Boks’ substandard goal-kicking not a concern, says Koen

Attributes Morné Steyn’s poor form to fatigue and says he will be back

SPRINGBOK kicking consultant Louis Koen said yesterday that although the team’s substandard goal-kicking has been frustrating, it was not a concern and he believed it would improve with time.

He also insisted that despite experienced flyhalf Morné Steyn being dropped from the squad last week to make way for Johan Goosen, it was not the end for Steyn.

The Boks’ goal-kicking has been average in the eight Tests they have played so far this year, with the team slotting over 40 of their 69 kicks for a 58% success rate.

When quizzed on the team’s goalkicking yesterday, Koen said he had not tinkered with the goal-kickers’ techniques since working on them in June, but he hoped that with time he could build the trust between himself and the players to be able to suggest what they should change if they did struggle with their kicking.

“I won’t say it’s a concern,” said Koen. “It’s more of a frustration and a disappointment at this stage. We work very hard and the players are getting unbelievable results at training. I believe in the process that I am following and the exercises that we are doing and I am sure that the result will take care of itself … I believe it is a question of time and it is all part of a process.”

Koen said Steyn and star centre Frans Steyn have both had a success rate of above 80% at training, which made their statistics in Tests particularly puzzling.

“We’ve been logging every kick at practice since before the first England Test so, for example, Morné has kicked about 620 kicks since and he has been by the far the most consistent and has averaged about an 88% success rate,” he said.

“Technique-wise, we have done a lot of analysis and to this day we have not changed anything about his or any other kicker’s technique. We believe the guys that are here are experts, they have played 40 to 50 Tests for SA. They have all been brilliant in practice and they have all been above 80%, including Pat Lambie. The only player who hasn’t done a lot of goal-kicking is Ruan Pienaar because we have been working with him tactically. He has kicked about 200 kicks since we started and he has averaged about 65% … so when it comes down to performance in a match it is probably a little pressure building along the way.”

Koen also defended the Boks’ tactical kicking game and said every kick in a game was analysed to determine whether it offered the team an advantage or not.

“We measure every kick to work out whether there was a positive or negative outcome. So if we kick a box kick we measure if we got the ball back, and if we didn’t, we measure if we gained territory and relieved pressure. And throughout the series Morné has been great, barring one or two games. We were not that good tactically against the All Blacks in Dunedin, but against Australia we were brilliant and averaged about 80% in both games.”

Despite Steyn falling out of favour with the public in the past few months because of his poor goalkicking, Koen was confident the player would continue to play an important role in the Bok team. He also said Steyn’s tactical kicking could be handy on the year-end tour to the UK due to the cold and wet conditions.

“Morné has shown at training that his technique is fantastic,” said Koen. “I think his situation is much more psychological. I am not an expert on the psychological side of things … but exhaustion and the fact that he has played an unbelievable amount of rugby in the past three years and performed at a high level consistently created an expectation.

“Any player will have an off day or two in his life. The pressure and everything that goes along with it maybe counted against him … but I believe with all my heart that Morné will be back. I don’t know whether the coach will allow him to play Currie Cup rugby. But maybe he needs that opportunity to get that self-confidence back in an environment where he can be calmer and the pressure is a little less. There is still the overseas tour at the end of the year and we all know it will be much wetter there, so it will require a more tactical approach.”

Springbok prop Coenie Oosthuizen was yesterday cleared to face the All Blacks after consulting a neurosurgeon in Durban about the stiffness in his neck.