Justin Marshall: The All Blacks have been ‘worked out’, teams know how to ‘shut us down’ and Springboks have ‘evolved’
Justin Marshall believes that the All Blacks have been "worked out" while the Springboks have evolved.
Former scrum-half Justin Marshall believes that the All Blacks have been “worked out” by other teams while the Springboks evolved their game.
South Africa’s attack has caught the eye of pundits and fans alike in 2024 as the world champions add another layer to their game, meanwhile, the All Blacks have struggled somewhat in that area of the game.
Traditionally, it is the All Blacks who slice through defences with relative ease but they were kept largely at bay against England while it was also their downfall in the first Test against Argentina.
Following the successful response in the second clash against Los Pumas, attack coach Leon MacDonald resigned from his position following a disagreement in “philosophy” with head coach Scott Robertson.
Springboks evolving
Previewing the Rugby Championship round three encounter between the Springboks and All Blacks at Ellis Park, Marshall hailed the improvements from Rassie Erasmus’ men particularly with the ball in hand.
South Africa are renowned for their physicality and direct approach but the former halfback was impressed by the way the team is giving the ball more width.
“The Springboks look more evolved like it’s been impressive to me to watch how there’s a real difference in the shape and the style that South Africa are playing,” Marshall said on Supersport’s Final Whistle show.
“I’m not sure whether that’s Tony Brown’s influence or it’s just the mindset that Rassie has told the players ‘We usually punch hard, but now there’s width in our game’ and that’s why the centres are getting into the game more.”
While the Boks are improving their attack under Brown’s tutelage, New Zealand’s looks to be stagnating with modern defences suffocating them.
“The big debate that we’ve had in New Zealand is teams have worked out with their umbrella blitz defence that they can shut us down and narrow the field and it hurts our attack,” he added.
“What we need to do is evolve our game plan to a point where we can beat that umbrella defence and all of a sudden offer something on attack that the opposition are not able to cope with. But it didn’t work against England.”
All Blacks get some confidence
Despite his criticism of the All Blacks’ lack of evolution, Marshall noted that there were some positive signs in the second Test match against Argentina but admitted that it is tough to judge as the Pumas looked drained at Eden Park. Still, he believes that they will take confidence from their performance.
“I feel like Argentina won their World Cup final a week before, you could see it in their faces. Agustin Creevy, Pablo Matera – they were all crying – like the emotion was just pouring out of them,” he said.
“What’s the gauge though? Argentina were way up there the week before and they were always not getting to that level again but if they had a slight dip then they stood a chance.
“Then in the next Test, the All Blacks got stuck into them in the first ten minutes and they couldn’t raise themselves out of that emotional drain from the week before.
“But just to put a positive spin on it, I think it was really important for New Zealand’s confidence that they scored some good tries and ran good lines – that Beauden Barrett one off Damian McKenzie, there were some things to like about that performance.”
