Chronicle Editor
THE Springboks may have learnt how to negate the All Blacks attacking game and kept in touch with them, but one of the biggest concerns the Bok team currently have is their inability to finish off a game.
On Saturday after clawing back a one-point lead, the Boks almost played too much rugby, and spread the ball too wide, eventually costing them the penalty that saw Jordie Barrett slot to win the game for the All Blacks.
And while this is a side that can take the All Blacks to the end, the one thing that differs them from the men in black over the past few decades is their inability to finish off close games.
The Boks have come close – they drew in Wellington in 2019 and won in 2018, but they lost their lead at Loftus in 2018 to lose an epic match and Saturday again, by Nienaber’s own admission, it was a game they should have won.
While many of the games between the two sides have been close, the All Blacks have more often than not been able to sneak a victory when the Boks should have, and Saturday was no different.
The Bok team will need to tighten up in this aspect in the months to come, and it will be the evergreen search for consistency that will plague this side after Saturday.
After all, while most of the focus has been on their kicking game, it was this kicking game that saw them get the lead with minutes to go.
Nienaber admitted “a little more composure” was needed at the back end of the match to close out the game and the Boks will be searching for this as they head into the final Rugby Championship game this weekend.
“We could have won this game with a little more composure,” Nienaber admitted. “We should have been more composed at the back end of the game, and needed to finish the game a little better after leading at 78 minutes. We definitely weren’t as composed in the game as we should have been.
“We are a very experienced side but we currently have a lot to learn as a group. People may think we’re mad to say it, but we need to go through the processes of being champions and finishing things out.
“That is why a team like the All Blacks wins 88 out of 100 games – that is the consistency that we are striving to have in our game. We will need to learn very quickly in the next couple of years how to do that.”
Nienaber is correct, this is a sore point for several Bok teams in the past. The ability to get themselves up for big games is one thing, but consistency is another.
At least admitting their is a problem is the first step to solving it, because the Boks know that if they lead with two minutes to go – as they did against Australia as well – there is no way they should lose a game. — SuperSport
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