At Ellis Park
- Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber pardoned his troops’ iffy showing against Argentina on the basis that his mix-and-match selection strategy is depriving them of rhythm.
- But he also believes the team needed this narrow escape as they’ll be confronted with similar scenarios at the upcoming World Cup.
- Stand-in skipper Duane Vermeulen says the Boks’ faltering discipline as the game went on proved a challenge to manage.
Without dwelling too much on the issue, Jacques Nienaber was more than willing to concede that much of the blame for the Springboks’ unconvincing 22-21 Rugby Championship victory over Argentina here on Saturday night lay with a mix-and-match selection strategy.
South Africa, despite boasting a large contingent of stalwarts, were once again much changed from the loss to the All Blacks a fortnight ago and the lack of cohesion was evident in a showing where the team was wayward at times.
“The easiest way to get cohesion is to have continuity in selection and that’s probably where we’ve been putting the players under pressure,” said the Bok mentor.
“If you look at the amount of minutes Bongi Mbonambi played compared to Malcolm Marx a week ago and how we’ve evened it out now by letting Malcolm start, you’ll see there’s some parity now in terms of match-fitness. And that’s what we’re trying to do overall.
“It’s about getting everybody back into the mix, playing rugby again on an international stage. However, every week [to date] they have had to contend with a different hooker, prop, loose trio and so on, which affects rhythm.
“As we get closer to the World Cup, team selection will be more consistent.”
Nonetheless, this was not a particularly pleasing spectacle to watch, with stand-in skipper Duane Vermeulen, in particular, bemoaning a relative lack of discipline that was evidenced by 12 penalties being conceded as well as 20 turnovers being lost.
READ | Erratic Springboks survive almighty Williams and Pumas scare to get back to winning ways
“It was a stop-start game for us. Our discipline wasn’t something that we’ll reflect upon fondly,” said the veteran No 8, who was once again a huge presence.
“I don’t know how many penalties we gave away, but sometimes you give away ones that just ‘happen’ so to speak. [But] then there are avoidable ones that you shouldn’t give away and that was a tough thing for us. It’s not easy to manage for any player on the pitch, trying to sort it out.
“Looking back, if we could’ve just taken away a few of those avoidable penalties, it would’ve been a better game for us. I can’t fault Argentina, they’ve shown they can fight back and even in Durban last year they did so with a few tries at the death with a massive onslaught.
“They play a full 80 minutes and we had to keep up. We’re happy with the win and take it from there.”
For a second game in succession, the Boks too were put under pressure through a concerted kicking game that kept play in field.
The Pumas’ execution wasn’t quite as consistently menacing as the New Zealanders in Auckland, but the home side definitely seemed to carry scars from that experience.
“The aerial kicking game was effective, their kicks between the two 10m lines were well utilised. They give you possession and almost bank on you making a mistake. It’s the type of game we can play as well, we did so against Wales in 2019. We’re comfortable playing it, but I’m not convinced it will win the World Cup,” said Nienaber.
“We again weren’t great handling it, as was the case against the All Blacks, but we’ll have to work on it. There were some tactical and technical shortcomings, but those are the things that one can easily fix or tweak.”
READ | No Kolisi in 26-man Bok squad named for RWC warm-up match away to Argentina
In fact, the national coach believes his troops will be stronger for the narrow escape, a case of almost getting the proverbial iffy performance “out of the system”.
“It wasn’t a nice game to watch, but it’s one that we needed, a game where we ground our way to a victory. It was a valuable exercise, Duane and the senior players had to manage the situation, particularly in those final 10 minutes.
“When you look back at previous years (in the build-up to World Cups), we lost four or so of these encounters.
“We told ourselves from the outset that the Argentinians would present a proper challenge to us, especially given their recent record of beating both New Zealand and Australia away from home. They’re building towards something.
“But we did well to get through this arm wrestle. I believe we had to be put under pressure like we were in this game because you’ll be confronted with it again in the World Cup.”
Discussion about this post