South Africa Can Stun New Zealand with an Expansive Game

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: October 1, 2013

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The odds are stacked in New Zealand’s favour to claim their second consecutive Rugby Championship title.

To stop them on Saturday, South Africa must win with a four-try bonus point and stop the All Blacks from registering even a losing bonus in reply.

Given the recent form of both sides, it would seem this scenario is unlikely to unfold.

Steve Hansen’s men have been in rampant form, while the 2013 Springboks seem to have been cast in the familiar South African mould of bruising forwards and a fly half who can launch the ball deep.

The try-scoring stats, though, stand at 19 apiece in the tournament so far, and the Boks have a better points difference by more than 20. Furthermore, their defeat in New Zealand in September was coloured somewhat by the questionable red card for Bismarck du Plessis.

Still, to claim the title, they will need to turn up on Saturday with a new approach and weld it to an iron will to restrict the visitors to three tries or less and keep them seven or more points adrift.

You’d have to visit a good many bookmakers before finding a punter putting his house on that.

But when you consider the recent history of clashes between these two at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, where they meet this weekend, the impossible shifts to somewhere between improbable and not out of the question.



 

History Lesson

The All Blacks haven’t won at Ellis Park since 1997 in a 35-32 win against a formidable world champion Boks side that had claimed the Webb Ellis Cup in that tourniquet-tight 15-12 final two years previously.

Three years later, South Africa scored six tries in a 46-40 win—a result that got them their bonus but saw the All Blacks leave with two.

It’s to 2004 that the current crop of South African players can look to for the template required this weekend. Back then, a...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union

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