The local South African professional clubs who have faced the All Blacks on the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour have warned the Springboks of what has been termed as a brutal and illegal approach to the breakdowns from the tourists.
The All Blacks have won all three games played so far against the DHL Stormers, Hollywoodbets Sharks and the Vodacom Bulls fairly comfortably, with only the Stormers pushing the New Zealanders in the opening game in Cape Town.
While those wins against teams that were under-strength and also playing out of season will have boosted the Kiwi confidence, the Boks have also got something out of it by way of the report backs from the local coaches and in some instances players who have played against the All Blacks.
By players is meant the Bulls duo of Johan Grobbelaar and Elrigh Louw, who are current Boks who came on in the second half in the 50-19 defeat to the All Blacks at Loftus, and Ntuthuko Mchunu who was part of a dominant Stormers scrum at the DHL Stadium after he came on in the second half and is also still with the Boks as they prepare for Saturday’s game.
QUESTIONS ABOUT BREAKDOWN APPROACH
What has come back from the close liaising with the professional clubs and getting their feedback has mostly been what Bok assistant coach Felix Jones has termed confirmation of what the Bok management had picked up already about how the All Blacks play under new coach Dave Rennie, but also a few worrying flags that are causing some concern ahead of the test series.
“We have a good relationship with Dobbo (Stormers coach John Dobson), JP (Sharks coach JP Pietersen) and Ackers (Bulls coach Johan Ackermann) and all of us chat regularly so we have got some good feedback from them,” said Jones.
“A lot of what they experienced was confirmation of what they expected and what we saw in the Nations Championship, around the way they attack and the way they defend and what they do with their kicking game. But there were a couple of things that caught them out and a couple of things trended across the feedback from the different franchises.
“A few things around the breakdown they experienced, like tucked shoulders going into the breakdown, like the reverse arm type of wrapping action. That was a consistent theme that was coming out.”
Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus mentioned what was effectively a shoulder charge into the breakdown that is being executed by the All Blacks since Rennie took over as coach the previous day and he described it as brutal. So the natural next question was for Jones to be asked if it was something that was coached.
“I don’t think it is something we have seen from them (the All Blacks) over the last few years,” he said.
“We’ve obviously analysed them a lot in the last few years and it is not something we have seen from them before. But definitely from the feedback we have got from the franchises there is an element of that in there. We are all for the physical side of the game, as everyone is aware. Whatever word is associated with it, we want it to be within the law. We are just aware of that going into the game.”
SOMETHING THAT HAS FOLLOWED RENNIE’S CAREER
The Sharks had a similar issue with the Chiefs when Rennie was coaching them in 2012, in other words 14 years ago, with the Durban team being concerned that the players acting as defensive pillars at the rucks were being cleaned out with the shoulder to create space for the Chiefs to attack.
With so much fuss made of the Kiwi narrative about the Boks slowing the ball down the day before, Jones appeared eager to play the issue down if he could, but he nonetheless said enough to indicate that it is something that may have followed Rennie through his coaching career.
“Look, I don’t want that to be written down as a controversial thing, but we’ve coached against Glasgow and Australia when Dave has been there. I think the word brutal has already been mentioned. That does follow his coaching around. There are some amazing pieces to his play, to his coaching, to the way they get their ruck speed going.
“But we just think that the No 1 priority is safety. So, we are just super aware of the feedback we did get back from the franchises. That there were a number of clear actions. And we want to be sure that the brutality and the physicality stays within the laws.”
ALSO QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THEY DEFEND THE MAULS
Jones said that the other issue that had been flagged by the franchise coaches was illegal play in defending the mauls.
“They (the franchise teams) were all able to get into positions to score from a maul, which they were happy about. As in they got themselves into scoring positions,” said Jones.
“From 10 metres out, they got multiple lineout opportunities there. I think they were frustrated that they couldn’t get to score with their maul from there. It’s tough when there is someone pulling you or trying to lift a leg or maybe just going off their feet for a few seconds. That (and the shoulder tucking approach) was one of the common themes of the feedback we received.”