Ken Borland

“It’s up to us to adapt to what is being blown on the field at the breakdown,” Springboks forwards coach Johan van Graan admitted in Pretoria on Tuesday as the South Africans prepare for their quadrangular series finale against Samoa at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Springboks are coming off a thoroughly unconvincing 30-17 victory over Scotland, in which they scored 10 points in the last five minutes and coach Heyneke Meyer conceded after the Test in Nelspruit that the breakdown was the biggest area of concern for him.

The Springboks failed to get quick ball, partly because Scotland were all over the breakdown, doing their best to disrupt possession by whatever means, fair or foul. The Springboks knew Scotland were going to attack the breakdown, but they did little to stop them, naively relying on the referee to sort out the mess. As Van Graan agreed on Tuesday, quick ball is not some divine right in the game of rugby, you have to work for it and the opposition are obviously going to try and stop you from obtaining it.

“We expected beforehand that every breakdown would be a massive contest, but my feeling is that we also wanted to focus on our discipline in the first 20 minutes and we expected the tacklers to have to roll away quickly, so we didn’t compete as much.

“But there are no excuses, you have to adapt and sort it out on the field; it’s about fixing our own problems,” Van Graan said.

The first problem the Springbok coaching staff has identified is that they need to be more aggressive when carrying the ball.

“My opinion is that it always starts with the ball-carriers. If they don’t get momentum then it’s very difficult for the cleaners to get in. And if those first and second arrivers don’t do their job, then the breakdown is lost,” Van Graan explained.

The expected return of Willem Alberts should provide a boost to that area of the game at Loftus Versfeld, with the bone-crunching loose forward back in training after a side strain.

“Willem was brilliant for the Springboks in 2012. Siya Kolisi and Pierre Spies both had nearly a dozen ball-carries for us against Scotland, but Willem is world-class. He’s the guy you want on the advantage line and that’s where the big battle will be on Saturday,” Van Graan said.

The Springboks fully expect Samoa to follow Scotland’s lead and attack the breakdown, with another inexperienced referee in charge on Saturday in Irishman John Lacey.

“Samoa have a simple plan, but they execute it well. They have big ball-carrying forwards who are good in broken play and at the breakdown. They’re going to put a lot of pressure on the wide rucks, so it won’t be a lot different to Scotland, it’s going to be a battle for the ball,” Van Graan said.

While Alberts’ return would add 20 caps’ worth of experience to the loose trio, there could be a considerable loss of experience at centre with captain Jean de Villiers rated only a 50/50 chance of playing after popping a rib against Scotland. If De Villiers can’t play then JJ Engelbrecht with just three caps, and Jan Serfontein, with only two brief appearances off the bench, will likely combine in midfield.

However, wing Bryan Habana does not believe that this would also create a leadership vacuum.

“Since 2012, the side has had a very young nucleus, with just myself, Jean, Ruan Pienaar, Pierre Spies and Frans Steyn having played more than 50 Tests. So it will be very disappointing if Jean can’t make it, he’s been an unbelievable captain and I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. But as a senior player, my job is to make that important step up, that’s what we’re there for, our leadership responsibilities increase and we need to bring that leadership to the fore,” Habana said.

“But it’s also very exciting the way guys like Acker Strauss, Bismarck du Plessis and Pierre Spies, who has led the Blue Bulls very well for the past five months, have stepped forward as leaders. We showed that we still have that calmness and belief we can win in the team, even though we were 6-17 down against Scotland, and that’s a great thing,” Habana added.

While facing the combative Samoans in a final at Loftus Versfeld should ensure the Springboks bring the right attitude into the game, Van Graan said there would also need to be a greater focus on their tactical approach, against opponents who thrive on unstructured, loose rugby.

“In the first 30 minutes against Scotland we maybe played too much rugby. Samoa these days are tactically very good and it might become a tactical battle at Loftus, a typical final. It will be about the territory battle, we need to make sure we dominate that because the referees tend to favour the side with territory. And then we need to hang on to the ball,” Van Graan said.

Against unpredictable opposition and possibly unfathomable refereeing, it is probably wise for the Springboks to rely on their tried and tested approach, but even then it will not be easy to get on top of the Samoans.

“Every game has its own personality and every week we get something different from the referee. And there are a few big challenges in the Samoan pack too – Census Johnston is a world-class prop, Jack Lam is well known for his work in the Hurricanes loose trio and their lock, Kane Thompson, has also played SuperRugby.

