Fighting fire with fire
TACTICS: BOKS WILL PLAY TO TRADITIONAL STRENGTHS AGAINST KIWIS
Aggression and accuracy key to beating world champs.
Despite being ranked as the underdogs in Saturday’s clash against the All Blacks, the Springboks will revert to their traditional strengths in Wellington, according to forwards coach Matt Proudfoot.
Those strengths included applying a powerful physical nature to their approach, along with a strong scrum and solid defence.
Against the All Blacks’ superb attacking game, however, the Boks would have to be far more accurate and intense than they had been thus far in the Rugby Championship.
“We will play to our strengths and they will continue to play to theirs,” Proudfoot said.
Their failure to beat the All Blacks on Kiwi soil since 2009 summed up the magnitude of the Boks’ task, while the 57-0 whitewash defeat in Albany last year remained a sore point.
But they were reluctant to make too many adjustments.
“They have a particular style and we have our own style, and you’re not going to change the things that you’ve been doing for the past six weeks in the week before an All Black Test,” Proudfoot said.
In the past, the Boks’ best recipe against the All Blacks had been an aggressive attitude, cutting down their space and ensuring not to hand them turnovers or gift them attacking opportunities from poorly executed kicks.
“I think a game between South Africa and New Zealand boils down to getting your basics right,” Proudfoot said.
“So set-phase and the breakdown are two crucial areas for us because they have a fantastic scrum, they put your lineout under pressure and attack the gainline.”
If was unclear whether coach Rassie Erasmus would continue with Steven Kitshoff at loosehead prop or recall veteran Beast Mtawarira, while at tighthead he had the luxury of playing Frans Malherbe or Wilco Louw.
It was, however, a given that Malcolm Marx will return to the starting line-up at hooker, despite combining with Bongi Mbonambi in missing three of their own lineouts between them against Australia last week.
“We have the mentality that we’re looking to improve each week, and as a pack we are relishing the opportunity to come out and show what we can do,” Proudfoot said.
While the Boks were the one team in the world who could take the physical battle to the Kiwis, Proudfoot admitted it would be a game of contrasts as they prepared to face the All Blacks’ flair.
“That’s one of the aspects which makes a fixture between these great rugby rivals such an interesting affair,” he said.