Stat attack: How the Springboks have added panache to ‘skop, skiet and donner’ style

Phase one of the Springboks new attack plan went swimmingly during the Rugby Championship as the Boks added new a new string to their bow while dominating the tournament.

After winning the previous two Rugby World Cup titles with a “skop, skiet and donner” approach, relying heavily on their physicality, defence and set-piece prowess, the Springboks have added New Zealander Tony Brown as the new attack coach to try and broaden their horizons.

It was clear from the very first Test of the year against Wales at Twickenham in London, that the team was going to give the ball a bit more air to utilise their dangerous outside backs. They started to attack with a lot more variation, with forwards and backs passing the ball out of the back instead of just putting their heads down and barging into defenders.

While it’s still early days in the process, the signs are already there for all to see, while the Rugby Championship statistics also back up these claims.

It was clear from the very first Test of the year against Wales at Twickenham in London, that the team was going to give the ball a bit more air to utilise their dangerous outside backs. They started to attack with a lot more variation, with forwards and backs passing the ball out of the back instead of just putting their heads down and barging into defenders.

While it’s still early days in the process, the signs are already there for all to see, while the Rugby Championship statistics also back up these claims.

Comparing the Springboks’ 2024 Rugby Championship stats with 2022

For this exercise, we are comparing the Springboks’ numbers in the recently completed Rugby Championship with the 2022 edition because last year’s tournament was truncated because of the Rugby World Cup in France.

In 2024, The Springboks made the most clean breaks in the tournament with 50, five more than the All Blacks who came in in 45.

The South Africans made only 32 clean breaks carries in 2022. But the difference is in 2024 they actually carried the ball 730 times in this year’s competition compared 485 carries two years ago.

This year the Springboks (135) were second in the defenders beaten stats behind the All Blacks (165). However, this stat is much better than in 2022 when beat 107 defenders with ball in hand.

So, the Boks carried a lot more this year, but those carries were also with bit more purpose and thinking behind it, as they got the ball into the hands of the players who could do the most damage with it.

Wing Cheslin Kolbe beat an unbelievable 21 defenders during the Rugby Championship, four more than the next best player. He also had six clean breaks and made 239 metres with ball in hand. And, to illustrate the point even more, he didn’t even feature in all of the Boks’ matches.

Springboks not compromising traditional strengths with new approach

However, while the Springboks played with a lot more width on attack, they never sacrificed their traditional strengths to do it.

The Springboks won more scrum penalties than any other team in the competition, which allowed them to take the points or kick for field position to launch their attacks.

The Springboks’ lineout didn’t really live up to its full potential - largely due to the lock injury crisis - but the Springboks probably had one of their best mauling tournaments. They came up with some nifty moves throughout the tournament, but used their power as the go-to option when needed.

The Springboks scored a big a chunk of their tournament high 24 tries off this set-piece, with hooker Malcolm Marx ending the campaign with four tries - two behind the top-scorer All Blacks wing Caleb Clarke.

But the Boks also used both their scrum and lineout to execute lovely strike moves that led to tries. Those were highlighted by quick handling, flat passing and players running great lines.

The scary thing is that is only the start of the Springboks’ evolution, as the merger of the power game and the flair will take some time. The best is certainly yet to come for these Boks.

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Nice to know that someone agrees that the Bok attack is evolving under the coaching of Tony Brown and like the scribe says the best is yet to come.

Mpower

I like your change in atttude - you were vey negative after the Aussie tests/

Denny

Thanks for the above - I saw the inluence of Brown wen ohers said there wss nothing happening.

Wonder whatw ill hapen when Shaca  is back - he is majic nd thts ays a lot of extra attacking options.

What will Mozart say on this issue would be amazing anyway.

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Where was the panache against Ireland. Did we really play any differently, winning with mauls and the occasional bit of Kolbe magic act against NZ.

An emperor has no clothes delusion. We were expansive against the Bargies, but only at home. Certainly no more expansive than we were against NZ in that magnificent Ellis Park match in 2013

I wonder, why do people buy this rubbish…perhaps it’s the herd instinct. 

Without Faf there is less box kicking, no question.  And I agree there is an intent to use the ball among the backs.  But this story is way ahead of reality and the stats are hardly persuasive. Shouldn’t  we be scoring more tries in a RC we won? 

The Boks scored 24 tries in 2024…..22 in 2013. Were we in the middle of a panache breakout in 2013? Hell in 2018 we scored 20 tries in a horrible RC performance.

But here’s the kicker in 2013  we scored 14 tries via backs. In 2024 we scored 11 tries via backs. Another pathetically researched article that can be debunked in 5 minutes.

