After the end of the 2013 June Incoming Tour, I look back at what I have observed from the June tests:
3 tests, 3 wins, 130 points for and only 50 points conceded! Yes, it was only Italy, Scotland and Samoa, but the job still had to be done – and as we saw against Scotland, the job was not so easy sometimes! Heyneke Meyer said that the Incoming Tour was about more than winning, it would also be used to blood in new players into the Bok test setup and to further develop our game plan. With 26 players representing the Green and Gold in June and popular opinion being that the Boks have moved forward with their tactics, it seems as if Meyer might have achieved his objectives. This is what else I gleaned from the June tests:
1. Heyneke Meyer is not a Dinosaur, and Willie le Roux is proof of this!
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| CHAMPIONS... Of Italy, Scotland and Samoa |
Before the June test series, most Bok fans that Heyneke Meyer was born many centuries ago due to the pre-historic tactics he used in 2012. Remember 2012’s European tour and how painfully boring and unimaginative the Springboks were playing? While we were unbeaten in the UK and Ireland, the one-off runners, the aerial bombs, the rolling mauls, Jean de Villiers refusing to acknowledge the existence of his outside centre, Pat Lambie being turned into Derrick Hougaard will be the mental scars that stay with us forever. It was worrying for Bok fans, as it looked like Meyer would pursue an archaic game plan of bullying teams into submission with our burly forwards and kicking the Gilbert off the rugby ball.
The June series showed encouraging signs that the Boks have moved forward from the game plan that made Stoke City Football Club look like a more attacking rugby club – and Willie le Roux was a big reason why! Meyer used le Roux as a second receiver (or what some rugby hipsters might call a “false 10”) that came into the backline, added pace to the attack and able to put away others into space, just like how Naka Drotske used his Willie in Bloemfontein (okay that came out wrong). The second receiver coming in from deep is a tactic used by Australian teams and utilises depth and the pace of le Roux to put outside backs into space. Maybe Meyer was slowly strengthening parts of our game plan one-by-one, starting with the defence and set pieces and developing the attack this year. Now if we can ruck with more precision and ensure quick ball for the scrum-half, le Roux and the Bok team can shine in attack and the rugby of 2012 will become a distant memory. But the match against Scotland in Mmbombela showed that the Boks must adapt to the interpretations of the referee at ruck time or our attacking will lose out.
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| For a moment you had us worried there! |
2. We have Forgotten the Lessons of November
The November tour of 2012 was not a complete waste, was it? There were 2 big positives about that tour – our very strong set piece and our watertight defence. Now where did those two things vanish to??
Our scrum is solid enough most times, but when Coenie Oosthuizen replaces Jannie du Plessis at tighthead, our scrum comes under unnecessary pressure and concedes crucial penalties. While Coenie is a good loosehead prop, he is not a tighthead of test rugby standard and Meyer should rather blood in the likes of Lourens Adriaanse and Wiehan Herbst at 3 than Coenie. The Bok lineout had a few hiccups in the 1st half vs Scotland and will come under more pressure against astute lineout managers like Sam Whitelock and James Horwill in the Rugby Championships. Our defence is a bit of a concern. The Bok team has gone from conceding 1 try in 3 tests against Ireland, Scotland and England away to conceding 5 tries against weaker opposition at home. In November, the team used more of a drift defence system with the opposition rarely getting over the advantage line. But in the June tests, defenders were shooting out of the line, missing one-on-one tackles and made Scotland look almost unstoppable in attack. This shooting out of line business must stop, as the savvy Antipodiean attackers will exploit the spaces that this haphazard defence structure creates. Maybe it was complacency against weaker teams, but the Boks must revert to the defensive structure that they had in Europe last year going forward.
3. The New Kids are all right!
Apart from players such as Oosthuizen, Strauss, Eben Etzebeth, Juandre Kruger, Flip van der Merwe, Francois Louw and Marcel Coetzee, who became Bok regulars last year, being given more game time in this June test series, 9 players debuted or got their first real run in the Bok jersey in the test series. And all of those players proved that they have a future in the Green and Gold. Trevor Nyakane proved in one scrum against the cult figure Martin Castrogiovanni of Italy that he can shake it in international rugby and can make the necessary impact in a test match. Arno Botha and Siya Kolisi put in man of the match displays in the first 2 tests, adding to the array of great talent we have in the loose forward department. Jano Vermaak put in a tidy performance against Italy before his hamstring pulled up after 50 minutes and Piet van Zyl brought in a lot of energy as a replacement scrum-half in the last 2 tests. Jan Serfontein might have been on for not much more than 10 minutes in the 3 tests, but he showed all his power and determination in the late try he scored against Scotland. Bjorn Basson rarely put a foot wrong on the wing, finished the opportunities presented to him and towered above the rest under the high ball. JJ Engelbrecht (against my expectations) was a revelation at outside centre (although I maintain he could be a world-class wing) – if he is given a bit of space, he is gone! While the tackling and his option-taking must improve for him to be a great centre, and bigger tests will come in the Rugby Championships, he will not give up the 13 jersey easily. Willie le Roux is like South Africa’s own jack russell, we will overlook the fur on the couch and the little pee on the carpet as long as he carries on doing those amazing little tricks. Le Roux will become house trained at test level, and I am willing to overlook the odd Willie le Roux™ (that will be the name of the ‘chip kick’ if le Roux’s agents have any brains and they trademark it) and wayward pass as long as he keeps playing like he did in the series. While we missed the likes of Pat Cilliers, Andries Bekker, Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts (for two tests), Francois Hougaard, Johan Goosen, Francois Steyn, Juan de Jongh and JP Pietersen from the initial squad, the new boys did very well and another layer of depth has been added to the Bok setup.
