While not abandoning a high-tempo brand of attack, the All Blacks are working desperately on their kicking game to carve apart the Springboks’ defence, reports DEVIN HERMANUS.
New Zealand assistant coach Mike Blair on Monday addressed how the tourists continue to adapt their game plan to kick on from last week’s loss in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
“I don’t think being brave is the right thing. Backing our game that we’ve been able to execute over the last couple of months, and trusting what we’ve been doing, that would be the main thing,” he said ahead of Saturday’s clash at FNB Stadium.
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Blair noted the All Blacks’ nine tries across two Tests in the series, but acknowledged several missed opportunities in Cape Town.
“We obviously finished four of them on Saturday, but we left multiple opportunities out there, so we’ve been talking about how we will take them,” he added.
“The tries we scored were tougher to take than other opportunities that we created so there’s a positive feel, but some work still to be done.”
Blair admitted the kicking strategy failed to effectively breach South Africa’s defence last week, and labelled contestable kicks an aerial lottery where chasing sides hold an advantage.
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“I’m not going to explain too deeply because we want to use it as a strategy with the two games left to go, but I’ve talked before about how you use the kicking game to destructure a defence and having variety in your kicking game to do that.
“It’s an area we want to continue working on. We know it’s an important part of international rugby, so it’s an area that we’re looking at as well.”
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The former Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh and Kobe Steelers tactician shared that the coaches are exploring methods for the players to cope with deafening crowd noise.
“We got a lot of feedback about how noisy the game was at the weekend … we’ve talked about other forms of communication we can use and also trusting people to be in the right position.”
He also opted to avoid talk around officiating consistency to focus on the All Blacks’ attack: “Often what will happen is before a game we might anticipate something’s going to be refereed in some way, but it might be different.
“Referees have just got to referee what they see as well, so we just focus on what we’re trying to do.”
Photo: Roger Sedres/Gallo Images
The post All Blacks kick on to break down Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
While not abandoning a high-tempo brand of attack, the All Blacks are working desperately on their kicking game to carve apart the Springboks’ defence.
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