Top two inches key for Boks
Springbok breakdown consultant Richie Gray believes games are mostly won and lost in the 'top two inches'.
Speaking ahead of the Boks' encounter with Italy at Stadio Euganeo in Padua on Saturday, Gray admitted the Boks' dramatic turnaround from week one (Ireland) to week two (England) on tour can be put down to an improved mindset.
Despite the Boks' dominance on the statistics sheet, the Boks' Scottish assistant felt they were just not 'in the game' mentally.
In fact, he clearly subscribes to that adage first uttered by Leonard H Courtney in 1895: "After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle, in the words of the Wise Statesman: 'Lies, damn lies and statistics.' Still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of."
Gray pointed to the "big difference" from week one to week two on tour as an example of how a change in mindset can improve a team's performance and result.
"For me, as a coach, you can't hide behind statistics," he told a media scrum at the team's training base in Padua.
"If you look at the statistics of the Irish game [a 15-29 loss] and you had not been to the game, you would have though [it was a] good game.
"However, it wasn't dominant, it wasn't accurate and it wasn't up to the standard we put forward [previously]."
He said they worked hard on those aspects in the week before the England encounter, which resulted in a 31-28 win at the weekend.
"We had a koppestamp [contact] session, or an all-in session as I call it. We just had to get it out the system and get back to what we have done so well over the last couple of years."
He said they worked really hard, collectively and individually, on those aspects of their game and got it right last Saturday against England.
"The intensity was right, the accuracy was right," Gray said, adding: "Sometimes it is just the top two inches."
The breakdown mentor said the good thing is that the Boks are an honest group and will own up to their errors.
"There is no hiding behind any excuses, we all put our hands up – the coaches and players. There is only one group that can sort it out, shut the doors and get on with the job.
"Sometimes you have a bad day at the office, but I would rather it happened there [Dublin against Ireland] than at Brighton, Newcastle or London [during the World Cup next year].
"We just have to make sure we are dominant and that is the key for us.
"A lot of it sometimes has to do with the mindset."
Gray, who said he knows the Italian players pretty well through watching a lot of the Pro12 competition, felt they will be a very difficult team to play against.
"They are intense at the breakdown and we will get real competition there.
"They have some world-class players and over the years they have really developed as a nation.
"[Azzurri coach] Jacques Brunel is doing a great job and it is going to be a real intense battle on Saturday."
@rugby365com
