The seemingly aimless kicking in the South Africa-Australia match last weekend left me virtually apoplectic. Will someone please explain the logic of routinely kicking the ball away when the odds of regaining possession are at best 50-50?
It is particularly irritating to see the ball caught cleanly followed by the receiver jogging casually forward, only to unleash a bomb with the defenders still 15-20 meters away.
Whatever happened to running hard from the outset, linking up with someone, challenging the defence and retaining possession?
Perhaps frustration has addled my memory, but I seem to recall seeing AAC trotting along with Tuqiri in support on several occasions, only to kick long, directly to Janjtes who returned it with interest or counterattacked and retained possession.
Is an aggressive counterattack that takes the ball forward 20-30 meters and retains possession really inferior to the speculative approach inherent in the endless kicking volleys?
On Saturday, possession with a calculated mixture of slow (take a breather) and fast ball (play the game the way it is meant to be played) would probably have at least kept the score down.
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