Springboks legend urges Rassie Erasmus’ side to ‘fire more shots’ after ‘still not great’ verdict
Ethan Hooker in action against the All Blacks and Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus.
Former Springboks captain Jean de Villiers wants Rassie Erasmus’ men to take a few more risks in the third Greatest Rivalry Test against the All Blacks.
The two teams go into the clash in Soweto level at 1-1 after South Africa bounced back from their opening encounter, where they succumbed 33-16.
Erasmus’ charges managed to reduce the error count in Cape Town to go away with a 33-26 triumph and set up an enthralling clash with the All Blacks this weekend.
However, Boks legends De Villiers and Schalk Burger still believe that they can be much better in a number of areas.
Springboks back three change
They have been forced to alter their back three due to Damian Willemse’s injury, which means Kurt-Lee Arendse returns to the side and Cheslin Kolbe shifts to full-back.
Burger states that the loss of Willemse is a blow, but still wants to see a more attacking mentality in order to get the best out of Kolbe, Arendse and Ethan Hooker.
“We’re going to miss Damian; he’s been exceptional in the backfield, in the air. That first half again last weekend he was quality,” he said on the Boks Unpacked podcast.
“Cheslin is our form player, he was man of the match, his goal-kicking was exceptional.
“At altitude, backfield’s going to be the challenge for the Boks. Another change in the outside backs; we haven’t had consistently the same back three for the third week running.
“If there’s a weakness for us, it’s our defence, so that’s where the challenge will come. The challenges won’t come with the aerial battle or when they get into space – to be honest, we haven’t seen our outside backs in space in the last two games – so this weekend we’ve got to go with the mentality that we will score 40 points.
“Whenever we score 40 points, our outside backs score tries.”
The Springboks’ default setting has been to put boot to ball, even when in the opposition half, but De Villiers has urged them to move it through the hands more regularly this weekend.
Springboks must ‘be braver’
“I thought we were really good last week in the backfield and do believe Damian will be missed. [But] I think as a combination and work rate of those three players, we will be fine,” he said.
“What I would like to see is our intent from 40 metres to the 22; we look at keeping ball in hand and getting to those outside channels – get the ball to Kurt-Lee, Cheslin, Ethan, even Jesse [Kriel].
“If we do that and actually apply a little bit more pressure from a tactical point of view, get through phases, then they start tiring from a defensive point of view, and then hopefully that has an impact on their attack.
“We need to fire some more shots this week, I still don’t think we were great, we still made a lot of handling errors. We need to be a little bit braver and hopefully score more tries.”