Johannesburg - What did South Africans expect of Allister Coetzee’s Springboks on Saturday? Yes, we wanted a victory above everything else, but what else?
Did we expect this new-look Springbok side to all of a sudden play like the All Blacks? Did we expect them to run the Irish off their feet? Did we expect them to play a ball-in-hand style and run from all parts, like the Lions have done in the last two years?
I think a lot of fans expected a lot - maybe they wanted Coetzee’s team to deliver a bit of everything mentioned above. Of course, that would have been wonderful and would have given Coetzee and his players the perfect start to this new era, whatever that might mean.It didn’t happen though, did it?
In fact the Boks on Saturday didn’t look very flash at all, but then, in the same breath, they weren’t all that horrible either.The problem is I think the Boks, including Coetzee and his management team, got lulled into thinking the team could play a style of rugby everyone wants them to play and what we have seen from the Lions in Super Rugby.
Johan Ackermann’s Lions have thrilled us with their ball-in-hand, almost run-from-all-parts rugby, but it has taken them three years to get to this point. The players have had to learn about the men on their outside and inside, the lines they need to run, the strength of their passes and when to run and when to kick.
It is also a style of rugby that suits the type of players in the Lions team and doesn’t necessarily translate to every player and every team... the Lions have, in a sense, built their game around the players and not the other way round.
Also, when the Lions have thrilled with their backs, they’ve always had a solid platform laid up front - something the Boks didn’t have against Ireland.
Their key playmakers, Faf de Klerk and Elton Jantjies, have also had runners on their inside and outside, where everyone understands and knows exactly what their role is in the plan.The Lions’ brand of rugby has brought them plenty of success this season and it is a style every coach in the country has tried to adopt - to varying degrees of success.
It will take time, however, to perfect it; if it ever can be perfected. But the Boks chasing the same kind of style - if that is what they have tried - is a recipe for disaster so early on with a new coach in charge. And new players, many of whom played together for the first time on Saturday.
Said Coetzee on Monday: “We shouldn’t be sucked into the Super Rugby vibe, where when something looks on you run from everywhere. It’s almost like a feel-good scenario. The thing is Test rugby is different.”Indeed. I’m not quite sure what South Africa expected on Saturday, but what is clear is that Coetzee’s Boks will quickly have to find their own identity and style.
In the first Test they looked all-at-sea, but that’s understandable, too, given the time they’ve had together.Sure, there were disappointing aspects of their performance, but there were also positive signs; finding the balance is what is required.
And that doesn’t mean copying a certain style of rugby, if that is what they did, but creating their own style.
The Star