Boks to play it their 'own way'
South Africa, after a solid session of introspection, realised they need to do what works for them and not worry too much about the opposition.
Springbok assistant coach Johann van Graan, speaking ahead of the Springboks' trip to Twickenham and an encounter with England on Saturday, made it clear that they are rapidly moving on from their disappointing 15-29 loss to Ireland at the weekend.
Having done the necessary soul-searching and pin-pointed their mistakes in Dublin, Van Graan said they are "very excited" about the next match on their year-end tour.
"[They were] pretty good," was his blunt assessment of an England team that ran New Zealand very close (losing just 21-24) and even scoring a penalty try with their powerful scrum.
"They have a magnificent line-out, with a great success rate," the Bok assistant told a media scrum at the team's base in London on Monday.
"They had that penalty try from the scrum," he said, adding: "[England assistant] Graham Rowntree is, in my opinion, one of the best forward coaches in the world – he is a good friend of mine."
However, Van Graan is adamant the Springboks' focus is on themselves and not England's strengths or weaknesses.
"We have to win the Test on our terms and we have to go and do what we do."
The Bok forward coach also spoke of their failure to turn their many opportunities into points as a contributing factor to the defeat and admitted they simply made too many mistakes in the first half and then got undone by a second-half yellow card (against replacement hooker Adriaan Strauss) at a crucial stage – after having worked their way back into the game at just 10-13 down.
The one area of the game that will, again, be crucial is the breakdown.
"Statistically, we had 96 breakdowns on our side and lost five, while Ireland had 60 breakdowns and also lost five," Van Graan said, admitting that it will be another massive battle at the breakdown this week.
"It seems the teams in the Northern Hemisphere also kick the ball more and turn it into more of an arm-wrestle.
"However, it comes back to what we do.
"Your breakdown starts with your carrier. Our carriers need to dominate the advantage line and then [it is] the reaction speed of the cleaners.
"That [the breakdown] is one of England's major strengths.
"In saying that, we are the team that wins the most ball on the ground and there is a massive test coming up at the weekend at the breakdown area."
He also spoke of the post-match emotion and disappointment in having lost in Dublin, but felt that they have identified the aspects of their game that will require most focus this week.
"When we did our video analyses there were a lot of positives and a few negatives," he said, adding: "We dominated territory [by being in their half] 63 percent [of the time] and [we had] 55 percent possession. We had 100 percent [success rate in our] set pieces. I also thought we exited well from the restarts. We executed our line-out plan and our scrums were brilliant."
However, the large number of handling errors is definitely something they will work on this week.
"It was another valuable lesson in rugby. It is not the amount of possession or the amount of territory, but what you do with it.
"[We need to be] a bit more clinical, [with] one or two things to fix and [those are the things] we will work hard on in training this week.
"What a great challenge, playing England at Twickenham. They showed [in a 21-24 loss to New Zealand] at the weekend they are one of the top sides in the world.
"It was a very close Test [between England and the All Blacks] and we are looking forward with excitement and we want to improve.
"One thing about this team, win or lose, we want to be consistent and we want to play good, winning Springbok rugby and we want to make ourselves and our country proud."
Meanwhile the Bok team doctor Craig Roberts gave the side a clean bill of health, with the exception of veteran prop Jannie du Plessis – who fractured a tooth and will have to see a dentist.
However, he said all the players are available for selection.
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