De Bruin is Boks' attack 'guru'
JUNE SPOTLIGHT: Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick says Lions head coach Swys de Bruin is the man responsible for South Africa’s improved showing on attack during the England series.
De Bruin was brought into the Bok setup as a consultant for the June internationals against England and Rassie Erasmus’ side immediately impressed with their play in the wider channels in the 42-39 win at Ellis Park in the first Test.
Four of South Africa’s five tries in that match was scored by outside backs.
There were also more glimpses of the Springboks’ improvement in the wider channels in the 23-12 win in Bloemfontein in the second Test.
“One thing that I have to mention is that we have Swys who is our main guru when it comes to attack in our system,” said Stick.
“He has worked with a few guys before. He worked with Faf de Klerk before, he has worked with Aphiwe [Dyantyi] at the Lions, so we wanted someone who is going to bring out the best in our players.
“I have to give him credit, he is doing a great job with our attack.”
Stick added: “I think that [attack] is the main thing we have been lacking in the past couple of years where we always struggle to convert the opportunities into points and if you look at the way the outside backs played in the last two games we scored about five tries in the wider channels.”
Training day no 2 at the Cape Town Stadium. The Springboks continued with preparations for Saturday’s 3rd Test vs England at DHL Newlands. #MTNCallUP #RSAvENG pic.twitter.com/56XP01cThQ
— South African Rugby (@Springboks) June 19, 2018
With De Bruin in charge of the attack, Stick has been focussing on the “off the ball” aspects of Boks’ game during the series.
“On defence and attack, if the coach requires more numbers, it is my job to make sure that he has got all the numbers because as well all know rugby is a numbers game.
“We sometimes tend to focus more on what is happening with the ball and we forget about the movement around the park, so one of my key focuses is the small stuff that we do off the ball.
“We always praise other teams when they do a lot of good things off the ball and we don’t focus on that. Back in the day we were physical, and we could run over players and go and score tries and if you look at the European sides they are catching up on us now when it comes to the physical side of the game.
“They also got big players, so my philosophy is you can’t always rely on being physical, you need to be smart and that’s why I also help the decision makers on the field. I also work one-on-one with the players with regards to their individual skills,” said Stick.
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
