News Springboks November 15
From TurboCASH Wiki
England vs South Africa - a slug fest comming
The game at Twickenham this weekend is a case of “We know we are going to jam it up the middle, they know we are going to jam it up the middle - so what do we do - we jam it up the middle!”. Expect England to attack the mid field. This English gameplan, which has lost them 7 in a row, is likely to lead to a win over South Africa. Expect them to play it.
“Jake, focus on your defense and have at least 2 tackling practices this week”, this is the advice of Philip Copeman, Defense Coach for The Spears. “Tackling goes rusty without practice. Even if it costs you injuries in practice, you have to get the level of contact up or these guys will run over you.”
For both England and South Africa, number 12 remains a defensive dilemma. Both Allen and De Villiers are good attackers and shocking defenders. The Pretorius-deVilliers hole is our weakest point. He is also bad to the right, but Jeanne de Villiers is incapable of tackling to his left - Ever. When we are facing strong right, expect England to run off de Villiers left shoulder. Fortuin is going to have to cover this lane.
Wholesale changes will not help us, but to beef the defensive backline, bring in Wynand Olivier at the expense of Jaco Pretorius who was shown up in defense. Whether Wynand plays wing or we move Habanna back out again, either way will be uncomfortable. Against Ireland, I thought that Habanna played a good defensive game at center, shutting out Brian O Driscoll, arguably the best center in the world, I would leave him there. Noon is a danger man for England.
Leave Ricky January in place. In the few plays that he did play against Ireland, Ruan Pienaar showed us once again that he does not have a stomach for defending against the pressure.”
Springbok ruck technique has always been behind the top teams. Right now, this vital area is what is costing us the games. There is very little that you can do about it in the short run. England are also off the rucking mark, but they are better than SA. The more distance England opens up between successive breakdowns, or the quicker they force them in succession, the more this will hurt the South Africans. The fitness level of Johan Smit and CJ van de Linde is questionable. They were walking after nine minutes against Ireland! Similarly the inability of the Springbok back row to get to the ruck gives huge opportunities off first phase since second phase quick ball is basically guaranteed to England. This will give them ample opportunity to attack the midfield.
Fixing their quickball advantage in a week is really tricky. On technique, I would focus on getting the guys to move over the ball. Take a tip from the All Blacks, play the man and not the ball in the ruck. I would move Danie Rousseau to Lock and brings in a faster open sider. Lobberts I guess, but I would have preferred someone shorter, faster - one of those Eastern Cape fetchers, pinched by the big unions and left behind in SA. The reality is that we are going to lose the fetching encounters and to counter this we should make sure that we get our defensive alignment on the shoulder of the ruck in place.
The problem with the Springbok Rush Defense is that it is played man on man. While man defense on the Drift is acceptable, because by default you are covering the cut back. In the Rush, you must be able to force the play inwards, and the worst thing you can do is let the runner through on the inside going outwards, ala Trimble’s try for Ireland. In second phase, the Springboks leave huge holes in the midfield which is where Ireland put the boot in. Even when they are not standing wide, the weak Springbok defensive posture (hands on knees) is so bad that it makes inside running a no brainer. England can actually increase these holes by standing wider themselves. Because the Defense is man on man, the Boks follow you outwards like sheep. This makes the Boks particularly vulnerable to the inside switch pass. To protect against this you need someone big and fast like Albert van der Berg or Pierre Spies backing the defensive line in a cover position.
This week we should also pay special attention to the Scrum. England’s strong point is loosehead. Accept that we are going to have to play and substitute CJ van der Linde and BJ Botha here. This means that we need Sepaka to play out the whole game at loosehead. Sepaka also offers bester defensive capabilities as he is more mobile than either Botha or van der Linde but I expect scrums to be a problem. Give special attention to ensuring that flanks support the loosehead side. If we do play Danie Rousseau at flank, he needs urgent attention to his scrumming technique. Danie’s scrumming contribution against Ireland was woeful. The modern scrum is won with the fastest hit, flanks must be part of this drive.
