Ex Supersport
Samoa will be a massive test for an evolving Springbok team, assistant coach Johan van Graan believes.
The Springboks will face up to the island nation in the final of the Castle Lager Incoming Series on Saturday and while they will start as favourites, Samoa’s form in scoring big victories over Italy and Scotland hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Bok management, who are preparing themselves for a tough, physical battle on Saturday.
There is no doubt the hard and fast fields have helped the Samoans, who boast both power and pace in their arsenal and have improved by leaps and bounds since the last time the two sides met in 2011.
They have all the attributes to test a big team, and if they get confidence and momentum early on, they will be a tough side to play.
But then again, the Boks normally enjoy fronting up to a physical challenge (Not with the pack that palyed against scotland please!). The Samoans of old have always come unstuck – bar the poorly-reffed 2011 encounter – because they have been a tad too concerned with the physical aspects of the game, and they have paid the price for going head to head with the Boks in the area the home side love to front up.
The Boks expect the biggest threat to come from the Samoans in their broken play, and at the breakdown where they have improved significantly – so much so that assistant coach Van Graan called it a real “battle” that awaits the Boks this weekend.
“We had a good look at them. Jack Lam is well known to all the players from his time at the Hurricanes. On your wide rucks they put a lot of pressure so I don’t think it will be a lot different. It will be a battle on Saturday,” Van Graan said.
“It isn’t about Samoa, it is about us and if we want to keep on improving, we want quicker ball. If any team in the world gets quick ball, attack looks brilliant, but if you get slower ball you are under pressure. It is about your ball-carriers dominating.
"Willem (Alberts) was good in Super Rugby and Arno (Botha) played well in the first test match and Siya's (Kolisi) ball carrying was good. Willem is one of our most effective carriers and is world class (Mike will be frothing at the mouth reading this!!). He is the type of guy you want on that advantage line and it will be a big fight on the advantage line this weekend.”
Van Graan also hinted that the Boks needed to be a lot more clever this weekend when they face the Samoans, and not just run everything at them. They need to be tactically astute to breaking down the Samoan defence.
“Maybe in the first 30 minutes against Scotland we played too much rugby and if you look at Samoa they played tactically very well. The Pisi brothers brought a lot of tactical awareness in their game. It may turn out to be a tactical battle and in this competition it is a final, so you may see finals rugby as well.
"It is about getting territorial dominance and as we saw this weekend that once you win the territorial battle, the referee favours the team with the territory.
“It is about dominating field possession for us and it is about getting quick ball. We scored eight tries in the first two test matches and we want to continue scoring tries, but at the end of the day it is about winning test matches. We want to win every test match, whether it is by one point, 10 points or 20 points.”
While some may not see it, the Boks haven’t changed their approach at all this season, but have become a bit more astute at where they attack from. Once they secure quick possession, the rest will follow, but turnovers against the Samoans will be deadly.
“This team has grown and the plan the coaches have laid out is a great one in terms of it not mattering what conditions you face, but rather focusing on the decision-making process and getting territory. Once you win that tactical battle, like we did in the second half in Nelspruit, things got easier, we got the ascendancy and with two minutes to go, Jean made the decision to go for the touchline, which was a big call and Jan scored the try.
“There are a few big challenges that await us. Cencus Johnson is a world-class player and he has played with South Africans at Toulouse. They’ve got big ball-carrying forwards. They have a pretty simple plan but they execute it well.
“We know in broken-field possession you don’t just have to watch their backs, their forwards are big units and they can carry the ball. Also all the players are playing overseas and they have gained a lot. They’re good at the breakdown and have good running lines. They can also stop a maul, so it will be a big test for us.”
The game, however, is the perfect end for the Castle Lager Incoming Series to test the Boks ahead of bigger challenges against New Zealand, Argentina and Australia
There is no doubt the Samoans are a much improved side. Meyer must pick the Beeno team and all should be well.