Mozart

In 2012 to 2015 when people complain abou the sory of backine usage ad Morne was flthalf and kicking the shit out of balls - you claimed that the Sprigboks played traditional  SA Rugby and claimd hat 90% of th function of flyhalfs is to kick balls,

Now you come up with stats of tries scored in tests in 2013 - when SA played Samoa and Italy in the June tests,   In those 3 tests against the weaket teams ever to play in the June and July  tests in South Africa the sciores were  -

Agaisnt were as follows:-

Scotland            30-17

Samoa                56-23

Italy                    44-10

In the end of Year Tour a mach agaisn Scotland were included as well and the Springboks in that match won 28-0.    The vast majprity of tries scored were in the above matches  - fact is  of the 22 tries scored in 2013  8 came from  the RC and 7 from he EOYT were scored in the four tests mentioned.  So now we  have double anomalies and that is that tests against Ireland counts the same as tests against the 3 unions mentioned,

If you want to compare stats try and compare the horrible results in 2012 with 2018 - the first year of the coaching of  Meyer and Erasmus respectively,    If 2018 was horrible  - 2012 was a national disaster.

By the way there are still 3 tests to be played in 2024    

So looking at the above your story is TOTAL MOZART BS as per normal,    I suspect you would come up with shit as well and as expected it happened.    In the period 2012 to 2017 the Springoks won 1 test against New Zealand - so now we have in the period 2018 to 2024 the  2 teams plaed   13 tests and the score card  was  13 tests played of which NZ won 7 -  SA won 5 and 1 test was drawn.   That tells a vastly dfferent story compared to the shit you came up with.

By the way the tests played thus far were  10 and there are 3 tests to be played in 2024 - so now the whole 2013 season was complete and the 2024 tests was not.   Must we assume there will be no tries scored in the November tests?    

So try again shitbrain and find something real to use in your argument.    In the meantime Happy Shitbrain Day to you.

Now you come up with stats of tries scored in tests in 2013 - when SA played Samoa and Italy in the June tests,   In those 3 tests against he weaket teams ever to play in the June and July  tests in South Africa the sciores were  -

He is talking about tries scored in the RC, not the entire test season. Jirre oom, probeer byhou instead of just firing from the hip .

So he was talking  about tries scored and not only the RC - SA never scored 22 tries in the RC while Meyer was coach,    Try again  dimness.   SA scored  8 tries in the 2013 RC.

I will make it easy for you - have a look at the following website and stop firing  blanks like you normaly do.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Rugby_Championship    

A pology called for please

 SA scored  8 tries in the 2013 RC.

Argentina - 73-13
8 tries + PT

Argentina - 17-22
1 try

Australia - 38-12
4 tries

NZ 15-29
2 tries

Australia 28-8
3 tries

NZ 27-38
4 tries

Still 22 tries ou Maaik. How about an apology for a change, just for a bit of panache, you know?

Hate means never having to say sorry..........................................

That is the 2012 stats = not 2013 and the argument is about the Argentina test - the first test Argentina played in the RC in 2012.    The sad part is that it was one of the last tests Fat Fransie played in and he scored a chargedown try in the away match that ended up in a draw,   

So try again and look at the 2013 results and not at the 2012 tests.   Must admit I knew the Springboks won the first Argetine test by a massive mardin - I apologize for the 22 test story,of 2012.    By the way the Argentinians after that first mishap improved and through the years became more competitive as is evidnce was in 2015 when they beat the Springboks 37-25/   Gues who was still the Springbok coach in 2015?      

Nice try to find an escape route for Mozart.   He will now try to  change the 2013 story - the ame way you did,       

burp

There you go Saaiman…..22 tries in 2013. Suck on that.

Duplication

8 in a test tht never recurred again and you wrote about all tests dimnss not only in any other series  since 2012 

2012          -     10 tries                                      -   3rd on the log

2013          =     22 tries with 9 coming in one test against Argentina   - second on the log

2014          =     12 tries                                      second on the log

2015          =      6 tries  only 3 tests played       bottom of the  log

So in 21 tests  played from  2012 to 2015 the Springboks on average scored   50 tries at an average of 2,38  per test played,   you picked only one series because the Argentinians lost in 1  test by a huge margin and that loss was handpickd to give  totally distorted  figure you can use to give an indication of what really happened,    Based on the other tests played  over 4 years the averasge tries sscored per test was  2,38 tries per test.

