Boks maintain belief in spite of poor results

SELDOM has Springbok rugby been in such a deep rut but, publicly at least, there appears to be no shortage of belief that they are not as far off winning as outsiders think.

Assistant coach Johann van Graan, as astute and hard-working a coach as you will find in rugby, reeled off a large amount of stats in defence of the progress the Boks have made.

But he acknowledged that the only one that really counts – wins – was a failure.

Van Graan highlighted the set piece as an area where the Boks excelled, calling it the best scrumming performance in five years against England.

He also emphasised that the lineout had been a big weapon against England, but acknowledged that defence and a few bad mistakes under the high ball had proved the difference in the final outcome.

After losing 37-21 to England last week, the Boks slumped to their sixth loss in 10 tests this year and are on track for the worst return in the professional era.

“In terms of our lineout and scrum attack, we will stick to the same pattern even though Italy defend slightly differently [from] England,” Van Graan said.

“We created six scoring opportunities from our set piece, of which we converted four into points. That was a good stat.

“But we want to be 100% and improve in all areas of our game if we want a positive result.”

Under huge pressure, the Boks are in danger of focusing on winning, rather than remaining targeted on eradicating errors and taking opportunities so that they can get there.

Although references to processes and structures are often used, in this instance the Boks need to block out thoughts of a result and rather have clarity on the small components of the game.

Centre Damian de Allende agreed that it would take mental strength to stay calm and focused on the job against Italy, rather than obsessing about avoiding another loss.

“It’s important to win, but we need to get our processes right to get there,” De Allende said.

“It is difficult to stay focused on the processes and not the result because we are also frustrated.

“You want to force yourself to get a positive result, but we have to get small things right so we can get there.

“We are lacking a bit of confidence, but we just need a few things to click on the field and it will come back.

“We are a proud rugby nation and are used to winning, so we have to put it all together on the field to get the result we need.”