The Boks lost against Australia on Saturday with what can only be described as a lackluster game after the highs of beating the Lions and Argentineans at home. The Boks doubled down on the tried and tested tactics of contestable kicks, rush defense and set piece dominance. The problem was that didn’t execute accurately in each of those departments but still should have won. This tells us that the execution was the reason they lost not the tactics. For some reason playing Australia down under seems to give the Boks the yips, making uncharacteristic errors and allowing the Aussies into the game. With all that said the Aussies were the better team on the day and yet we were in with a shout up until the dying seconds of the game. In fact the ref went full Bryce Lawrence and chose to ignore three or four obvious calls for the Boks hoping he wouldn’t have to make a decision handing victory with a blow of his whistle.
Breaking it down further, the kicking was by far the weakest area for the Boks which placed undue pressure on a game they should have quite frankly cake walked. The kicking out hand was either too deep or too shallow not allowing the chasers a real chance at recovering the ball. The Aussies seem to have perfected the art of escorting the catcher because it looked at times as though the Boks had to weave through an obstacle course just to get close. The territorial kicking was marginally better but still not where it needs to be in order to manipulate the back three and open up space. The goal kicking was abysmal and Handre Pollard was completely off his game which again is uncharacteristic for him. I feel for Damian Willemse getting drilled for missing the conversion because it is really hard to come off the bench cold and produce the goods under such high pressure. He will learn from this experience and come back stronger in the future.
The defense for the first time in recent memory was a liability with a whopping 21 missed tackles which makes it very hard to win at international with that stat. The nature of the rush defense means that some accuracy is lost with trying to shut off the outside channels so a few mistakes are accepted but not as many as we saw on Saturday. Mind you the Aussie still only managed one try with all the missed tackles and broken play which is credit the Boks scrambling efforts. Some of the Aussie big runners also shrugged off would be Bok tacklers which would be more of a concern for the Boks. It is far easier to defend when the attacking team is not in behind you and allowing the ball carriers to win the battle of the advantage line makes defending much harder.
The set piece was quite a mixed bag with the scrums shaky at times and the lineout/mauls looking very polished. Looking at some of the replays and comments after the game it is very hard not to think the Aussies have a tendency to scrum inwards (which has been an accusation for years). This can often negate some of the dominance of the Bok props and causes the scrum to disintegrate. I have no doubt the coaches will be in the referees ears this week telling them how this tactic wasn’t blown on the weekend but in all honesty the Boks should have been better at scrum time. The lineouts were a saving grace for the Boks and the maul looking almost unstoppable at times which is what will be needed in the next three weeks.
So looking at all of the ways the Boks shot themselves in the foot they were still in with a chance to win the game which tells me they need to stay the course with the tactics. If the Boks improve the kicking, defense and the scrums only marginally they will win the next game comfortably. If anything this result gives me more hope for the future because previous Bok teams could only win or keep a game close if they played at a very high level for the full 80 minutes. Anyone would has played sport at a high level will tell you that is a rare thing to play the perfect match but being able to win playing badly that is a sign of a championship mentality.
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