Sympathy for the Springboks

The Springboks took some positive strides but it still left them coming up short 19-17 against their great adversaries in their Rugby Championship clash in Townsville yesterday.

The Springbok scrum, lineout, often thanks to Lood de Jager's ability to challenge, work ethic on defence and energetic gainline busts from substitute Marco van Staden helped take them to the cusp of victory before they conceded a late penalty. Former Springbok captain Naas Botha believes the Springboks should have got more out of the Test.

“That was the All Blacks's worst Test for a long time,” noted Botha.

He referred to their over-reliance on the box kick, which, to be fair, yielded positive outcomes yesterday.

It may sound rich coming from him, but the former kicker of the rugby ball extraordinaire believes the Boks should kick the habit.

“Those last three kicks of Willie (le Roux), Handre (Pollard) and Faf (de Klerk) were unnecessary. The Boks say they are unlikely to change that tactic. I understand that you want to operate within your framework. There is almost an obsession that they won't go outside that framework.”

Botha said it was difficult to summarise the game given the areas in which the Springboks performed better and the All Blacks were off their game. “Yes, our forwards played well and we collectively did a lot of things well but what did we actually do? We were in the game but in a few years when people just see the score, that is all they’ll see, we lost the

100th Test against the All Blacks.”

All Blacks coach Ian Foster expected the Boks' aerial game to pose problems.

“I know some people refer to it as boring but it is ruthless and clinical and they are very good at it,” said Foster. “We ran out of time in many situations and that put our skill set under pressure. It was a learning curve for us.

“Isn't it good to learn that lesson and put a win next to your name? We can't wait for next week.”