All Blacks coach makes Springboks ‘exploration’ prediction: ‘They’ve certainly got the players to do it’
Springbok Kurt-Lee Arendse is tackled by All Black Josh Moorby with an inset of Mike Blair.
All Blacks assistant coach Mike Blair predicts that the Springboks will shake up their game plan in the final Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test match in Baltimore.
Rassie Erasmus’ men went 2-1 up in the series by defeating New Zealand at the FNB Stadium in Soweto last week, with the Boks reverting to a more conservative style of play for the fixtures against their fiercest rivals.
Tony Brown’s arrival in the coaching team after the 2023 Rugby World Cup saw the men in Green and Gold play more expansively in attack over the past two years, but that has been largely parked in the last three Tests.
Something different from South Africa?
Instead, they have backed their more traditional strengths, leaning more and more into their power, kicking and set-piece prowess.
While that has resulted in back-to-back wins, Blair says he wouldn’t be surprised if the Boks were to play more expansively in the finale at the home of the Baltimore Ravens.
“The same again. I thought they showed a good ability to move the ball as well once they got a little bit of dominance in some of the collisions,” the All Blacks‘ attack coach told reporters when asked what he expects from the Springboks this week.
“I thought we defended really well at times, and we’re unfortunate that a couple of one-on-one tackles let them in when our system and a lot of what we’re trying to do was really good.
“Potentially, with them being two-one up, they might look at exploring a slightly different game, and they’ve certainly got the players to be able to do that as well – we saw a little bit more of that on Saturday.”
Verdict on the All Blacks’ attack in Soweto
Meanwhile, the All Blacks’ attack has been in the spotlight, with Rennie’s charges hailed for their ruthlessness with ball in hand and their willingness to keep ball in hand. It’s been a notable area of improvement this year as the attack under Scott Robertson was heavily scrutinised.
Even Rassie Erasmus sang their praises, saying: “All of us envy the way they [New Zealand] can handle the ball, and they are certainly brilliant at that.”
The attack has undoubtedly been a strength of the All Blacks, but Blair still isn’t satisfied with their conversion rate.
“The key messages [this week] from an attack point of view are we’re creating a hell of a lot, and we’re scoring tries, but we’re missing a lot of opportunities as well. So, the message has been really positive in what we’re creating,” he explained.
“We’re also discussing how we can maintain pressure through our multi-phase and then, when we get those opportunities, be able to communicate and pull the trigger on them.”
Springboks coach’s ‘improvement’ warning to the All Blacks after South African scrum demolition
Springboks’ breakdown threats
He added that they are wary of the threats that South Africa poses over the ball at the breakdown as the All Blacks search for a balance of gain-line dominance and ruck speed.
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“There’s a balance with gain-line and ruck speed. You don’t want one without the other. So it’s a balance of having that,” the former Scotland scrum-half explained.
“We’ve improved our gain line through the three Tests, which has been excellent because, as you know, South Africa have a very strong defence and are very collision-based. So we’ve got our gain line up there, but LQB [lightning quick ball] was a little bit slower from the weekend, so they were able to slow a little bit of our ball down.
“We are comfortable with what we are trying to do with our balance of manipulation and, I guess, brutality in winning collisions to set up opportunities. We are pretty good in that area, and as I said, with the opportunities we are creating, there’s a lot of stuff we’re doing well.”
