Where Boks need to improve on RWC final to beat the Lions

The Springbok performance that clinched their resounding 32-12 win over England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final looked pretty complete but assistant coach Mzwandile Stick believes there is at least one area where it might not be good enough to beat the British and Irish Lions.

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Stick’s portfolio in the Bok management incorporates off the ball play which in turn encompasses the individual work rate of each player, something he worked hard on with the players both in the build-up to the World Cup in Japan and in the tournament itself.

The Boks got it almost on point when they played the Yokohama final, says Stick, but not quite.

“If I go back to the World Cup final, we did really well with our off the ball play and our work-rate,” recalls Stick.

“But if there is something that needs to be better, I would say that is it. It was good, I would say we were at 90 per cent in the final. To beat the Lions though we are going to need to be even better than that. To beat the Lions, we are going to have to be the best we can be. And that will mean we need to be better even than we were in the final.”

OPPOSITION HAVE QUALITY REPLACEMENTS

Stick explained his logic by pointing to one of the key events that might have helped tip the scales so overwhelmingly in the Bok favour in the decider in Japan - the injury that forced England prop Kyle Sinckler out of the game in the early minutes.

“In the Lions squad you have the best players from four nations in each position, and the next best players from that group of nations backing up. So you effectively have a gathering of world class players in each position,” he said.

“In the World Cup final we saw Kyle Sinckler leave the field early for England. In that case, where it was only England players backing up, there was a big gap between him and the replacement. In this series we will be up against a team that will have world class replacements to call on when players are injured or when tactical substitutions are made.

“That means we are going to have to have a massive work-rate and we will need to sustain it over the full 80 minutes without let-up due to the quality of players the opposition will have to call on,” concluded Stick.

To back up what Stick is saying, Sinckler was seen as a huge component in the England challenge in the build-up to the World Cup final.

However, although he is now in the Lions touring squad, he only made the group because of the injury to Irish tighthead Andrew Porter that has forced him out of the tour.

So arguably the England kingpin from 2019 is only travelling to South Africa with this tour group as the third ranked tighthead behind Irishman Tadhg Furlong and Scotland’s Zander Fagerson.

And it will be the same in the other positions, with Lions coach Warren Gatland having had the luxury of having the choice of the best players from each Home Union nation plus, when he feels the second-string players of those nations are better than first choices of other teams, their back-up players.

INTERVENTION AT LOCAL LEVEL BROUGHT RIGHT RESULT

It was the knowledge that the Springboks would need to step up even further from what they managed in the World Cup final that prompted the management to intervene during the break between seasons in a quest to help increase the tempo at which local games were being played and the ball in play time.

Stick was very much at the heart of the drive to find innovations that would increase the ball in play time, thus forcing a lift in the match fitness and the upskilling of local players.

He says he was more than happy with the progress that was made at the start of the 2021 rugby year in comparison to what we saw at the end of the 2020/2021 return to play from the pandemic season.

“The pandemic was unexpected and it threw a lot at all of us that was new and outside of what we normally experience so you had to understand and feel for the players,” said Stick.

“They came back from a very strict lockdown to play in the Unlocked competition and then the Currie Cup, and it was hard for them given what they’d been through and the new challenges such as playing without a crowd being there in support.

“But while we understood the challenges, we also couldn’t keep making excuses if we wanted to compete with the Lions.

“So, we had to intervene and find a way to increase things like ball in hand and ball in play time, and to decrease time ball wasn't in play, and with the help of the referees we came up with a structure that would provide us with that".

“We know the challenge of test level rugby is that there is much more ball in play time. We were down to 26 minutes ball in play time in the Currie Cup, which just wasn’t good enough. In the Rainbow Cup we took that up to 48 minutes, which is much closer to what is required to be ready for international rugby. To see that improvement was great.

“It had the impact of noticeably improving the players in terms of skills and it has all helped to give us a lift in the preparation for this forthcoming series,” added the World Cup-winning Bok assistant coach.