Poor kicking game needs sharpening up
THE Springboks can read “absolutely nothing” into their Rugby Championship prospects based on Saturday’s seven-try romp over the World XV at Newlands.
These were the words of Robbie Deans, who coached the exhibition side to a 46-10 loss in South Africa’s season-opener.
The former All Blacks fullback is no hater; last week he affirmed his affinity for rugby in this country and labelled the Boks as a leading contender to win the World Cup later this year.
Instead, Deans’ opinion is rooted in the experience of a 19-year coaching career, during which he headed up the Wallabies between 2008 and 2013. He consequently had no difficulty separating the quality of the challenge presented to South Africa by a funfair team assembled for commercial purposes, and one that will be defending national pride while mobilising for World Cup duty.
Like Deans, Heyneke Meyer saw through the mist from the fireworks of a high-scoring victory.
“All in all, I’m very happy, but we need to improve next week, because it’ll be a much bigger challenge,” said the Bok coach.
Spectators will celebrate Willie le Roux scoring a hat-trick of tries, one of which was created by an incisive counter-attack by flyhalf Handre Pollard, but the shortcomings of both players in key performance areas did not escape Meyer.
“I thought our kicking game all over wasn’t good enough,” he said. “We want to win the ball back when we kick... some bad habits crept in, just kicking for the sake of it.”
At times it looked like Le Roux was hoofing a deflated ball, so poor was the range and accuracy of several relieving kicks. Fortunately, the visitors were not adequately organised to launch effective counter-strikes, and the Boks’ superiority in the physical exchanges allowed them to slow the ball down long enough for the defensive line to set.
Meanwhile, Pollard left nine points on the field through three missed conversions and one skewed penalty – the Bulls pivot finished with a 43-percent strike rate.
“Luckily Pat Lambie came through (with two successful conversions) in the second half,” added Meyer. “You have to kick every single goal, that’s what we expect going into the World Cup, and we’ll have to improve there.
“Pollard probably didn’t get his balance right, but he’s a superb player and he’ll have to fix it for next week.”
Bryan Habana was also not satisfied with a performance that he knows won’t be good enough to beat Australia in Brisbane this Saturday when the Boks start their Rugby Championship campaign. – Zelim Nel