Nick Mallett believes the Springboks have won the war of words with the All Blacks ahead of the first Test at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The build-up to the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series opener has featured plenty of off-field sparring, with the All Blacks accusing South African teams – including the Boks – of intentionally slowing the game down to negate New Zealand’s high-tempo approach.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus responded at Monday’s press conference, where he was joined by Bok technical adviser and former Test referee Jaco Peyper, who offered a detailed breakdown of what actually happens once a referee marks a scrum or lineout.
MORE: Peyper shuts down ‘slow down’ talk
On Tuesday, Bok assistant coach Felix Jones added to the debate by raising concerns about the legality of some of the All Blacks’ tactics, based on feedback received from the South African URC teams who faced them on tour.
“A couple of things caught the franchises out and a couple of themes were consistent across the feedback [we received],” Jones said.
“One was around the breakdown, where they experienced tucked shoulders going in, which the franchises weren’t happy with, and a reversed-arm non-wrapping action.
“The other was that the franchises were actually quite happy with the opportunities they created, getting into scoring positions around 10m out, with multiple lineout opportunities there, but they were frustrated they couldn’t score from the driving maul.
“It’s tough when there’s someone pulling or trying to lift a leg or going off their feet. Those were probably the two main themes.”
ALSO: Ex-All Black enjoys Rassie’s ‘thug life’ approach
Mallett believes the Boks have responded effectively to the All Blacks’ attempts to influence the narrative around Saturday’s Test.
“There’s been a bit of a phoney war, a lot of mortars lobbed over out of the trenches at each other and, ironically, using the media to get your points across,” the former Springbok coach said on the Talking Boks podcast.
“It’s been a very interesting build-up. The All Blacks started quite early by saying South African teams tend to slow the ball down. They want to go from set-piece to set-piece. That’s not the game we’d like to show the world. We want to show our skills, running rugby, ball in play, all that sort of stuff.
“Then there was a lot of quiet from the Springboks for a while. I think for about a week they were sort of digesting what the All Blacks were saying.
“Then this week there were some very cogent comments made by Felix Jones and by Rassie himself, not directly contradicting the All Blacks, but putting out points themselves that were factual. I think that was really very effective, utilising the media.
RASSIE: Media used to get message to refs
“I know that the coaches can’t get together, or if they do get together, there are certain things they don’t want to say to the referee in front of the other coach. So, as Rassie said, the only way is really just to raise points in the media and hope that the referee, TMO and assistant referees will take note of it.
“Obviously, the comments the Boks have been making have been around the maul defence, around cleanouts at the ruck – in particular, the tucked shoulder, taking players past the ball to enable the pick-and-go to become much easier.
“It’s been quietly but cleverly done.
MALLETT: All Blacks very good at dark arts
“I think also the comments about the Springboks taking too long – the fact that they came out with stats from the last five games where, from the moment the referee makes the mark of the scrum or the mark of the lineout, you have 30 seconds to come in, and the Springboks have always been within those 30 seconds.
“So those are the laws, and the Springboks stick to those laws. I think that’s a very good riposte to the comments that have been made by the All Black coaching staff.”
Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
The post Mallett: Boks’ mind games cleverly done appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Nick Mallett believes the Springboks have won the war of words with the All Blacks ahead of the first Test at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The post Mallett: Boks’ mind games cleverly done appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
