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Forum » Rugby » Our losing ways continue.....and there is a simple reason 

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The Bools tackle at 82% vs 89% for the Canes.....and time and again there are clear overlaps with Hendricks in particular lined up on Umaga on several occasions. 

The Sharks were worse....they tackle at 74 % vs the Brumbies 87%. There's the match right there. 

And those stats don't even reflect devastating, unchallenged clean breaks like Powell's break and try. 

Our tackling was sub standard and defensive alignment was pathetic, with literally no defence behind the breakdown several times. 

Why is this happening to a nation that has always been top in defence? Because it's no longer valued.....it isn't sexy. Offloading is and we have got better at that. No forward in the game offloads better than RG Snyman. But we have lost more than we have gained......tackling, defensive alignment, setpiece dominance and the kick chase. 

For us to be better than the Proteas at the WC we need to get the basics right.....particularly defence. We also need better selections. 

The players who put their hands up today included: 

Kriel who drifted nicely outside Umaga....for the Bools first try. But he remains a finisher only. 

Hendricks who's scored two spectacular winger's tries with a body swerve à la Jannie Engelbrecht. 

RG Snyman who is now our best 5 by some distance. 

Vermeulen whose work on the deck kept us in the game. 

And in the Sharks game Nkosi had an energetic game. 

That's a total of 5 stand out players out of our 2 top teams. Not encouraging in a playoff style weekend.

In other words….fix the set pieces, fix the kick chase and above all improve defence and the Boks can beat any team in the world on a given day. 

But to be a great team, we have to play rugby. And we have the backs to do it, Willie, Mapimpi, Am and Kolbe are all quick, instinctive players….among the best in the game. With so much good ball these players should be ripping defenses to shreds.

Stick clearly isn’t equipped to help them do this and one suspects Erasmus isn’t encouraging a third dimension.

So we are likely to remain a physical test. And the guys everybody else wants to lose.

You'll find a reason to complain even if we beat NZ.

Not really…..it’s the same reason I have left the table unsatisfied since the Welsh test. The WC final being the one exception where we played some rugby.

Face it Draad while I was pin pointing reality back in June 2019, the vast majority of fans and Board members wanted to play the ‘expansive game’. Now I’m telling you we need some attacking nous.

Stick with moz.

The Lions played much as we did relying on the up and under. They passed the ball around more than we did true but were easily neutralized so no credit there. But of course also no criticism of their style of play.

I don't think this Bok team have hit their top form. The additional playing time and return of prominent payers should see the performance graph slowly move north.

However that said, the guys have played three brutal tests in a row. Rassie should start his less used players to start against Argentina.

Anyhow Moz we all had a go and a lot of fun. Lets just enjoy the win and see how things go in the Rugby Championship. I think I am right in saying after the Argies test here in SA all our other games are away. That is very demanding.

The Lions were easily neutralized yet most of our players missed chunks of tackles. The Lions shredded our defence, and even made our set piece look ordinary. Belly-flopper Malherbe should have been penalised more and that would in all likelihood have taken the game away from us. Our players made almost no ground in contact. We relied on the kick and a bobbler with confusion and uncertainty to get any space to get a bit of ground to pad the stat sheet. Otherwise nothing. This Bok gameplan is embarrassing.