In the case of the 2024 series  the Springbok scored  24 tries in 6 matches at an sverage of 4 tris  test,  in other words  a 168% improvement on try scoring abilities of te team thi year compared to the average for  tries scored in the similar tests  in the period 2012 tho  2015.   Fom a stat istical point of view that myth of yours represents cherry-picking - in other words total BS.

2012          -     10 tries                                      -   3rd on the log

2013          =     22 tries with 8 coming in one test against Argentina

Oh but wait, you said I was quoting 2012 stats with the 22 tries. Now you produce 2012 stats with only 10 tries, and produce 2013 stats that match mine after claiming we only scored 8 tries in 2013.

Mozart

Yu are talkin BS  again.  You picked and choose stts to sue them inappropriately to justify BS and again you pick tries scoed by foads and abckine players a if you donot realize that the rie were scored n that basis alone.   If owards ar part of backline attacks as they should be in the present style f play and score tries it imeaningless to falsify it as what you in 2015 called "traditiona SA Rugby when jsutifing the piss-or peformances like Morne Steyn.

That Argentinian test was not typical s tow hat happened in the Meyer era and I ointed out what happened in the 4 years tha he was unfortunately the coach of SA - somebody you in four yers criticized only once - while your criticism of Erasmus averages 3 times per day.

What your piss brain never realized is that playing styles of players have to change in matches to fit in with the new attacking approach of the team.and that change si realized by you.  In ny event there is a huge dfference between what you saw in matches and what really happened.   You have eben caughtt lying about instances in matches endlessly - and this is just another example of wa eall happened in this case.   And piss brain you do not even know or pretend not to know what a maul try is and when ihe maul ended from going forward and players breaa way from mauls and eiher day r athe player scored a try as a result.

I despise youlies and distortions and especially this one where ou cherry pick stats tot ry and prove somethig you fail to see ecause you do not want to see what is happening in games,    I also remember how in 2015 claimed that you are th best world  expert and nobody else can compare with you when it came  incident analysis.    Hav you eve been ight n any falsified analysis only you can see and nobody else can see.   

Aside fom that your hatered of Ersmus as coach and some Springbk playes are notorious and totally rjetd bythining players and experts and you made hundreds of fals sttmnts justiying your BS.

So I apologize about the try-scoring in the 2013 RC - but for nothing else.   I realiz the Arentinian test that year was an anomlyand not natural and that was proved in the other years Meyer was a coach - so what i said about cherry-picing applies 100% in this case.

Pakie

For your sake I hav virtualy no amily memebs left and thy know what I am and was like - not a BSter like youwhoa re not pathetic - but simply a total BSter like Mozart.   

I think for my own benefot I am not going to comment on furter BS like you and Mzart came up with on site.

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All this with the traditional powerhouses we have in our forwards

There's an aura about the Boks these days it went missing when they were stale.

"I think for my own benefot I am not going to comment on furter BS like you and Mzart came up with on site."

Until you guys mention Mostert, Rassie, Meyer, White, Trump, Ukraine, rugby, the ANC, zebras, anything that happens between sea level and 32000ft altitude, anything that occurs between the same sea level and 200 bazillion leagues under its surface, in space, or in any one of the theorised 11 dimensions of string theory...Mike will not comment on your BS.

Hehe, while it would be great to have a discussion without this old chap always chiming in with a wheelbarrow full of lies, we all know that ain't gonna happen.

All I'm gonna say is...

Well that’s a good result….Saaiman isn’t going to lie about my posts anymore. Cool.

The more things change the more they stay the same...Maaik is never gonna change...don't get you're hopes up.

Maaik sees all criticism of his favorite players and the current Bok coaching setup as high treason...and his response to it is clearly over the top...and I understand most on here's reaction to it...more later.

Draad, he's just dishonest. It's not even age. He's been doing this for as long as I can remember on these forums. A decade or more it is now. Same MO. I should probably ignore the old coot, but we also want to have discussions with some form of integrity and respect for the truth here, otherwise it really is a waste of time. We can differ on opinions, vehemently if we choose, that's the spice of discussion. But concocting falsehoods to serve a personal agenda and dragging that into honest discussions is a disservice to the game we love and the players who play it.

...and some of the critique is deliberately provocative too...still don't excuse the abusive responses.

Draad

I think that in dealing wwith the type of rugby played one has to look at whaat the pvonicial franchises has to offer - sine the players who excell in playing a much more attacjking and comprehensive rugby/  I  watched  many vidis and cme top the conclusion that in al respect th ugby played this year was aa vasrt improvemen of the franncise performance in 2012 to 2015.

Since a much more comprehemsive game plan is used on provincial level; that he National team will benefit from players already ptepare to play comprehensiv level tugby as well.