If I was a forward and had to fighf to get possession of the ball and that ball is kicked away aimlessly and found that my team lost ground I would be very, very unhappy. If this happens again and again - I would eventually say : "What the hell - why bother at all?"
By kicking aimlessly the end result is invariably handing possession to the oppostion. That may still be acceptable if the forwards can see a majot gain in territory. However - if the distance gained is small or there is a loss of territory it can only have one impact on morale of forwards and that is negative. That is one thing not taken into account by the kickers - after all the kickers are not involved in the original effort to gain possession of the ball.
The above scenario is virtually always ignored by the coaches and by the kickrs themselves and could be the main reason for inexplicable lapses in intensity of forwards. Let us in this regard look at the tests played this year undwr Meyer - an apparent supporter of the kcicking game:-
* In the first halves of the first two POM tests there were signs of a decrease in kicking and the forwards - laegely unchanged in selection - maintained a relative positive game impact. In the first test the players maintained a level of intensity and the final outcome was based on continued forward efforts. However, in the second test - the Springboks had a big lead at halftime and the whole objective was to protect that lead. That resulted in an increase of kicking in the second half and continuous possession losses. This had a negative impact and the general opinion was that the forwards did not continue with their efforts of the first half. There is basically two reasons for that - the one largely ignored, whilst the other one was constantly punted. The latter one relates to the replacement of key players by incompetants from the bench - players like Van der Merwe, Greyling and Kruger came on and the scrummaging and line outs becamne headaches, witj a general decline in competancy. However, the second issue is largely ignored - namely the increase in the number of balls kicked away aimlessly by players like Hougaard, Morne Steyn. The players who normally get the blame for aimless kicking are not only Hougaard and Morne Steyn - but in a number of cases aimless kicking also came from Francois Steyn. A number of ewxamples of the latter can be dealt with here. Ome particular effort of the latter was when the ball was passed within the Springboks 22 to Steyn directly with a view to a long relieving kick away from the danger zone. Steyn kicked and the ball never left the ground level and hit an oppossing player 20 meters away. That left the whole team off-side with a resultant try by the POMS. Aside from that there were two of his kicks from within the Springboks half went over the dead ball line - with consequential scrums from where the balls were originally kicked. There can be no doubt tthat the psychological impact on the forwards resulted in decreased efforts on the part of the forwards in the second half and we nearly lost the second test. The situation would not have arisen if the contnuous aimless kicking was eliminated and forwards could see a more positive result from their efforts.
* The third English test was a clearer example of the negative impact of aimless and ineffective kicking. Morne Steyn was apparently not interested in passing the ball and kicked and kicked and kicked - maybe the result of the playing conditions. He kicked away all the balls that got to him - biu half of the balls never got to him and was kicked away by Hougaard. Because Steyn stood so far behind the advantage line - in the few cases where he did pass the ball to Olivier the latter crash-balled and the resultwas a loss of territory. The lack of intensity by the forwards came to the fore early in this test and continued throughout the game. As a matter of fact - the only try scored by the Springboks came about when Pienaar replaced Hougaard and after a maul Pienaar passed the ball directly to Pietersen and he scored a try. Once again the psycholoical impact of continuous kicking was ignored and the poor goalkicking of Morne Steyn is given as he reason for the draw.
* As a result of severe criticism of Morne Steyn - the kciking game was reduced in the first half of the first test against the Argentinians and that resulted in a large lead in points by the Springboks at half time. For the first 30 minutes the kickers againhad the field day again. That strategy again had a negative impact and was only changed in the last ten minutes of the test when the Springnoks tried to get a bonus point try,
* The second test agains the Argentinians saw a major reversal to the kicking game strategy, What is strange about this test was two things. The Argentinians intensified their forward battle plan and they made sure that the kicks by Hougaard, and the Steyns were fielded properly and the ball possession became beneficial. The genral conclusion was that the forwards dominated the Springbok forwards - but that is a rather superficial interpretation - since the situation statistically was not as bad as is reflected. What was rather in evidence that the backline failed to function because of constant kicking away of the balls and the forwards became less intense in getting possession of the ball.
My contention is that the other reasons stated no dount have a negative impact - but the real impact was also the negative effect of aimless and unproductive kicking away of possession on the forwards with a resultant losing of interst by them.
The so-called ten man game is a real problem - not only on backlie performance - but also on the intensity of the forwards.
