When in the past I have pointed out that specific individuals are not correlated with Bok success I have been told it’s a team game. So why worry about selections then? Yesterday was the perfect example.
Here are some match stats:
Possession…. France 60%/Boks 40%
Territory….France 63%/ Boks 37%
Metres…France 524/ Boks 424
Defenders beaten France 43/ Boks 12
Clean Breaks France 13/Boks 6
…….
Those aren’t stats delivered by a winning team or a successful strategy. They are way worse than the stats against Ireland. France lost because they never kept their composure as Ireland did. And because in this knockout game a few Springboks just refused to lose.
Our tactics weren’t novel. It was the box kick with a twist, send it to the wings and have Dud Toit support the jump. It worked but it could easily have worked in favor of the French….it’s risky. Beyond that we had a few tricks, the Kolbe drop, the mark/scrum, the tap penalty. All tactically justifiable, although the timing of the drop/scrum was rolling the dice.
Tactics aren’t a game strategy though, as demonstrated in our statistical gap to France. In fairness though regular strategies….scrum penalties/maul tries weren’t working.
We were also desperately slow to anticipate the rolling French kicks. Why wasn’t Willemse repositioned when the Frogs had the ball to cover this eventuality.
In all we were outplayed barring about 5 instances. Etzebeth insisting he was going to score. Arendse capitalizing on the bounce of the ball. Kriel’s properly weighted grubber and Kolbe’s pace. Kolbe’s charge down. The Dud Allende try resulting from another favorable bounce. And crucially, Pollard’s ability to sink a 53 meter kick under extreme pressure.
These and a few others were the players who refused to lose….Etzebeth, Kwagga, Kolbe, Kriel and Pollard. They overcame a losing team effort to wrest the game away from a very good French team. Others played their parts, but absent any one of those players we lose the Quarter.
