Ex-Springboks coach identifies the ‘role reversal’ which ‘made a big difference’ for Argentina in Rugby Championship finale
Argentina wing Bautista Delguy beats Springboks counterpart Cheslin Kolbe in an aerial duel and ex-Boks coach Nick Mallett.
Former Springboks coach Nick Mallett believes Argentina’s excellent aerial game was one of the main reasons for their much-improved display against South Africa on Saturday.
After cruising to an emphatic 67-30 victory over Los Pumas in the corresponding fixture in Durban the previous week, the Springboks were overwhelming favourites to build on that performance in the teams’ rematch at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
It was a totally different story, though, as Los Pumas delivered a much-improved effort, and the Springboks were made to work very hard before clinching their 29-27 victory.
That result meant the Boks were crowned Rugby Championship champions for the second successive year with the All Blacks finishing in second spot, while the Wallabies and Los Pumas had to be satisfied with third and fourth positions respectively.
And although Argentina finished at the bottom of the table, Mallett was impressed by their performance in their final match of the tournament, especially the way they competed for high balls, which improved considerably since their previous match.
Big improvement from Argentina
“It’s interesting how much they improved though, because in Durban, we really dominated the aerial contest,” the former Springboks head coach told the Talking Boks podcast with Brenden Nel.
“So in Durban, I think we probably dominated because there’s a lot of our momentum (which) came from those high kicks, which were retrieved by (Ethan) Hooker and by (Cheslin) Kolbe, in fact, and by Canan Moodie.
“They were all outstanding in the air, but it was just role reversal in this game, and it pricked them.
I thought they were outstanding. The guys, they knew it was coming. There wasn’t any shepherding.
“They gave free space to the guy under the ball. And the guys went up for that with such intent. Normally, you see a Kolbe win one or two, or Hooker get his hand in there and knock it back.
“Canan Moodie, they’re all very good at it, but they got ahead of us a couple of times, of our player, of our jumper. They just got into the space quicker.
‘Made a big difference to the result’
And I think that made a big difference to the result, because from winning unstructured play, aerial, a kick, which you do, and you win that kick, it’s unstructured play.
“They aren’t in a position to defend. You’ve got 15 players behind the ball, and they’ve only got seven, if they’re lucky, maybe five only, who can get behind the ball.
“So if you win that ball quickly, you’re in a great position to attack.
“And we’ve been outstanding at it.
“A hundred percent, they have improved, but I think we’ve got to realise that it was the week before we were better than them at it, and this week they were better than us at it.”