Ken Borland

People sometimes like to think of T20 cricket as being as complicated a strategic game as, say, backgammon, but for David Miller, the Proteas need to keep it as simple as possible in their crunch World Cup game against England in Sharjah on Saturday.

Of course South Africa have worked hard on implementing the right tactics against the tournament favourites, but Miller said the team, since bouncing back from their loss to Australia in their opening match, have broken their play down into small bits.

“We’ve bounced back from the loss and been really good in the last three games,” Miller said. “We have a blueprint that we are striving to perfect, and although there has been huge growth, we are still learning.

“It’s a massive game for us but we mustn’t be looking at the end result. We have to stick to our processes, take it ball-by-ball, over-by over. It’s a big cliché, but we have to do that.

“We need to be clear in our planning and preparation against England, we want to simplify what we have to do, and it’s important to really enjoy ourselves out there as well,” Miller said.

While South Africa have certainly not cured all their batting issues after some ham-fisted efforts in recent times, to have Miller back in peak form after injury is a massive bonus and the successive sixes he smoked in the final over to beat Sri Lanka will live long in the memory.

Top-level sport only loans its competitors confidence depending on the vagaries of their results, but the 32-year-old left-hander said the Proteas currently feel like they are riding a wave, having not only won consistently over the last six months but also, and certainly not coincidentally, having kept the same squad of players together.

“We’re nice and focused and ready for the next game, the team is in a good space and feeling refreshed. We’ve had a similar squad for the last six months and we’ve built up a really nice bond.

“We’re finding ways to win matches and that makes us really chuffed. We’ve won 12 of our last 14 games and that has definitely given us confidence going into this must-win match.

“In those tight moments in a game, you grab hold of every bit of confidence that you can. Winning does not necessarily have to be pretty – some of our games have been clinical and smooth, and some we still won when our performance was neither here nor there.

“We’ve happened to win one or two close games now, and hopefully that confidence, momentum and growth can keep going. Having the same squad means that we’ve learnt how to play with each other, what makes your team-mates tick,” Miller said.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi admitted on Friday that only actions, not words, will convince their fans that the gains of the last couple of years are not being lost, and to make that sale they all need to be better as individuals against New Zealand on the Gold Coast on Saturday.

The Springboks, with Kolisi at the forefront, put in a massive effort last weekend against the All Blacks but still came up two points short, but not for the want of opportunities created by their impressive pressure game.

“I can’t say anything that will convince anyone, it’s only about the way we are playing and the effort we put in,” Kolisi said. “But it’s all about results, which we are not showing at the moment, but the effort and attitude are there.

“But it’s better to say “I did’ than to say ‘I said’. We just have to go out there and play, we are not giving up and hopefully our reward comes with a result.

“As individuals we all have to bring in our play, but the individual only wins when the team wins. So many individuals had great games last weekend but we still didn’t get the win.

“So we all want to be much better, get into as many battles as possible. We had so many opportunities to do better but there were just lapses in concentration. There’s nothing more we can say, it’s only our actions that count, our results and how we don’t give up,” Kolisi said.

South Africa showed last weekend that they have the raw materials to beat the All Blacks, but just the finishing touches were lacking.

“We brought the intensity, it showed that physically we are fine, but we just did not take the opportunities that were in front of us. Our focus is now on making sure we finish the tour strong and we are here to do a job.

“The game-plan will be the same as it’s always been because it gets us to where we want to be, now we need to take the opportunities in front of us. That’s why we kick, to get into positions where we can play rugby.

“It’s what we did at the World Cup, we played off turnovers and scored some great tries, but now we are just not taking those chances when we work ourselves in to perfect positions,” Kolisi said.

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.

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.