The opening Springbok press conference to the buildup to Saturday’s second test against Italy in Gqeberha was a bit of a strange affair. In the sense that everyone present was very aware that an 18 point margin is a comfortable victory, and yet these days it seems much more is expected.
As it turned out, the two people being the public face for the world champions were in total agreement with the general consensus that although the Boks won 42-24 in their first test match of the year, it was generally a disappointing performance. Jaco Peyper, in charge of ensuring that the Boks execute their game on the right side of the referee’s interpretations, described the driving maul try scored by Italy as a “negative thing”. Prop Thomas du Toit, who did not play in the game, concurred.
As Du Toit reminded us, Monday is always the day when the team establishes greater clarity on how they really did in the game. It is then that the emotion that is often bubbling too close to the surface when the coaches do their television interviews and go in front of the media immediately after the game is stripped away and the cold, hard facts are discussed.
That is because the coaches have had a chance to review the game and assess the performances of both the team and the individual in a more scientific, dispassionate way than might be possible in the heat of the battle and where everything is happening in the moment.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
And while he did not say it in as many words, Du Toit left no doubt that the message to emerge from the morning meetings and review of Saturday’s performance in Pretoria was that it was not good enough. Not because of the result, because that was good enough, but because the Boks set high standards for themselves and they hadn’t met those standards.
“I wouldn’t say it was a wakeup call as such, we just set very high standards for ourselves, both in preparing for a match and in the match itself, as well as in training,” said the powerfully built Bath prop.
“We are always trying to lift ourselves, we compare ourselves to ourselves, meaning we drive ourselves to be better than we were the week before. What went wrong is a difficult question to answer. It is just that we want to be better every week and this time we weren’t better. Today (in the reviews) we saw the mistakes and now know why we disappointed ourselves.
“So now we will be working this week on fixing that,” he added.
NO QUIBBLES WITH LEGALITY OF ITALY’S MAUL
Those who know the Bok and South African rugby psyche in general will know that the maul try, which came off a drive that travelled all of 20 metres, was particularly hurtful to the South African players. However, neither the ex top referee Peyper, nor Du Toit, were going to try and wriggle into an excuse with any kind of insinuation that it might have been illegal.
“It was a good maul from Italy that got them that try so that was a big negative for us,” said Peyper.
Du Toit pointed out that it was not what used to be considered a traditional maul and was the product of excellent coaching and planning by the Italians.
“If you look at that maul it was an example of what is becoming the modern way of mauling in that it is not the whole package (all the players being involved at the same time) but different players coming in to have an involvement,” said Du Toit.
“It was a case of the maul snaking left and right and kind of evolving towards the tryline. We do pride ourselves with our ability to stop the maul, so it was a big negative for us. We are not ducking that and we addressed it this morning.”
BREAKDOWN MAY BE A DIFFERENT STORY
The Italy play at the breakdown, which was where the Boks really struggled in the sense that they couldn’t get the ball back in the quick fashion required for their attacking game, might be a different story. Peyper said there’d be a meeting between the Bok management and Holly Davidson and her refereeing team ahead of Saturday’s game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium but stopped short of criticising any of the calls made in the Boks’ 42-24 win at Loftus.
“We think Holly and the team that are here for this series are a good team of referees, but there are certainly one or two areas to raise,” said Peyper.
“Let’s call it an alignment exercise. We want to align ourselves with them so we can align our plan and the execution of the plan. We just want them to give us honest feedback so we know how to approach it on Saturday.”
Regardless though of what comes out of any meeting between the Boks and the match officials, Peyper reckons there is an easy way to ensure there is no repeat of any issues that might have arisen in Pretoria and inhibited the Bok game - be dominant both sides of the ball.
“In rugby when your carry is dominant and your tackle is dominant the little bit of grey area sits with you,” he said. “We must show the referee a clear picture. Italy had a clear plan, they are really well coached. So we need to adjust to one or two things. Which we will. I am not bagging anyone. Will what happened on Saturday become a trend (in terms of how we play the breakdown)? It depends on the feedback we get when we meet with them.”
The Bok team for Saturday’s game in Gqeberha will be announced on Tuesday and is likely to include several changes to the one that played in Pretoria.