Rassie Erasmus has Addresses the Reasons Behind the Springboks’ Lineout Issues
Rassie Erasmus has pinpointed the reasons behind the Springboks’ lineout issues in the 18-12 victory over the All Blacks in Cape Town.
While South Africa had their issues at the set-piece, the Bok boss believes that there was another area of the came where they comfortably were the second-best team.
Springboks’ struggles
The lineout is a traditional strength of South Africa but on Saturday, the Boks struggled with the usually accurate Bongi Mbonambi missing his jumper multiple times after boasting an unblemished record in the previous matches in the Rugby Championship.
However, the All Blacks clearly did their homework and were able to put the pressure on the Springboks‘ set-piece. While South Africa managed to claim 13 of their 16 lineouts, it was far from a solid platform throughout the 80 minutes and Erasmus believes it was down to the inexperience of Ruan Nortje.
Following the injuries to Franco Mostert, Lood de Jager, RG Snyman and Jean Kleyn, Nortje was recalled to the Springboks team and featured against Australia before starting both Tests against New Zealand.
Saturday’s clash was just his third appearance which Erasmus believes played a role in the misfiring set-piece as well as the fact that he was given added responsibilities this week.
“It was just overthrown by the hooker and sometimes they didn’t even go up so that’s a timing issue,” the Bok boss explained.
“We have to understand that a guy like Ruan Nortje is early in his career and it was only his second game against New Zealand.
“Last week, we had Pieter-Steph help him call the lineout but this week it was solely on him, so he will have learnt a lot and the All Blacks did their homework and contested well.”
The lineout was not the only area of the game that New Zealand were able to put the Boks under pressure with Erasmus believing that the All Black comfortably got the better of his side at the breakdown with Scott Robertson’s men winning nine turnovers.
“The scrums was another area, at the first two scrums we were dominant and then they came back and the next two we were under the pump,” Erasmus added.
Where we came totally second best was the breakdown, the lineouts weren’t great but at the breakdown, they definitely overshadowed us.”
Respect for the All Blacks
The win over the All Blacks puts South Africa in a strong place to win the Rugby Championship but Erasmus is not getting carried away.
“We respect them immensely as a team,” Erasmus said of the All Blacks.
“It’s important to understand what winning four consecutive games against them means, but they’ve beaten us many times in a row too and achieved so much, so it’s not something to brag about, but it feels good.
“For us we spoke a lot about the Freedom Cup this week, and it means a lot for South Africa with where we are now. We wanted to win this badly for South Africa. This was also good for our hopes of winning the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, but we still have some work to do in that regard.”
