Coach is right to resist pressure to bin the game plan that has served SA so well
Lood de Jager of the Springboks competes in the line out during the Rugby Championship match against the All Blacks at QCB Stadium in Townsville, Australia, September 25 2021. Picture: MATT ROBERTS/GETTY IMAGES
Yet there was none of even the standard gnashing of teeth that normally follows a loss to the Boks’ arch-rivals. Perhaps it was the fact that despite the loss, the team’s performance was so much better last weekend than it had been the previous two, when the Springboks were comprehensively outplayed by Australia’s Wallabies.
The Springboks have vowed to put in a “colossal” effort to avoid going home with four losses out of four to show for their Antipodean venture, and the All Blacks will undoubtedly be keen to remain unbeaten in this year’s competition, but fans will be forgiven for failing to lose sleep in excited anticipation.
The answer is yes, and the blueprint is already on the table. Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber is correct to resist pressure to bin the game plan that has served SA so well and switch to the free-flowing, running game some pundits — most of them seemingly Englishmen still smarting from the World Cup final and Lions tour losses — insist is the way rugby should be played.
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