The Springboks relied too heavily on their rush defence and were not accurate enough against the All Blacks – a factor that ultimately led to their demise at Ellis Park last Saturday.
Much has been said of how and why the Springboks lost the Castle Lager Rugby Championship finale in Johannesburg this past weekend, but while some have sought to blame substitutions and players, the defeat comes down to a simply failure to execute the defensive pattern correctly.
While the game was open and played at an exceptional pace, the Boks may have well had a better chance to keep things tight in their search for victory, although the added factor needing a bonus point left that card unplayed as the Boks looked to go for broke.
And it was ultimately this desire – as one management member said afterwards: “We didn’t want to die on the field wondering” – that cost the team as they looked for turnovers and big hits and rushed the All Blacks, too often getting it wrong.
A very sober look at the statistics afterwards paints a big defensive headache for the Boks, who pounded the All Blacks and forced them to make 141 tackles, missing 31 – or an 82% success rate in the game.
On the other hand, the Boks had to make just 77 tackles – and missed 33 – or a success rate of 70%. While nothing should be taken away from the All Blacks execution in getting five tries at Ellis Park, defence will be a massive factor for the team when they get together again before the end of year tour.
And what about the individuals? Some players were crucified by the public and pundits afterwards for their contribution, and while some were blinkered, there is a lot to be concerned about in the missed tackle stats for the Springboks.
Despite being booed off the field, Zane Kirchner was not the worst defender on the day. In fact, his defence stats read pretty well if you consider that 33 missed tackles equates to two a player in the side.
And while nobody will give Kirchner that credit, he did miss two tackles – but he was hardly the biggest culprit on the day.
The statistical analysis shows that the player forced to make the most tackles was flyhalf Morne Steyn – who succeeded with nine out of 13 tackle attempts – showing how the All Blacks targeted his channel.
JJ Engelbrecht – another to have been hauled over the coals – made six tackles and missed only two – hardly the stuff that lynching mobs are made up of.
In fact, the player with the worst tackle statistics is one who is seen as one of the heroes in the Ellis Park game – Willie le Roux. According to the post game statistics, Le Roux made only one tackle, missing four, in a defensive performance he will have to look at.
Other notable tackle stats see Jan Serfontein - widely acknowledged to be out of his depth and out of position on the wing, making three and missing three tackles in the game, while the two front rankers Jannie du Plessis (made 2, missed 3) and Tendai Mtawarira (made 3, missed 3) are also high on the error list.
Captain Jean de Villiers, who was electric on attack, also missed two tackles – one which led to a try.
Which all goes to prove that sometimes, the players widely blamed for defensive errors are not the ones who commit them.
The Boks were out on their feet at Ellis Park, but now they know they can score four tries against the World Champions. Their defence needs work and players didn’t keep to the system. But at such a frenetic pace, the game was always going to open up and holes would have been there.
Much will be said at team level when they meet again about the way they defended at Ellis Park. But to correct the faults, you need to know where they were made in the first place.
The Bok backline features quite heavily on the Rugby championship statistics – with Le Roux and Kirchner both topping the metres made, and very high on ball carries.
Captain Jean de Villiers leads the defenders beaten stat, and along with Willie le Roux are the top South Africans on the linebreak stat.
