London – Ireland’s rugby anthem “Ireland’s Call” had been belted out by a capacity 51700-strong Aviva Stadium crowd last Saturday, and it seemed to shake up the Springboks.
Well, at least judging by how they came out of the blocks – a bit erratic, low intensity, basic handling mistakes. And while the forwards did win their scrums and line-outs, they couldn’t get across the gain-line or intimidate the Irish ball-carriers.
An injury-depleted Ireland had come to play, and the Boks hadn’t pitched up, and that opening stanza set the tone for the rest of the game, and Jean de Villiers’ men never quite recovered.
Some big Bok reputations were dented, with star No8 Duane Vermeulen admitting yesterday that he “wasn’t great” on the night. But Vermeulen wasn’t alone as some other hard men of the pack like Bismarck du Plessis and Eben Etzebeth also weren’t able to stamp their authority on the Irish pack.
And that had a knock-on effect, as scrumhalf Francois Hougaard was under tremendous pressure at the breakdowns and was always on the back foot.
It requires a change of attitude if they hope to win the gain-line battle in Saturday’s Test against England at Twickenham (4.30pm kick-off South African time), and Monday’s “koppestamp” training session was designed to get rid of any rust that they may still have in their systems.
“In the first half, the Irish did come at us with a fury in those first 20 minutes, and we defended it, but we didn’t really knock them backwards or deliver the sort of physicality that we’re capable of,” Springbok defence coach John McFarland said yesterday.
“I was reasonably content to turn around at 6-3 at half-time because I thought we’d weathered that.
“And if you look at it, they definitely became tired in the second half. The key thing was that they took their opportunities when they were down at our end, even though we had 63 percent of the territory.
“So, there’s a need for us to come out and put our physicality on the game in those first 20 minutes on Saturday. I think we were possibly not at the levels that we have been over the winter or the Championship, so we know we’ve got big improvements to be made.”
Vice-captain Victor Matfield highlighted the Boks’ attacking breakdowns as one of the areas they struggled with against Ireland who – not always legally – played to referee Romain Poite’s whistle, often coming in from the side and poking a toe into the ruck, and were not blown up by Poite.
The Boks are used to southern hemisphere referees having a zero-tolerance policy around the breakdowns and tend to stay out of trouble. But up north, there is more of a fight for possession allowed. So, McFarland wants his players to pick up on that trend against England, whose captain and openside flank Chris Robshaw will look to slow down Bok ball once more.
“Ireland did do their rush defence quite well; they had numbers on their feet and were able to do it, but that’s more for the attack side of the game,” said Matfield. “But there are certainly things we can take from what they did defensively, over here in those conditions.
“I think the reason they were able to use the rush was that they were quite disruptive at the breakdown. If you looked, they kicked and made sure our ball was slow, and it was the leeway – they pushed the laws to the boundaries, and we must take some of that and implement it in our defence.”
The Boks are well-versed in how the referee for Saturday’s clash, Australian Steve Walsh, handles the breakdowns. But perhaps stung by what happened in Dublin, Vermeulen didn’t want to say openly that the South Africans would gain an advantage due to Walsh’s presence.
The Boks worked hard on their breakdown skills and ball presentation in the tackle during Monday’s practice, and are looking to sort out their own problems rather than rely on the referee.
Vermeulen and Du Plessis usually create a couple of turnovers each per game, but weren’t really able to get stuck in against Ireland and would want to have a great effect in that department at Twickenham.
“We know him (Walsh), but we are not going to play the ref. Like I said, we are going to play our own game.
“It was tough for us at the breakdown, and we are going to have a hard look at ourselves,” Vermeulen said.
“We worked on it yesterday and we are going to work on it today. It’s just to tighten up and clean up at the breakdown just a little more and be more efficient, so that we can get good, quick ball and play rugby on the front foot.
“It’s difficult to play when you are going back, so hopefully we can do that.” - The Star