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Where Did The Boks Go Wrong?
Ahead of the climactic clash between the Springboks and All Blacks in Johannesburg in two weeks time, one has to wonder where exactly South Africa fell short in Auckland. It all looked pretty tight in the narrow 14-10 loss, but the latest statistics from the match reveal some interesting elements to the match.
According to the latest Opta stats posted on the All Blacks website, the Kiwis made 611 metres, carried the ball 162 times, beat 31 defenders, made 235 passes and executed 16 successful offloads.
In comparison, the Springboks only managed to make 282 metres, made 80 carries, beat only 10 defenders, completed just 80 passes, and offloaded once throughout the game.
In addition,due to the overwhelming percentage of possession the All Blacks had, the Springboks had to make 155 tackles and missed 31 during the game, while the All Blacks only made 75 tackles, missing only 10.
The remaining stats in different categories for the respective teams are not that different, however, the alarming amount of missed tackles, and lack of passes and offloads should be a cause for concern for Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
What are your thoughts? Should the Boks try up the continuity by delivering more offloads and make those first-time tackles count? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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Ray
September 17, 2014 at 14:08
Attack is the best form of defense. If our big ball-carriers could start offloading in the tackles it would make a huge difference on attack. Then we would see the true potential of Pollard!
Jeremy Proome
September 18, 2014 at 02:43
I hope someone like Warren Whiteley can add that element to the loose trio.
james
September 17, 2014 at 18:53
I think the statistics tell a different story to what actually happened on the day. I think the Boks poor decision making was mainly their let down. We were given a penalty in front of the posts and decided to kick for touch (with roughly 10mins left on the clock). Firstly, we had the opportuinity to close the points gap by kicking for posts. The boks had been camping in the Kiwis half and forcing the kiwis to make penalisable errors. So after kicking for posts, there most likely would have been a chance the Boks would have been awarded another penalty. Secondly, the Bok line outs had been terrible up until that point in the game. Kicking for touch ended up resulting in a shamble of a line out and a bunch of phases that ate up time but ended with no result.
Jeremy Proome
September 18, 2014 at 02:42
It’s true, our lineouts were shaky throughout the game (despite thinking we were going to dominate without the ABs having Sam Whitelock on the day), but our scrums were clearly stronger than theirs, and the Boks should’ve backed that facet of the game. Taking those points when we have the opportunity is crucial, and Pollard has the ability to drop-goal and close-out a game, so that’s something that should also be used when needed. I think it was a good day for the Boks though – it answered a lot of questions about our weaknesses and strengths. We mustn’t become fixated on trying to beat the All Blacks though – as long as the Boks progress, that’s the main goal.
Ray
September 18, 2014 at 09:21
Well if we went for posts when we got that penalty with 10 min left, then we could’ve camped in their half and gone for the drop. Maybe even a try would’ve been easier to come by as the ABs would have had to defend differently to avoid giving away a kickable penalty. I also think its important for the Boks to not become obsessed about beating the ABs and rather improve week by week…but we cant deny that it would be a huge psychological boost going into next years WC knowing that we can beat them.