Going back to go forward
by Gavin Rich | 10 November 2008 (11:09)
The rain that was teeming down as my bus departed deserted Cardiff on the Sunday morning after the Millennium Stadium match served as a reminder that the Springboks played the perfect game for conditions that didn’t exist.
The Welsh innovation of having a stadium that has a roof removes the impact of climatic conditions on the type of rugby played. So long as they don’t make the mistake of organizing sky-divers as the pre-match entertainment and then forget to tell them the roof is closed, I can’t see how this harms anyone. What a pity there isn’t a roof over Boland’s home ground in Wellingon.
There was a wonderful atmosphere at the match, it felt like a special occasion, and those of us who were there would go along with Wales coach Warren Gatland’s contention that it was a real test match.
Had the roof been open it would have been a wet weather test for we all got drenched upon leaving the stadium. It was one of those horrible northern autumn nights which forced you into the pubs. Had it been a wet weather test, the Springbok fans would almost certainly still have been celebrating, for they did play the perfect game for inclement conditions.
The point though is that it was not a wet test, it was a dry test, and the same approach that would have been employed on a wet day was seen to prevail. It wasn’t that much different from what helped the All Blacks win the Tri-Nations – they adapted to the conditions better in Wellington when they played the Boks in the wet, but the same tactical kicking orientated game was in use on a dry day in Cape Town and it brought the same result.
Gatland complained afterwards that the team that played the most rugby lost the match but unfortunately that seems to be a reality of the game as it is played under the ELVs. With the defending team prevented from kicking directly for touch after taking the ball back into the 22 before kicking, it would be crazy not to create pressure by kicking balls into that area of the field.
A few weeks ago in Hong Kong the commentators were just starting to talk about the “brave rugby” played by the All Blacks when boom, the Aussies turned them over and scored a try. In the second half the Kiwis had more respect for territory, relearning a lesson that had been drummed home to them much earlier in their Bledisloe Cup campaign, and they were never really threatened after that.
I haven’t looked at the statistics, but I would bet a lot that they will show that the teams that have been successful in all competitions this year have been those that have kicked the most. So Gatland complaining about his team losing when they played the most rugby misses the same point that he himself made a little later when he defended his team’s reliance on penalties to keep the scoreboard moving – the objective is to win the match, it doesn’t matter how it is achieved.
This is hopefully a message that the Springbok management have now internalized.
While even this advocate of “conservative rugby” was at times wondering on Saturday whether the Boks were over-doing what I had been hoping for, it was important that it brought the desired result.
The truth is that the Boks just never played particularly well after that compelling opening quarter, when they had complete control of the match, and as John Smit says, they were guilty of becoming complacent once they had gone 17 points ahead. I don’t know what mental fatigue looks like, but if I have ever seen it, I reckon it may have been spotted in some of the Boks at the weekend.
Let it be said too though that the Welsh were far more physical than many of us expected them to be, and while they provided a telling example of what happens to teams that are forced to play catch-up and thus forced to play from everywhere, they are an improved side on the one we saw here 12 months ago.
Had the Boks played the loose rugby that they played in the Tri-Nations, they could well have lost on Saturday. No-one wants to see the Boks kick every single ball, but you have to build from your strengths, and the Boks have shown that they understand the need to take a step back in order to move forward.
