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Boks need to box clever to win the World Cup

South Africa's Victor Matfield. (EPA/DAVID JONES)
Roar Guru
5th October, 2015
16

“Listen to this buddy, for it comes from a guy whose palms are still wet, whose throat is still dry and whose jaw is still agape from the utter shock of watching Joe Louis knock out Max Schmeling.”

American writer Bob Considine was writing his story from the ringside at Yankee Stadium in New York in the late 1930s and, of course, he was describing a world heavyweight title fight, not rugby.

As in rugby, boxing relies on power and skill. All brawn and no brains and you’re likely to end up on the deck.

You have to change with the times in all sports. What would have been good enough a few years ago may not bring success now. And that is something for Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer to ponder as his South African rugby warriors head for the World Cup knock-out stages.

Meyer appears to believe that the tactics which brought the Boks glory in 1995 and 2007 will be enough to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy again.

I doubt it. If you don’t believe me, ask Graham Henry, who coached the All Blacks to World Cup victory four years ago.

Writing for The Guardian, Henry said, “South Africa have recovered from losing to Japan but they appear back to their old ways, more brawn than skill, high in their carries (and tackles) and slow to get the ball away.”

Meyer and some South African critics see the defeat by Japan as ‘blip’ and that subsequent wins over Samoa and Scotland have put the Boks in the World Cup-winning frame again.

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The coach turned a blind eye to why we lost against Japan and seems adamant that the Boks will overpower any opposition.

There is little subtle about Meyer’s game plan: kick for territory, use box-kicks, dominate the breakdown, employ the rolling maul, and bag points from penalties.

A great deal is talked about our physicality. We’re the tough guys on the block, and power, not guile, holds the key to victory.

The problem is that other coaches know how the Boks play and work out counters. Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, another Kiwi, did this when they beat us and Eddie Jones, Australia’s coach in the 2003 World Cup and now with Japan, came up with a plan which shocked the Boks in Brighton a few weeks ago.

All the teams in this year’s showpiece have tough guys. They also have gameplans, but the difference is that their tactics are flexible. As Henry noted recently, he had learnt to empower the players and allow the captain on the field to make decisions on how the team played during a match.

Meyer appears to think that his predetermined plan will pay off and that he is better placed to control matters from his box in the stand than the captain.

“The players wouldn’t listen to me,” he is said to have told a fan while wandering gloomily about Brighton after Japan’s sun set over South Africa.

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No one knows why hooker Bismarck du Plessis was dropped from the team – and didn’t even get a seat on the bench – for the next game. However, talk on the rugby grapevine was that mutiny was in the air and several players, including Du Plessis, voiced their disapproval over Meyer’s tactics.

South Africa are on course to reach the quarter-finals and maybe go further, but the teams they will encounter will be far stronger, skilful and better prepared than most of our pool opponents.

It is one thing to kick the ball downfield to gain territory, but that plan opens the way for a counter-attack. Teams such as the All Blacks and the Wallabies simply run the ball back up the field and try to keep it in the tackle. That way they turn defence into attack and men such as the All Blacks’ Richie McCaw and Liam Messam and Australia’s David Pocock and Michael Hooper are hard to beat in the battle of the breakdown.

The Boks have the players to beat any team on the planet, however it’s how we play that matters. If Meyer insists on tactics like we used in 2007, we’re likely to bow out of the tournament earlier than hoped.

The Boks coach also believes that experience rather than form is vital for success. That is why he preferred Victor Matfield, big on experience but short of form, to Lood de Jager, who is one of the star players of the tournament, as a lock for his starting line-up in the game against Samoa. He also opted for captain Jean de Villiers at centre, another player beyond his best days.

Then injury struck. De Villiers broke his jaw again and had to be replaced in the squad, while Matfield suffered a strained hamstring.

That opened the way for de Jager at lock and Jesse Kriel at centre in the backline. Fourie du Preez took the captain’s armband and suddenly the Boks were a better side when they played Scotland.

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Too much should not be seen into our defeat of Scotland, who fielded a second-string line-up, obviously aware they could lose to the Boks and still make the knockout stages by winning their last match against Samoa.

Du Preez, at scrumhalf, has an astute rugby brain and I hope Meyer allows him to use it. If he brings back the 38-year-old Matfield as captain and prefers him in a starting line-up to one of the other two locks, the Boks will be in trouble.

Matfield, like Meyer, is conservative in approach and I doubt he will go with the flow of the game if necessary.

Does South Africa have a KO punch, like Joe Louis, good enough to deck other top-tier teams? I doubt it. We will have to box clever, too, if we hope to win the World Cup again.

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