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| "Whose a good boy?!" |
It is a rollercoaster relationship that Bok fans have with Morné Steyn, going from the highs of scoring all 31 points against the All Blacks in Durban in 2009 to the lows of being dropped from the Bok squad for the home Rugby Championships matches in 2012. At that time I remarked that Steyn should go to play in Europe to regain his confidence, but now that he is about to leave I don’t wanna say goodbye! Steyn has shown great resolve to re-establish himself as South Africa’s number one Number 10, even outstripping the acting talents of Colin Moss. Helped massively by both Bulls and Bok packs rucking better and getting quicker ball, Steyn is now lining up MUCH flatter in attack (last year he stood outside the stadium, he was so deep), engaging defenders and creating chances for team mates in attack. While le Roux should receive all the praise for his input in our backline, it is Steyn’s distribution to le Roux and him standing flatter that gives le Roux the time and space to put others away. After the end of the Super Rugby tournament, Steyn will move north to Paris to join Stade Francais, and with Goosen injured, Elton Jantjies struggling with his form and Lambie looking very limited in attack for the Sharks, no other flyhalf will give us the all round game that Morné Steyn is giving us currently.
5. Francois Louw might need a divorce
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| "Sorry, could you repeat that? Was that an apology?" |
I am sure the new Mrs Louw is a lovely lady and young Francois feels like the luckiest man in the world, but the Springboks do not need Francois Louw to suffer the post-marital slump (Bryan Habana and Vet Francois Steyn are undeniable proof of this). The Scotland test in Nelspruit (which Flo missed because of his wedding) gave me nightmarish flashbacks of THAT World Cup Quarterfinal of 2011, where the Boks were like deer-in-the-headlights when our fetcher Heinrich Brussow went off injured. Again, we seemed unable to adapt to the ref’s interpretation of the rucks without a proper fetcher. Now Francois Low, the player that replaced Brussow in that quarterfinal and was totally outwitted by David Pocock has become one of our most valuable, world-class players.
The Brussow politics are well-known and I will not get into that. Coach Meyer’s position (whether right or wrong) is to trust Coetzee and Kolisi to be Flo’s backup. While I admire Coetzee’s energy and commitment, he must learn to become mufective when he does something on the field, be it cleaning out opposition from the ball, making himself a nuisance in the ruck or with tackling. Kolisi (surprisingly to me) deputised pretty well at openside flank, making his tackles, carrying the ball well and he even pilfered a few ruck balls. We all know Kolisi has the power of a moster truck, but Meyer is wary of playing him at blindside flank with Flo and Vermeulen part of the loose trio, as Meyer wants two of his loose forwards to be #lineoutoptions (thanks @flippie_vzyl) in his loose trio. But if Kolisi can start playing more towards the ball like any good fetcher flank does, he certainly has it in him to be Flo’s understudy and many a Bok fan won’t try to annul the marriage.
6. This year’s Rugby Championship will be a helluva lot closer than last year’s
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| Beware Flo! It is even more lethal than the Top Billing curse! |
New Zealand ran away into the distance last year, finishing off unbeaten in last year’s Rugby Championships, but judging by the tests in June (albeit one test for Australia against the British & Irish Lions), this will be quite a humdinger of a Rugby Championship!
New Zealand whitewashed a motivated and competitive French side. Their 2nd test in Christchurch showed that the All Blacks are almost untouchable when they’re switched on. The precise and destructive rucking and counter-rucking, a pinpoint kicking game which pinned the French back in their half for long periods, a lineout led by the best number 5 in world rugby (Sam Whitelock), the Black Wall that kept the French scoreless in the 2nd test and managed to not concede a try against the French for almost 180 minutes and a capable scrum (probably their only weak point) compliments the attacking play we all salivate about (just look at Beauden Barrett’s try from test 2). But, the other two tests and that test last year in Twickenham show signs that it won’t be a Blackout in this competition. France and England showed that if you put their scrum under pressure, don’t allow the Kiwis to cross the advantage line in attack and expose the lack of numbers that they commit to the rucks in attack by flooding their rucks, you could leave the Kiwis lost as to what to do in attack. The other 3 teams can certainly expose the frailties shown by the English and the French in the last 4 All Black tests.
For all intents and purposes, the Wallabies really should’ve won the first test against the Lions after leaving 14 points on the field in a 2-point loss. The scrum stood up to a much hyped-up Lions pack, their attack opened up the Lions defence often enough and the Wallabies rucked brilliantly by slowing the Lions ball down and ensuring quick ball for themselves. And all of this was done with 3 of the Wallabies’ outside backs being injured after 45 minutes! Still, dodgy set pieces, selection issues, limited depth, a coach that might be fired at the end of the Lions series are weaknesses that leave them vulnerable against the other teams.
While the Argies got slaughtered by the beetroot-coloured English team, players such as Juan-Martin Fernandez Lobbe and other first choice players were rested for the test series which makes it tricky to judge how good the Argentinians will be in the Rugby Championships. Last year, they got a pasting from the French in the June series but then performed admirably in the competition. With more experience and nous in the competition, the Argentinians will be difficult to beat again (especially at home).
The Boks might not have had the toughest preparation, but they certainly showed that they are strong enough to seriously compete for the Rugby Championships. If the Boks can combine the attacking endeavour shown in this test series with the defensive solidity and set-piece strength shown last November, the Boks can beat all comers!
