meyer rates All Blacks defence as greatest challenge,,,

//Getty Images Meyer rates AllBlacks defence as greatest challenge sarugby.net - (2/10/2012) - 4 Comments

The Springboks were very happy with their 31-8 victory over Australia at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, but Bok coach Heyneke Meyer said afterwards his team would have to make another step up next weekend.

The Boks scored five tries against the Wallabies, with Bryan Habana bagging a hat-trick, during a clinical display in Pretoria. Zane Kirchner and Francois Louw also scored tries, while at least three more close opportunities went begging.

New Zealand, who beat Argentina in Buenos Aires early on Sunday morning, are now headed to South Africa for the final match in The Investec Rugby Championship, on Saturday at Soccer City in Soweto.

“We have very high standards, and there were three more tries that we should have scored," said Meyer after the Test at Loftus.

"It’s great to come home and win, and we haven’t beaten the Aussies for some time, but we have to start taking those opportunities. We would like to score more tries next week but we are aware of the challenge of playing the world champions.

"New Zealand are a very settled side. In terms of defence, they have a number of experienced players who have been in that system for ages. They’re the world champions and one of the reasons for that is their defence. It’s going to be really difficult to create and score against them.

"We will need to be more patient with ball in hand, more tactically astute. If we get scoring opportunities, we will need to make them count. We are hoping that South Africa will get behind us.”

Personally I think that over the years the All Blacks Defense has been their weakest area.

I only say this in the context of some games. In some games the AllBlacks defence is as good as any team, but it is more the attacking ability that wins games for New Zealand. When under major pressure the positional play on defence can go out the window.

Past World cups serve as some examples. The test in 2005 when Marius Joubert scored 3 tries and allmost got a 4th, the Allblacks cracked under pressure

When New Zealand are put under pressure by multi-phase fast ruck ball they can be vulnerable. Even the Superxv teams often do not have excellant defences. Although the Chiefs this year did have great defence, and the Crusaders usually have a great defence. Auckland and the Chiefs often have weak defences. Australian teams like New South Wales and Queensland have generally had strong defences of the years. 

It will be interesting to see the boks running at them. Habana got a good solo try in the last test, but will be interesting to see what our backs are like with Goosen at 10 this time around..

I allways maintain that the All Blacks are stronger on attack than defence.