Springboks ‘exploit all these horror parts of our game’: Ex Test coach
Former Scotland coach Matt Williams did not try and mask his dislike of South African rugby when a guest on Off The Ball in Ireland this week.
The Australian seems to have a problem with almost every aspect of the Springboks’ style, particularly the fact that they have a lot of big players, and was not afraid to draw attention to those areas. The crux of the issue is probably the fact that, as he said, South Africa “are really hard to beat.” Funny how that can cause so much rancour.
This is what he said:
“The South Africans have picked out a perfect negative game plan to exploit all of these horror parts of our game. Slowing it down, constant cross-field kicking where you’re contesting in the air, a rushing defence that is usually offside a significant percentage of the game, unbelievably giant human beings and it allows them to pick six on the bench, six giant human beings on the bench, which was never the intention of the laws, and the only two backs on the bench.
“It was never the intentional laws, but the coaches – and I’m not blaming the coaches, it’s the coaches’ job – their intellectual property and their intellectual eliteness has allowed them to exploit and to see the loopholes in all those laws and South Africa are playing a game plan that is really hard to beat.
“You can see that against the Lions, that horrible series, but they were brilliant at the horrid. And against New Zealand in that test at Ellis Park, New Zealand should won that game by a huge amount. But the negativity of the South Africans, that constant cross-field kicking, the way they flood the breakdown, the huge human beings they can bring on through the whole game and ability to slow the game down and bring it to their own advantage. Their maul, their scrummaging for penalties, that is really, really hard to beat.”
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