We didn't seem much from Delande, where he was preferred mostly as a dummy runner.
Well that's what I told you guys after all the bitching about Esterhuizen's "quiet game" against Wales. Under Brown our 12 is being used more as a decoy than a carrier. Go watch the first Bok try in that test again to see how Esterhuizen's dummy run removes Wales 12 from the line and creates the overlap. "Quiet game" if you don't understand what you're looking at, yes.
We were able to move the ball wide against Oz. But I ascribe that more to Australia’s woeful line speed in defense. We did try to offload more….Dud Toit for example. That hardly worked. If you want to see good offloading putting the player in the gap, watch the Bargies game…they did it brilliantly. Ireland has that skill down as well.
Many of the structured backline plays did not result in tries, but it certainly gained territory.
More practice, and some of these will lead to tries, from early stages phase play.
The Boks have never been ruthless on the attack in periods of domination, A 20-minute period could be enough to get the points to win a game if the Boks can score from early phases, rather than relying on broken play.
Many of the structured backline plays did not result in tries, but it certainly gained territory.
True.
And the reason......we're too predictable. The Boks aren't creating any doubts in the minds of the opposition. They're a one trick pony by going wide at every opportunity although I will admit it does look pretty.
I watched a bit of the game again today and was struck by Dud Toit’s try. Two things. Firstly Dud ran an excellent line and took the ball very flat between two defenders. Secondly Sacha put doubt in the mind of the inside defender by running just enough to create hesitancy. It was a perfectly timed pass.
That to me was progress.
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Against the Irish, we saw some of Tony Brown's influence on the Bok's attacking play. Sometimes it worked, other times the Boks reverted back to playing flat and carrying the ball up in the centre.
Either the Boks are getting used to the plan, or SashaZulu is better at implementing the game plan.
The ball was being moved down the backline with skill, players angled their runs and always drew a player before making the pass - so it does seem the team is starting to gel with the new plan.
We didn't seem much from Delande, where he was preferred mostly as a dummy runner.
Boks are certainly trying to get their wings into the game, arguably the best 2 finishers in world rugby at the moment.
If you play small wings, they need to get more chances to convert opportunities into tries.
What was interesting is that the Boks were less dependent on Willie Leroux being the creator of tries.