Ex-All Black: ‘Statistically’ Australia should have beaten the Springboks
Max Jorgensen of Australia escapes Ruan Nortje of South Africa and an inset of ex-All Black James Parsons.
Former All Blacks hooker James Parsons is wary of the threat the Springboks pose after Rassie Erasmus’ men overcame the stats to beat the Wallabies in Cape Town.
South Africa avenged their 22-38 defeat to Australia at Ellis Park by securing a 30-22 victory in the Mother City and now turn their attentions to the All Blacks.
Parsons, who featured twice for the All Blacks during his playing days, states that the Wallabies should have beaten the Boks after stressing South Africa’s defence repeatedly despite suffering three setbacks in the backline with the likes of Nic White, Tom Wright, and Joseph Suaalii forced off the pitch.
As for Scott Robertson’s side, the former hooker rued the All Blacks‘ ill-discipline that paved the way for Argentina to clinch the victory.
Discipline cost All Blacks dearly
Three players were sin-binned during the defeat in Buenos Aires, with Will Jordan, Tupou Vaa’i and Sevu Reece getting yellow-carded.
“Had we got our kicks, we still put ourselves in a position to have the most points scored. So yes, we missed them, yes we lost, but we still put ourselves in a position to still win that game when we’re in such a deficit in terms of that discipline,” Parsons said on the Aotearoa Rugby Podcast.
“The yellow cards dictated so much of that performance; it’s just not funny.”
Reece was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on late in the fixture, while Jordan was deemed to have run an obstructing line after a Pumas’ chip and chase.
Pressed whether these were moments of desperation or brain explosions, Parsons believed that these errors occurred because the All Blacks lost the collision battle to Argentina, which created the space out wide.
The Springboks‘ ability to stay in the fight and beat the Wallabies despite losing on several metrics concerns Parsons ahead of the next two rounds of action, and he believes that Robertson’s charges simply cannot afford to be as ill-disciplined as they were against the Pumas.
“It’s almost like a spot tackle when you’re going for an intercept, you have to get it, and as a player, your instinct is to grab it at all costs because you’ve decided ‘I’m going for it’,” he explained.
“You see it a lot in defensive systems, it’s not just the All Blacks, but we can’t afford to do that against the Springboks – they managed to beat Australia, statistically Australia should have won that game.
“South Africa had an 81% defensive tackle rate against the Wallabies, and the Wallabies had more 22 entries, but they just couldn’t convert.
“Opportunities like that just can’t be given, but I think where it starts – this seems so simple, but it’s in the tackle. It’s in that collision area, and we’ve gone at length to go about the dominant carry stat, the gain line carry stat, the lightning quick ball stat.
“I don’t think Will or Sevu are in those positions if we’re dominating the collision and we’re having the ability to slow the ball down. Probably because of the numbers coming and going, we just didn’t have the impact that we’d seen in the previous matches.”
Trending upwards
Despite the setback of the defeat in Argentina, Parsons is still convinced that the All Blacks are continuously improving.
“This result doesn’t change my opinion that the All Blacks are trending upwards; they are in terms of the metrics that matter in and around the collision. If they can control that collision, both sides of the ball on attack and defence, against the Springboks – I think that’s what will dictate the winner of this series,” he said.
“New Zealand scored two tries; they were dominating, and the game was turned on its head with those two yellow cards massively. There were guys still new in their Test career put in a very high-pressure situation, the crowd on top of you, and so on. I’m not making excuses, but that for me just dictated the game; it dictated the result.
“As I said before, we still could have won if we’d got our kicks, we would have had more points.”
