Bok captain Eben Etzebeth insists that the team’s lineout woes will be a thing of the past when they take on the Wallabies this Saturday, writes CRAIG LEWIS in Bloemfontein.
The Boks came into their last Test against the All Blacks with an impressive 95% lineout success rate in the Rugby Championship, but this set piece subsequently fell apart during a horror show in Albany, with the visitors winning just nine of their 14 throws.
While the All Blacks suggested afterwards that they had devised a strategy to disrupt their opponents’ lineout, the Boks would have been desperately disappointed by the manner in which they allowed this all-important set piece to malfunction under pressure.
Notably, the Wallabies have endured their own lineout woes this Rugby Championship (with a lowly success rate of 83%), and they have again made a change to the second row as youngster Izack Rodda comes in for his first Test start.
Yet despite the Boks’ struggles at lineout time in Albany, they have opted to continue backing Franco Mostert as their first-choice No 5 lock, while hooker Malcolm Marx will be desperate to find his jumpers with greater regularity on Saturday.
When Etzebeth was asked about the Boks’ lineout woes at the captain’s press conference on Friday, he admitted that they couldn’t pretend it hadn’t been an area of real concern in Albany.
‘I think you know the answer to that question [about whether there were lineout issues],’ he commented. ‘There definitely were, and it didn’t go that well, but it’s something that we’ve worked on really intensively this week, and it will be better.
‘We as forwards have to accept that it’s a combined thing. It’s not just one guy calling or one guy lifting. It just didn’t work on the day, we’re not pointing fingers at anyone, but that’s why we’ve worked really hard this week.’
Saturday’s Test is also sure to test Etzebeth’s mettle as a leader, with the helpless Boks having looked utterly shell-shocked at various stages of their historic 57-0 defeat to the All Blacks.
However, Etzebeth reiterated a common refrain that has come out of the Bok camp when he stated that the Albany defeat would ‘not define this team’, but rather the manner in which they responded.
‘It’s been a tough week to get over that result, but we have no option but to put that behind us now. The preparation has been outstanding this week, and we’re excited to get another opportunity to focus on the job at hand. We simply have to bounce back.’
Photo: Kim Ludbrook/BackpagePix
