The All Blacks may have spent the past few weeks painting the Springboks as a one-trick pony, but the first cracks in that facade came in the past 24 hours as assistant coach Tana Umaga admitted they were a far more dangerous side than that.
The narrative of speeding up the game, and South Africa being a set-piece team has been painted for the past few weeks by the tourists, as the mind games have ramped up ahead of Saturday’s first test.
The Bok pack, Umaga admitted, was massive, but the Bok threat is so much bigger than that, as the two sides head into the first of four clashes dubbed Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry this Saturday at Ellis Park.
Umaga said the management had told the players that while the Bok threats are massive up front, they need to be aware of everything going into the games, as they know both Rassie Erasmus and his assistant, former All Black Tony Brown, will have a few surprises up their sleeves.
“You’ve got to expect a lot of what they’re good at, and we know that’s coming. But with the coaching staff that they have in their group, we’ve got to be ready for anything,” Umaga said.
And the former All Black midfielder, who now is the team’s defence coach had a clear message for his players.
“Don’t give them entries into the area that they want to get to, that promotes their strengths. Obviously everyone talks about the set-piece, but they’ve grown in terms of their attacking prowess in the backs and utilising their forwards in the right spaces,” he explained.
“Obviously the size of their pack and their relentless wave of big men coming at you, I think that’s going to be tough for us. They’ve added some really soft touches to their game, with the skill set they have in the backs. Once you concentrate on what’s coming to you up front, they look for space out wide, and they look for space in behind. When you focus on one thing, you take your eyes off another. They have the ability to change between the two.
“It’s about our ability to make sure that we’re focusing on what’s important at this minute and then making sure we’re looking in the second area around how we can alleviate some of that pressure.”
Umaga added that a side that won back-to-back World Cups has a lot going for it, and will test every part of the All Black attack as well.
“This South African side’s been together for a long time. They know what it takes to win big matches. Also, their game is very solid, and they know what they can rely on. So, I don’t think there’s much advantage in us having more games.”
“Look, we’re happy with where we’re at, but we’re not content,” he added. “That’s the feeling from us. We can keep on improving, and we know that we need to come into this weekend against the world champs.
“We’re not resting on our laurels. We’ve made some improvements, and to be honest there’s been a couple of areas that haven’t been going as well as they were in the Nations Championship. But we’ve got a bit of time before we get to the weekend’s game to rectify those.”
Both sides name their teams for the clash on Thursday.