A lesson to be learnt

Something which struck me once again on Saturday was how New Zealand manged to work the ball to manipulate the defence. I have often remarked the lack puzzle solving ability in our players, particulary as they more and more buy into this nonsense of creativity and individual expression - something that renders our play disjointed and uncoordinated at best of times. They used Dagg a lot at one point to play across the defence and attract defenders and stand them up, working their big ball carriers into mismatches with players like Hougaard and Pienaar in particular. It frustrates me watching us use our forwards to smash into the best defended areas of the field for a mere pittance when they could be worked into similar mismatches. Our physicality is without equal, but severely blunted in how it is applied. Once again this serves as an example in how best to use the ball and personnel.

Interesting to note how they changed tact and starting running hard at Goosen, instantly! I have lamented his defensive concerns. If we are to use him and get the most from him, we will require Hougaard at 9 and adequate protection of his channel. The manner in which he is willing to run the ball is encouraging. If we can play him with Hougaard I think we can definitely play with more speed and incision. Hougaard able to take over the void left by Du Preez perfectly. 

that the likes of beeno and the conservative crew will never understand is that a well organised attack will always beat a defence. the ball will always beat the man

I'm not so sure of always, but there are definite ways of improving your attacking play. What I find most concerning is that these are observations from someone who doesn't coach, why are our coaches not seeing this? It's frightening to think just how stunted our coaching culture really is! If I was an attack coach reviewing that game I would be very eager to put into practice some of these things on the training ground and try expand on it.