.

“We want a more consistent performance. The players generally made the right decisions, but the execution was not always where we want it to be. But they found solutions as the game went on, especially in the scrums and lineout. We want to ensure we grow and get better in our execution, make sure that flows into Saturday’s game.

“We are very happy with the guys that stepped in against a quality side. It was obviously a big step up the youngsters had to make and we were glad with the way they reacted. In selection, we will look at performance, but also the freshness of the players and we want to build depth and experience into the group. Those considerations all have to be balanced,” Davids said.

Judging by last weekend’s performance, the depth in Springbok rugby is okay.

“There were some big moments that the players handled well. That was testament to the base of talent that we have, how the guys assist each other and the leadership of the senior players and how the youngsters react to that. It speaks to a whole team effort and it was a good learning experience against a very competitive team. We now have a base to move from,” Davids said.

Possible Springbok team: Aphelele Fassi, Sbu Nkosi, Jesse Kriel, Francois Steyn, Rosko Specman, Morne Steyn, Cobus Reinach, Jasper Wiese, Dan du Preez, Kwagga Smith, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Wilco Louw, Malcolm Marx, Ox Nche. Bench – Trevor Nyakane, Joseph Dweba, Vincent Koch, Marvin Orie, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Jaden Hendrikse, Elton Jantjies, Damian Willemse.

On the night of the first Test against the British and Irish Lions, there was already an acknowledgement from the Springboks that the tourists’ brilliant kicking game had been the key factor in their 17-22 defeat, but on Monday the lack of dominance up front in the second half by the pack, which teed up the Lions kickers, was addressed by forwards coach Deon Davids.

“You’ve got to have a solid base in the lineouts and scrums, your forwards need to put you on the front foot, in order for you to play to your plan. If one thing goes wrong, that will influence the kick, it has a ripple effect. It’s so important that your set-pieces give you a solid base and the Lions were streetwise in what they did, we will have to handle that better.

“It’s one thing to win the ball in the lineout, but it’s also important to have quality possession and be able to set the platform to kick. Not all our roles were totally fulfilled and there was not always proper support after we had won the ball. We let ourselves down in the second half and some individual standards need to be raised, although everyone definitely tried very hard,” Davids said on Monday.

Apart from the obvious slackening off in intensity in the second half, which is partly a conditioning issue that might not be able to be fixed in one week, Davids acknowledged that the Lions had also played much smarter rugby than the Springboks. Not giving the home team many lineouts was one such clever strategy, which prevented the Boks from launching from their fearsome rolling maul.

“I’m not sure but only having four lineouts might be a world record for a Test match. The Lions were very smart and they did not give us lineouts, instead we were fielding high balls all the time and that put us under pressure. But we also have to ensure that our kicking game is exceptionally accurate to ensure you get the advantage of territory. We can be better in execution and be smarter.

“In terms of our exit plays, you also need to ensure a solid platform there so you get good delivery of the ball. That can also improve because we did not have a lot of attacking options. We want to play from set-pieces in the opposition half, but if you don’t get those opportunities then you are just left with unstructured attack off turnovers. We need to get into better places on the field,” Davids said.