Allister Coetzee says the Springboks can’t just abandon their ball-in-hand ambitions in this Saturday’s Test against the All Blacks at Newlands, writes CRAIG LEWIS.
The Springboks enjoyed considerable ascendancy in virtually all of the attacking stats against the Wallabies this past Saturday, but poor accuracy and execution meant they eventually had to settle for a 27-27 draw.
Another high-risk approach could well play into the hands of the clinical All Blacks this weekend, but when chatting to the media in Cape Town on Monday, Coetzee suggested that the Boks primarily just needed to improve their decision-making.
‘There were clearly a few opportunities that went begging [against the Wallabies], but I think if we’d made better decisions, particularly when it came to our offloads, then those tries would have come.
‘We have addressed how we can execute better on attack, but it’s rewarding to see the number of opportunities we created, and now the finishing is just to come.’
When questioned whether the Springboks may need to adopt a more conservative approach against the All Blacks in order to avoid presenting them with counter-attacking opportunities, Coetzee said he didn’t necessarily think so.
‘This game has moved on, we know you cannot just give the All Blacks the ball on a platter. They’re obviously a real quality side, but there’s not just one way of beating them. You’ve got to be unbelievably accurate and make sure you have more than just one plan and make good decisions.
‘You won’t beat them by just getting penalties, so you have to score tries, and we saw that against the New Zealand Super Rugby sides as well. The decision-making is the biggest thing, and we’ve spoken of a ball-in-hand approach with our game managers. We have only been together for a few months as a team, but you can see they are already becoming more comfortable with ball in hand.’
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While the Springboks did seem to have a desire to take the All Blacks on at their own game in Albany, their defence and set pieces particularly malfunctioned as they ultimately slipped to a humiliating 57-0 loss.
In that regard, Coetzee suggested that they had taken some important lessons on board since that defeat.
‘We have to dominate the collisions and win the physical battle, that will always be the case … In Albany, that scoreboard just ballooned, but we do feel we created opportunities that we didn’t take. So you have to use your chances, be accurate and ensure that the set pieces function well. ‘
Although the Boks’ lineout was improved against the Wallabies this past Saturday, they conceded a number of infringements at scrum time, with tighthead prop Ruan Dreyer particularly finding himself on the wrong end of referee Ben O’Keeffe’s whistle.
However, Coetzee said he would continue to back the well-built Lions front-rower.
‘We do have a lot of tighthead props who are injured, but Ruan is there and he just needs some time out there. We still back him as a tighthead, but I just think that the picture seems to differ from referee to referee [at scrum time]… But we do know that we have to come with a better scrummaging performance against the All Blacks.’
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Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images
