Rugby Union: All Blacks Lucky Against Awful Springboks

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 16, 2012

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It was brutal, it was ugly and at times it was downright awful. But somehow the All Blacks have escaped with a 21-11 win over the Springboks in their first test at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Contrary to pre-match predictions, the Springboks proved to be more than a challenge for the All Blacks and in the end probably should have walked away victors. They brought physicality to their game and got the better of the contact situations ensuring they had more than enough ball and field position to win the game.

But it was their own ineptitude that was their demise as they employed a predictable, one-dimensional game plan, looking to kick everything. Not only was this the wrong game plan to be using, it was executed poorly with the result being that the Springboks ended up simply kicking the ball back to the All Blacks.

Too often they were in prime attacking positions only to kick away the ball when they seemingly had the defence stretched. They simply had no clue what to do on attack and in the end it cost them what could have been an upset win.

To go with this they missed seven kicks. Seven kicks. This from a team that relies on kicking as their primary source of scoring. Whilst some of these were fairly optimistic attempts, there were a handful that were handy to the posts that normally metronomic Morne Steyn would expect to throw over.

And it was this as much as anything that ensured the All Blacks kept what is now a 14-game winning streak alive. They didn’t fire in the way they can and continue to look average as they have done for the entirety of the Rugby Championship.

Defensively they were strong, putting in some big hits and tackling in two’s and three’s. This has been a real strength of this All Blacks side, conceding just three tries in four games in the Rugby Championship. But even then, their accuracy wasn’t great and far too many penalties were conceded in kickable posi...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union

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