Ex-All Black identifies areas where New Zealand must catch up with Springboks
Former All Blacks hooker James Parsons and flyer Caleb Clarke in action against the Springboks.
Former New Zealand and Blues hooker James Parsons has given his verdict on the areas the All Blacks must improve on to reach the standard set by South Africa in the Test arena.
The Springboks were in fine form during the recent Rugby Championship as they won five out of their six matches in the competition en route to lifting the title as tournament winners for the first time since 2019.
By contrast, the All Blacks delivered a mixed bag of results and although they finished second in the Rugby Championship standings, they only managed three victories and lost both their matches against the Boks in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively.
An area which Parsons believes played a big part in the All Blacks’ downfall is their discipline, or lack thereof, as they conceded several penalties during the tournament which cost them dearly in the grander scheme of things.
On average, the Boks conceded nine penalties game compared to the All Blacks’ 12 and although that might appear to be a small margin, Parsons believes such small margins make big differences.
‘Caught giving penalties away that have led to yellow cards’
“Massive differences. And it’s where the penalties are given away,” he told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod. “You know, probably we’ve been caught giving penalties away that have led to yellow cards.
“Like, if you’re 10 and under, I think, penalties, that’s okay. You can live with that as a coach. So 12 isn’t drastic.
“It’s not 16 or 17, but it’s where. And the Wallabies are the same. It’s where they give those penalties away.
“(Against) Argentina, it costs them. You know, like take the cards out of it. It was pretty even.
“Soon as the cards (come), and that is probably what set the Springboks apart from the rest is when you got a yellow card, they were just ruthless in capitalising in that period.
“They did it again against Argentina (on Saturday). And you know, that is, I believe the point of difference at the moment, they can probably survive when they give a yellow card away.
“Other teams have struggled and they’re a big part of making those teams have those struggles if you look across the tournament.”
Another facet of play in which the Boks are leading the way is their ball carrying ability and during the Rugby Championship they made 23 dominant carries per game while the other teams in the competition were down to 18 and 19.
Former Crusaders scrum-half Bryn Hall highlighted the impact of the Boks’ ball carries and the momentum which their much vaunted Bomb Squad brings off the bench.
“If you look at the South Africans on the weekend as well, like you just look at the effort and the intent and everything when it comes to that part of the ball, like their ball carry is great,” he said.
“But then you look at the guys that are in and around there, their first movements are always fast. Even if they’ve given a little tip ball or they’ve just missed their clean, their next action to try and get there and get to that breakdown is pretty brutal.
“And I was watching it on the weekend and just seeing like, their outside backs are getting such good ball because their forwards are amazing around that breakdown area, just relentless and brutal around that contact area.”
Parsons echoed Hall’s sentiments and believes the world champions’ impressive ball carrying is because they do not complicate things when they take the ball into contact.
‘Simplicity’ in attack crucial to Boks’ success
“They do have simplicity in their attack as well. Like they don’t have too many tips or bombs out the back,” said the 37-year-old.
“And last week we spoke about maybe the All Blacks going to a more direct mindset in that last 20, just to simplify it. And I think that’s what they do for the most part as the Springboks is, you know, they let that brutality do the job for the backs to, you know, sort of feed off and score points.”
The Boks also managed to make an average of 40 fewer tackles per match compared to New Zealand, Argentina and Australia, which Parsons believes was a key contributing factor to their Rugby Championship success.
“Defence can be a double edged sword a little bit. Like, if you waste energy on attack, it can sap you,” he explained.
“But, if you look at (it) statistically, they (the Boks) are happy to try and manipulate themselves out of their own half. They don’t always rush to that kick. So that means they’re holding on to the ball.
“Whereas if you look at every other team, they look to exit their half pretty quickly, either with an attacking kick or a long and in. But yeah, 40 tackles seems a hell of a lot. I don’t know if the discrepancy would have been that vast, maybe if we looked at the World Cup.
“Do you know what I mean? So it does show, I suppose, where the areas of growth and that game management, so much of it comes down to game management.”
