The Rugby Thread - Part Deux

Werner1975 said:
We rely too much on our forwards to give us momentum in a game. They were good. Our scrums and lineouts were great but as soon as the ball went to our backs the problems started. You can't be so one dimensional in your play.

The championship is now gone as I don't see NZ losing their 2 games.
All we can do now is to focus on Ireland.
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Forwards were immense, won all our lineouts and 2 or 3 on the French throw too. Scrums were dominant from start to finish. We were beaten on the ground though, with France turning over possession on a number of occasions. They too, seemed to win the vast majority of scraps on the ground.

Our offensive pattern is fairly predictable. Take possession through 2 or 3 phases, kick the contestable, win the contestable (at least 50% of the time), advancing play by a good 20m-30m down field. Reset offensive play from an advantageous position.

What disrupted this offensive pattern last night, is France were winning all the contestables, forcing plan B which is CPR. Catch-pass-run, the nuts and bolts of running rugby. Here, we were simply nowhere.

We simply don't catch-pass-clean with the same accuracy and competence most top tier international sides do.

We're just so dominant in many other facets of the game, that this deficiency is often papered over.

NZ are certainly hot favourites to finish first now, much as the Boks were before last nights loss. @Whright will be glad to learn that just about every forumite on here, will be rooting for England v NZ in a weeks time!!! COME ON ENGLAND!!
 
sand_man said:
Forwards were immense, won all our lineouts and 2 or 3 on the French throw too. Scrums were dominant from start to finish. We were beaten on the ground though, with France turning over possession on a number of occasions. They too, seemed to win the vast majority of scraps on the ground.

Our offensive pattern is fairly predictable. Take possession through 2 or 3 phases, kick the contestable, win the contestable (at least 50% of the time), advancing play by a good 20m-30m down field. Reset offensive play from an advantageous position.

What disrupted this offensive pattern last night, is France were winning all the contestables, forcing plan B which is CPR. Catch-pass-run, the nuts and bolts of running rugby. Here, we were simply nowhere.

We simply don't catch-pass-clean with the same accuracy and competence most top tier international sides do.

We're just so dominant in many other facets of the game, that this deficiency is often papered over.

NZ are certainly hot favourites to finish first now, much as the Boks were before last nights loss. @Whright will be glad to learn that just about every forumite on here, will be rooting for England v NZ in a weeks time!!! COME ON ENGLAND!!
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Thank you for your top & accurate assessment as usual. Maybe you should join the coaching team :cool:
 
What's "strange" about this game is that we literally dominated EVERY aspect of the game...and we even kicked LESS than France.

But we still lost.

It is rather obvious that our box-kick tactics have been rather successfully negated however. It is currently very fifficult to find stats on our re-gathers, but it felt like approx. 30%

Opposing teams have figured out a very effective way to defend against it.

So when we were "forced" to play a ball in hand game during the 2nd half...we just couldn't really do it.

We're terrible at the by now standard for other teams "blind-pass" in the backline. This makes us slow, hesitant and running lateral.

The forwards showed better ball handling skills than the backs.

Some "weird" scrum officiating though: after forcing 3 scrum penalties in a row, the ref told PSDT that is was a "communal" penalty so he couldn't yellow card France. France were lucky not end up with 3 yellow cards during that period of play.

And 30 seconds later they were kicking for poles at our end of the field.... luckily they somehow missed.

So we lost due to a brilliant piece of Du Pont play with the kick through as well as a very unlucky technical mistake with the score from the line-out.

But I think the box-kick dominance is a thing of the past and we have to evolve rather quickly.
 
TheMightyQuin said:
What's "strange" about this game is that we literally dominated EVERY aspect of the game...and we even kicked LESS than France.

But we still lost.

But I think the box-kick dominance is a thing of the past and we have to evolve rather quickly.
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Our game plan is really a simple one.

Kick for territorial gain, set piece dominance, subdue and submit.

That's really it...

Having said that we've won matches recently too, where we haven't had scrum dominance. The Baltimore and Cape Town RGR tests for example. Italy last week another example.

Our game has evolved under Tony and the Boks try scoring prowess has been impressive under Tony, but the harsh reality is we're uncomfortable in possession when forced to go wide, against high quality opposition with a cohesive and organized defense. One off runners, pick and drive, offensive lineout mauls, that's our game. Play from set piece to set piece. Milk the penalties, take the oppositions legs away, slow poison, slow grind...

What I will say about Tony Brown and his imminent departure post RWC2027. I honestly don't believe the AB's have much to gain, having him on the coaching staff. The AB's attacking shape has been remarkable under Mike Blair. I can't see Tony adding much value over and above what Mike has achieved in a relatively short space of time.

