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August 30, 2016
System failures or player errors?
Oom Rugby
Hi guys. To watch the Boks against Argentina again was not a lekker
experience. I will rather go to the dentist with a brandy hangover. But
anyway, when we watch the game for the second and third time and we make
our notes, then we learn some things and maybe the frustration is less
because at least we have some knowledge.
So what did we learn after watching this game?
We learn that the Boks has one small problem and one big problem. Let us look at the evidence to see what I mean.
DEFENCE
The first problem is the big problem, and that is the Springbok defence. We are very worried about this, especially because there is not just one issue, there is five issues the Boks is struggling with:
- Poor defensive alignment.
- Slow or incorrect “folding”.
- Individualism.
- Poor basics.
- Poor one-on-one tackling.
In the picture above I do not even need to describe to you what is
wrong. We can see the outside defenders has no connection with the
inside defence. It is very poor alignment. Even though the inside guys
rush up, the outside guys must stay connected. This happened many times and it help create lovely line breaks for the Pumas.
Again we see in this picture above that Elton have shifted up and
out, but Damian did not push up and out with him. So now Damian is
almost behind Elton, occupying the same channel. And Damian have created a moerse disconnection because poor Lionel must take his alignment from him.
In the picture below we see something different. The Boks is not “folding” well at the ruck.
Folding is when defenders must run behind the ruck to join the line
on the left or right, depending where the attack happen. We can see
there is too many Boks on the left of the ruck. There is actually a total of 11 Boks
in this picture – 3 lying on the ground. And the Pumas? They all
waiting for the ball on the right… The picture below is 2 seconds later.
We can see the Pumas have lots of men on that touchline and there is
almost no Boks. This is when Vincent Koch rush up in a crazy
individualistic way and give the Pumas space to score. In rugby basics
when you do not have enough defenders then you usually use drift defence to try to push the attackers to the touchline.
In the picture above we see another example of poor folding at a ruck. The Boks did not manage their numbers well and there is 5 guys on the left who does not need to be there. There is 14 Springboks
in this picture, can you believe it? This is where the Pumas kicked
onto the isolated Bryan Habana to score. But they did not even need to
kick, they had enough men on the outside if they wanted.
In the picture above we see another example of individualism. You
will not believe me but, one by one, the Springbok defenders just rush
up to tackle the Pumas. Vincent rushed up, then Oupa will rush up on his
own, Elton will rush up next, and then Damian will also rush up on his
own. One by one they shoot up as individuals and it create moerse lot of spaces as the Pumas just move the ball through the hands.
In the picture above we see very poor defensive basics. A school teacher will give his kids a pakslae
if they do this, never mind a Springbok. There is no pillar defenders
at the ruck! The Puma 9 will break and nobody will touch him. Below it
happen again. Pieter-Steph is too wide and move up to soon. There is no
pillar defence and the 9 just say thank you very much and he is gone.
Basics.
And of course I do not need to mention that our one-on-one tackling was not lekker either.
But guys, here is a important question: all these things we see, are they system errors or are they player errors? I think it is clear that the defence fail on a individual
player level. The guys did not execute basics, like folding, pillar
defence, and basic alignment. They make poor decisions and they make
life very difficult for themself.
SUPPORT
Let us now look at the second main problem the Boks had, and that is
support play on attack. This is a smaller problem and even though it
create huge issues for the Boks it is very easy to fix.
Below we see a good example. The Bok carrier is isolated and his
support players is too far away to protect the ball from the Pumas who
pounces.
Here is another example.
And another lekker example.
Do you feel sick yet? I have many, many pictures of the Boks poor
support of their ball carriers. Here is a special one where there is no
Boks around, so the Puma do us a nice favour and go and pick the ball up
for us.
But of all the things the Boks do wrong on Saturday night, our attack
worry me least. I am not so concerned about it and I think our attack
can actually be quite good.
I say this because when the Boks did start to protect the
ball and support closer to the carrier then all hell break loose. We
were like a engine that suddenly start firing. We got quick ball and
then we looked very dangerous. Look at this clean in the picture below.
The Boks take no nonsense at this ruck and suddenly Faf is electric
again and our backs run onto the ball and make problems.
Yes, the Boks make some crazy decisions on attack, like Lionel Mapoe
kicking the ball away a few times, but the fundamentals is there for us
to do some damage, believe me. It is a easy fix to support closer to the
ball, and when we did it then our backs looked good. Especially when we
avoid rucks and try to keep the ball alive, like below.
Love them or hate them, the Boks have shown that they can put
together some good interplay between forwards and backs. This sequence
above lead to Bryan’s wonderful try where Eben and Flo was key
playmakers.
So we must be careful to judge the effectiveness of the Bok attack
when the problem actually is caused by something else. It is a player failure to be so far away from carriers and not be closer in support. It is not a system failure. If you see you being challenged at breakdowns then you go and protect them!
So where do that leave us? Yes there was some coaching failures in
this loss, especially the kicking strategy to kick high balls all the
time. But I will be honest most of the problems on Saturday came from
the players. Watch the game again and you will see.
We are going to get carrots from Australia and maybe a record score
against the All Blacks, that is a strong possibility. Even though I
think our attack can be good, our defence is very weak. The guys are not
executing well individually and not connecting well as a team and I do
not think that will be fix overnight.
At the end of the day we support our coaches and give them a chance
to get their vision in place. But sometimes a team can lose our faith
very quickly. There is no doubt that Allister and his boys is on
borrowed time now.
The problem is that the easy games is over and the real tests is about to begin. Can they get the team to click in time?
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Let's Chat
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Jerri Mperdempes
August 30, 2016 at 10:40 am
Hey Oom
Would love to get you to join our facebook group. i think you will enjoy us as much as we enjoy your analysis and perspective.
Please add me on Facebook so I can invite you to our rugga group
Cheers
Jerri
.
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Keith
August 30, 2016 at 2:43 pm
Boks should not be learning the basics. Not should the coach. The
fact that the basics are a disaster says a whole lot about the players
and coach.
Imagine the All Blacks having to work on their basics. Laughing stock of rugby they would be. Right now the Boks are that.
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Johan Steyn
August 30, 2016 at 5:30 pm
Thanks Oom. This was great insight and I definately understand more about defending. Keep it up Oom!
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