“Their backs have good running lines, they’ve already had some big scrums in this series and they can stop our maul,” Van Graan warned.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-06-19-boks-broke-down-at-the-breakdown/#.VsHJaPl97IU

Western Province used their chances better and made fewer mistakes than the Blue Bulls as they beat the home side 23-18 in their Currie Cup semi-final at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

The visitors scored the only two tries of the match thanks to the opportunistic nous, quick hands and feet of fullback Cheslin Kolbe, and it was a deserved victory as they dominated territory and their pack had the edge up front.

“We got off the canvas after taking sixty points up here in Johannesburg two weeks ago and having a horror half-hour against the Bulls when we last played them here, but that was an aberration and we deserved to win in the end. It was very frustrating at times because the Bulls defended well, but Cheslin is one of those slightly predatory players and in semi-finals those are the things that turn games,” Western Province coach John Dobson said after his team secured their place in a fourth successive Currie Cup final.

“They used their one opportunity and scored and from then on we were playing catch-up rugby, which causes you to make mistakes,” Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais said. “But we should never have turned over the ball on attack. We should have played better, we made mistakes in the second half, we lost opportunities and a couple of calls went against us.”

Marais conceded that Western Province’s more experienced pack continued to have the edge over his young forwards.

“If you’re not getting your set-piece ball then you feel under attack and you lose confidence. We made too many mistakes so we weren’t as fluent as we wanted to be, and the Western Province defence got even better at the end,” he said.

Dobson gave credit to former Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu for his side’s stout defensive work.

“In the last 10-15 minutes our defence closed the game, to not concede a try at Loftus Versfeld is a great achievement. Credit to Paul Treu for the work he has done; the defence really showed the character of the team,” Dobson said.

When the Blue Bulls hammered Western Province 47-29 at Loftus Versfeld nearly two months ago, they used a ball-in-hand approach, clever attacking innovations and pace and intensity, and coach Nollis Marais wants them to use the same strategy in their Currie Cup semi-final in Pretoria on Friday night.

“We wanted to do things differently, we weren’t looking at a semi-final or a final back then, we were just starting a new culture at the Blue Bulls. We’ve worked hard and now the guys must just play. They must believe in themselves and believe in what we do. They’ve all had a season behind them now and we’re good enough to beat any team. Being young is not an escape clause, the guys must just go out and play,” Marais said.

For Western Province coach John Dobson, the way the Bulls used the restart that day has been a major concern.

“We were beaten on the short kick-off down the middle. A couple of times we just weren’t watching and then it’s Game Over. There was just general sloppiness that day. We have to make sure we don’t get caught in the middle and when we receive the restart the clearance has got to be beyond our own 10m line or else the Bulls will just maul you.

“So we’ve had to change our strategy considerably, in terms of how we set up. We weren’t blocking properly, we were leaving Robert du Preez [flyhalf] stranded deep in the pocket. It was a massive issue for us and we had to change the plan,” Dobson said.

Western Province will no doubt want to use their powerful, more experienced pack to grind down the Bulls.

“Last time we played the Bulls [a 29-14 home win at Newlands a month ago] our pack was fairly well on top and if we can do that again then we are going to stop them from playing Bulls rugby, force them into a more open game, and then the mistakes are going to come and we can put pressure on them. Maybe we can force them to run when they don’t have numbers, we see opportunity in that,” Dobson said.

“That was probably our worst game of the season,” Marais said of the Cape Town loss, “because our set-pieces just didn’t work. So it was the first time we were really under pressure, but we still twice lost the ball over the tryline, so we were competitive. We’re better prepared up front than we were then.”

The Eastern Province Kings team played with white armbands in their Currie Cup match against the Blue Bulls in Pretoria over the weekend to support their fellow players and the coaching staff who have not been paid for a month, captain Tim Whitehead revealed after the match.

“We were wearing white armbands because only the 22 who played in this game have been paid and we wanted show our support for the coaching staff and the non-playing members of the squad who haven’t been paid for over a month,” Whitehead announced, unprompted, at the post-match press conference.

The Kings produced a superb first half before ultimately being beaten 48-27 by the Bulls.

The Kings team began the Currie Cup campaign having not been paid for months and went on a mini-strike in August as they had still not received their due money. The crisis continued in September but less than a week ago, the Aveng group were announced as new sponsors of the Kings.

But it is more than two months since EP Rugby president Cheeky Watson announced that the signing of “possibly the biggest sponsorship partnership for any franchise this country has ever seen” was “imminent”.