Former coaches Steve Hansen and Ewen McKenzie reckon the Springboks were far too vulnerable and dysfunctional at Ellis Park, and paid the price for it.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Rugby Unity podcast, Hansen pointed to a lack of match sharpness as a key factor behind South Africa’s 33-16 defeat last Saturday, with the All Blacks forcing costly errors in and around the Boks’ 22.
The Boks face New Zealand this Saturday in the second Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, and Hansen and McKenzie suggested team cohesion will determine whether Rassie Erasmus’ men can level the score.
TEAM: Rassie names Siya for revamped Boks
“It was a combination of things. South Africa were always going to be a bit vulnerable in this first Test, because they haven’t played a lot of rugby, and the touring team’s always got the advantage,” ex-All Blacks boss Hansen said.
“So they’re a bit rusty but when you’re rusty and you’re getting pressure put on you, it makes it even harder to get the little things right. Once you get into that 22, it becomes a real battle of attrition and accuracy.
“You wouldn’t see Malcolm Marx lose the ball over the goal line very often, like he did. That was just a great play from Jordie [Barrett]. If you stay disciplined, which the All Blacks did, you’ve got a good opportunity of turning it over.”
MORE: ‘We need time to monitor Siya’
McKenzie was asked about Erasmus’ claims that South Africa had been caught out by a specific All Blacks ball-stripping tactic, but the former Wallabies coach was sceptical of that explanation.
“I’m not sure they would have identified that specifically. I think they knew they had to compete, and obviously if you can get your hands on the ball, it does control the speed of the ball for the opposition.
“If you think through the first half in particular, the Boks never got great momentum, they never got a lot of phases. That didn’t happen, and that was due to the ability of New Zealand to get on the ball.
MALLETT: Morné is a very underrated scrumhalf
“I don’t know if that was a tactic, or whether they were just so desperate to get in there and compete that they were able to get to the ball.”
McKenzie also flagged issues in South Africa’s halfback connection and set-piece execution as further evidence of a side not in sync.
“I thought there was a dysfunction around nine. The lineout and the transition from lineout was poor; not necessarily the nine’s fault, but the delivery from lineout was poor.
“I wrote down the word ‘rusty’ and Steve’s just said it. I thought South Africa were rusty, just through lack of playing together.
“For all of the mixing up and all of the depth, they didn’t have that well-oiled combination because they hadn’t effectively played together. It was a different team from the one that played against Argentina [three weeks ago], so that didn’t help.”
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
The post Hansen, McKenzie call out ‘rusty’ Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Former coaches Steve Hansen and Ewen McKenzie reckon the Springboks were far too vulnerable and dysfunctional at Ellis Park, and paid the price for it.
The post Hansen, McKenzie call out ‘rusty’ Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
