Character, resilience and a never-say-die attitude won’t be enough for the Springboks to beat Argentina in their second Rugby Championship match in Salta on Saturday, according to coach Allister Coetzee.
South Africa will need to show significant improvements and a killer instinct after they were granted yet another get-out-of-jail-free card through a spirited last 10 minutes come-from-behind fightback to claw themselves from the jaws of certain defeat and emerge 30-23 winners against a resilient Argentina side at the weekend at the Mbombela Stadium.
It was a second such act of bravery and defiance from the Springboks in their last three Test matches but they will need more than that if they are to avoid defeat against the same side in six days' time.
In the June series against Ireland, Coetzee’s men had to dig deep in the second Test at Ellis Park and it was courtesy of tries by Warren Whiteley and Damian de Allende that they were able to win the match and level the series.
A week later in Port Elizabeth the series was won and though it was not convincing, the Springboks had shown great mental fortitude to recover from the first Test loss in Cape Town to record back-to-back wins.
Fast forward to the Rugby Championship and Coetzee’s men showed the same resilience which was sparked by a try by Johan Goosen and capped off by a 78th minute dot down by Whiteley as the hosts scored 17 unanswered points in the last 10 minutes.
But the Boks can only rely on resilience so many times and before even facing the Wallabies and All Blacks, they will have to make significant strides in adhering to the basics of the game while showing a ruthlessness in execution.
“It is important for the players that when they are on the back foot, they must still have the belief and trust in each other. Resilience is part of the core values and they have shown that,” said Coetzee.
“There is a resolve in the team which cannot be coached and there is brotherhood in the team and it is a good platform to take this team forward. We wouldn’t like to bank on the resolve always. What I’d like us to see develop is a killer instinct. We must get the execution right and then we have the killer instinct. Every opportunity you get must show on the scoreboard. That's the next step for us to get right.”
Coetzee acknowledged the need for his team to improve and to do so drastically but said that comes in tandem with winning.
It was obvious in the opening exchanges against Argentina that the Springboks had indeed learnt from the ills of their ways against Ireland. They managed to take control of the scrums, line-outs and breakdown while generating quick ball to their ball carriers who got over the advantage line with relative ease.
However, the Springboks lost the patience needed to break down a side like Argentina and allowed the game to degenerate into an ugly unstructured slugfest which played into the hands of the South Americans.
Argentina have proven to be the masters of ugly, broken play and they made the best of a disjointed and desperate Springbok defence as they ran the ball from all corners of the field and were richly rewarded for their tireless endeavour.
“What we shouldn’t again do is underestimate Argentina. I said it last week that they are not just 'improving' but are in fact a force in world rugby. A win is important in Test rugby, and it doesn’t matter how it comes. But it’s important to improve while you are winning. It’s difficult, especially in the Rugby Championship, to improve when you are losing.
“So we understand that it is not good, not clinical. There are glimpses of good play but it still a work in progress. I’m happy that our set phase went well which is an area where they applied the most pressure. We would like to have more scrums and line-outs in their half. The decision when to run and kick is not there yet. If we get that right and have the territorial control then it will be a different ball game.”
The Springboks have been rocked by a setback in the scrums with in-form prop Julian Redelinghuys being ruled out for up to six weeks after suffering a hamstring injury in Saturday’s win.
Redelinghuys’ place in the starting line-up is surely going to be taken by Vincent Koch who redeemed himself with a strong scrummaging effort on Saturday after carrying the burden of his scrumming abilities being questioned after last year’s defeat in Durban.
Sharks prop Lourens Adriaanse has been added to the 27-man squad that will travel to Argentina today along with prop Trevor Nyakane, Lions hooker Malcolm Marx, lock Franco Mostert and flyhalf Morne Steyn.
Springbok squad to Argentina:
Tendai Mtawarira, Trevor Nyakane, Vincent Koch, Steven Kitshoff, Lourens Adriaanse, Adriaan Strauss, Bongi Mbonambi, Malcolm Marx, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Franco Mostert, Teboho Mohoje, Francois Louw, Jaco Kriel, Warren Whiteley, Faf de Klerk, Rudy Paige, Elton Jantjies, Morne Steyn, Damian de Allende, Lionel Mapoe, Juan de Jongh, Bryan Habana, Ruan Combrinck, Johan Goosen, Jesse Kriel. - The Star