The Springboks will be looking at starting with a clean slate on their end-of-year tour but they won’t be throwing the baby out with the bath water according to assistant coach Johann van Graan.
After an unconvincing series win against Ireland in June and a shambolic Rugby Championship campaign where they conceded their first loss to Argentina in South America and also suffered an embarrassing record loss against the All Blacks, Van Graan is of the belief that they are working towards the 2019 Rugby World Cup with the foundation starting on their three Test tour, which includes a tour match against the Barbarians next weekend at Wembley Stadium.
Van Graan has underlined the need for the Springboks to sharpen up on their skills and on the small details that will aid the ball in hand approach that they are in pursuit of.
To get there, the Springboks will have to draw a line in the sand and move on from the indifferent start that coach Allister Coetzee and his management have had to their four year tenure at the helm of the team.
“The coach has said that he has identified close to 45 players that he wants to focus on for the 2019 World Cup and we see the start of that now. That is our mindset for this week to start at base zero. In everything we do we had to look at what we do and where we can improve. We’ve been focusing on the small detail, on our ball carrying ability, our cleaning ability and the identification of space in our attacking mindset. We want to get the ball in our hands and if you want to do that you have to uplift your skills. So, we start at base zero this week and once we get to London, we will focus a bit more on the Barbarians specifically,” said Van Graan yesterday at the team hotel in Johannesburg.
However, Van Graan believes that there is some good to be taken from the ashes of the Rugby Championship with the Springboks strengths of the scrum and line-out still the best out of any team in the southern hemisphere.
At the same time Van Graan highlighted the need for the Springboks to drastically improve their brittle defence, wayward kicking game and breathe some life into their sterile attack if they are to make the strides to competitiveness in Europe and ultimate dominance in three years time at the World Cup.
The inclusion of Free State Cheetahs coach Franco Smith and Lions defence coach JP Ferreira will go a long way in alleviating the glaring problems that have dogged the Springboks this year, according to Van Graan.
“Obviously, if I look at the small details looking back at the Rugby Championship, I am very happy with our set-piece, where we ended No 1, if you combine our scrums and line-outs. What we need to improve is our defence and our kicking game and that is specifically where JP and Franco come in. So, we will need to improve on those areas. Once we get into that attacking zone we need to finish our opportunities. That comes with better skill and working from day-to-day. Obviously we would be happy with four out of four wins but at this stage we are focusing on this week and getting all the players on the same page. We must improve our skill level, our session detail and from Monday we will focus specifically on the Barbarians,” Van Graan said.
The Star