All Blacks great hails Springboks’ ‘meticulous’ planning after flooring France

All Blacks great Sir John Kirwan has hailed the Springboks’ planning for the Rugby World Cup and their shift in tactics after defeating France in the quarter-finals.

Kirwan joined fellow ex-All Blacks Mils Muliaina and Jeff Wilson to react to South Africa defeating France 29-28, and the former winger was full of praise for the Boks, whom he has been critical of in the past.

What the Springboks got right

The trio rued the exit of the tournament hosts, but Wilson added that South Africa just know how to win the big games.

“Unfortunately for the hosts, they’re out of the Rugby World Cup,” Wilson said on Sky Sports NZ.

“It is bitterly disappointing for the French fans, but ultimately, it’s a Rugby World Cup, and we talk about it all the time; South Africa know how to win, and did they just get it right tactically and selection-wise was their 80 minutes almost perfect?”

Muliaina added: “This is where they get at their utmost best, the fact that they know how to win knockout football, they’re not the defending champs for no reason.”

Kirwan believes that the Boks got their selection and playing style on point for the match.

“Their balance was way better; I’ve been critical of them in the past, sometimes using the boot too much, but I think they got that mix incredibly right,” he said.

“The back three were bringing the ball back strong, their kicking game was a little bit shorter, and their first two tries came from errors from France.

“France were good early, but South Africa just knows how to finish those games off.

“There was a bit of controversy around the HIAs and guys coming on and off, but that’s South Africa. They know how to use the rules, and they know how to really put pressure on the opposition, so you got to say the best team won.”

Kirwan added that the Springboks’ ability to deal with the pressure of matches is crucial to their game as well as their planning.

“You know what you can’t measure that the South African side are very good at, the pressure they deal with it really, really well; they know it’s coming,” he said.

“We saw it in the last 20 minutes, so I think that it’s all planned out. I think they’re meticulous planners, and I don’t know how they’re going to play against England because they might come out with another game plan.”

Dupont out on his feet

Antoine Dupont missed France’s last pool stage match through injury but returned in time for the quarter-final.

While Kirwan felt that the captain and star number nine had a good game, he said that him missing that final pool clash against Italy impacted their performance.

“I think Dupont not playing was a problem,” he explained.

“I thought that he was out on his feet in the last five minutes; he was outstanding world’s best, but he was out on his feet because he hadn’t played for a few weeks.

“It was an incredibly courageous thing for him to do, but what happened actually when they were trying to mount some pressure is they made little errors, knocking on the ball, got a bit panicky and started throwing it around a bit instead of just keeping composure and mounting the pressure, and that’s what South Africa is good at.”

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