Anyway...
 
sand_man said:
the harsh reality is we're uncomfortable in possession when forced to go wide, against high quality opposition with a cohesive and organized defense. One off runners, pick and drive, offensive lineout mauls, that's our game. Play from set piece to set piece. Milk the penalties, take the oppositions legs away, slow poison, slow grind...
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Exactly this.

Our backline has stagnated. We try and break the opposition with physicallity and when that works, our backline is destructive.

When we are forced to play ball in hand, our backline is static, tentative and very vulnarable to to turn overs.

We need a new plan.

Also our decision making seems to be stuck in a rut too on the field.

Why 3/4 scrums in a row in front of the posts?

What do we hope for? MORE penalties? Then what. Yellow cards...that takes a LOT of time energy with low % results.

Kick for the corners and maul.

We will quickly need to evolve our game. The new "softy tackle baby rugby " rules, has taken a LOT of sting out of our physical game. Nowadays a hard, destructive tackle leads to yellow cards more and more.
 
Sacha, Willemse and Manie all had bad games - so the backline was useless. Not that they got much ball, because we kept on kicking the ball away and playing forwards in the backline.

We started without Marx and De Villiers - No real fetcher.

Our backline defense out wide, especially Arendse, has been bad for a while. NZ and France exploited it. So will Ireland.
 
We played average rugby, got a red card, had terrible discipline, had terrible handling (think something like 15 knock ons) and had most of our back line have terrible games all while France scored a freak try. The fact we clawed backed and only lost by 2 shows how good we are.

Sasha didn't have a great game but his goal kicking has been exceptional and that is what wins world cups.

Mannie no idea how he wasted time but when he was lining up the goal kick he had like 14 seconds left and seemed rushed.

Siya also seemed gassed after 30 minutes and was a passanger most of the 2nd half.

Small margins but luckily we have a year to build on this for the world cup.
 
Werner1975 said:
Massively disappointed in the Bok performance last night/this morning.

First, let's give credit to France. They played very well & deserved to win. They started fast and had us back pedaling in the first 20 or so minutes. Their defense was top class, especially their scramble defense.

Ok, now the Bok performance. I'm not going to blame the ref, this was our own (un)doing.
- Discipline - yet again our bugbear. 2 yellows and a red. Breaks momentum and puts you on the backfoot.
- Handling - Knock-ons in vital situations. Willemse especially guilty of this.
- Wild passing - Giving hospital passes to the next player, passing behind the backline or even worse, passing to the opposing player.
- Lost the aerial battle where we usually do very well in as last week against Italy,
- Silly mistakes in vital situations - Blown up for no brake foot at the scrum when we were in their 22, offside play that caused the Arendse try to be cancelled, Willemse & Sasha kicking the ball out on the full.
- Below par performances from usually top players like Krappies, Sasha & Willemse.
- Falling behind on the scoreboard - at 14-0 & 21-7 we were always chasing the game. This forces you to abandon your game plan. Also forces you to make silly mistakes.
- Not clinical enough - squandering point scoring opportunities in vital red zones.

We rely too much on our forwards to give us momentum in a game. They were good. Our scrums and lineouts were great but as soon as the ball went to our backs the problems started. You can't be so one dimensional in your play.

The championship is now gone as I don't see NZ losing their 2 games.
All we can do now is to focus on Ireland.
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sand_man said:
That was a difficult match to watch.

Congratulations to France.

Once again, the foundational principles of the sport hold true: execute your initial tackles, restrict the opposition's time and space, and force errors.

It was a very impressive victory for a relatively inexperienced French 23-man squad, with Attissogbe and Grandidier-Nkanang performing superbly under the high ball.

From my perspective, the aerial contestables were where the match was ultimately won and lost.

Once it became evident that we were not winning the aerial contestables, our hand was forced, compelling us to keep the ball in hand and grind out meters through a catch-pass-run approach—an area where we are not particularly comfortable or adept.

Our inability to string together multi-phase plays against a resolute and cohesive defensive line rendered our attack somewhat muted and impotent, characterized by dropped passes, passes delivered behind runners, and receptions taken from a standing start.

Some might argue that we overplayed. We did not. Rather, we lacked offensive composure and accuracy with ball in hand, and fundamental handling errors ultimately let us down.
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See now this is quality reviews. Thank you
 
No ways was that a try by Lakai, wtf was the ref thinking, the replay clearly shows the ball was never even close to try line! :mad:
 
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