Oom Rugby

Hi guys. Only thing worst than watching the Bok game against the All Blacks is to sit down to write a article about it! Do you think I can charge SARU for my broken TV after I throw the remote control into it?

Well, I do not want to beat our boys with a stick. There is enough of that at the moment. But I am interested in some of the technical reasons why the Boks did not often manage to get nice, quick ball on Saturday. Without quick ball even the best backline in the world is a lost cause because the defence is in control.

The first reason of course is that our set piece was a nightmare not like anything we have seen in the modern era. Set piece is the foundation of creating quick ball, because the forwards is out the equation and there is space. But apart from that, the first interesting thing I notice in the example below is a tactic the All Blacks used time and again on our big carries…

These carries is meant to generate momentum and get us playing on front foot, but look above at how the All Blacks take out the first Bok support player.

First picture, Eben carry but Whitelock focus on taking supporter Franco out of the equation. Second one Beast carry and Crockett prevent Eben from sealing. Third is a All Black taking Dreyer out on his way to clean over Eben. These carries is very important to try and get the defence going backwards so that you can start to dictate, but the All Blacks very cleverly targets the support runners and then able to get over the ball and slow it down. Huge.

And it is kind of legal. Because modern pods carries right up to your face with a short pass at the last second, defence sometimes end up taking the extra pod men anyway in a “pre-empt” tackle. The All Blacks used this “pre-empt” tackle as disguise for taking out our support. The Boks will have to plan for this.

The next thing we see above was occasions when Boks slow own ball down through poor technique or messy focus. In this example we see the ball is presented after a carry by Marx. First thing is a very sloppy clean by Siya who just slide across the man and don’t stop Crockett from disrupting. Then Coles move the ball with his leg, before Uzair come flying in and it just become a tangle of legs over the ball.

With a good initial clean by our openside the ball could have been played at 43:17 but it is already 43:19 and the ball is not out yet. Look at how defence is set and ready to dictate.

In the next picture above we see another huge carry by Malcolm. Hell this guy is special hey… His carries and steals absolutely terrorise the All Blacks. Just a pity about his lineout throwing!

Anyway, we see Franco, Beast and Siya in support and they blast over the ball. Then more troops arrives and Eben and Ruan also go and attend the ruck. Including Hougaard that is 7 Boks all out of play.

Rugby is a numbers game and at this level you can not have almost half your team at one ruck. We can understand Bok frustration and wanting to clean the hell out of the spoilers at the ball, but cool and clinical heads must prevail.

We spoke about quick ball and how it is holy grail of rugby. With quick ball we neutralise the speed of the defence, we can run at retreating and disorganised defenders, we run at static defenders, we can play at speed.

In the chain of quick ball the scrumhalf is the sparkplug. If he is not firing then all our hard work in the carry and at the ruck is for nothing. Unfortunately Hougie is not a guy who can help generate quick ball… Remember guys, the difference between quick ball and slow ball can be one second. It is the time it take for a defender to turn and be ready, or for him to be static or starting his sprint.

In today’s game with trend of rush defence we are dead if our ball is slow. In the picture above we see the ball is presented but Hougaard is not there. He wait for Ruan to come and lie (unnecessarily) on the ruck before he pass the ball. In that time the All Blacks has folded an extra man to the far side and is nice and organised and ready for the Bok attack.

Another cause of lack of momentum is the Boks alignment and timing of their runs off 9… Many times we see them catch the ball static and get caught deep. There many reasons for that so maybe that can be a story for another day!

Anyway guys, this was a freak game where absolutely everything go wrong and the score line reflect that. I am not saying Boks was going to win, but we do not often see so many things in a “perfect storm” like we did on Saturday.

Our boys must pick themself up, remember that they are better than that, focus on simple technical execution, trust in each other and stay away from Twitter. Then they will be fine!