Sloppy Boks to tighten up
Following their historic defeat to Japan in their opening World Cup game, the Springboks had some hard questions to answer this week as they seek to bounce back against Samoa.
Van Graan said that after looking carefully at their performance in Brighton, the focus is on being more clinical in terms of their discipline and making the most of their attacking opportunities.
"We had a pretty in-depth review, the same as every week. I think we scored four tries and we were 100% in the set-pieces, had over 100 breakdowns of which we lost four and still lost the game so then you have got to ask yourself why.
"Our discipline was not good enough, we didn't take our opportunities where we got over the tryline a few times and didn't score so those are things that we have got to fix," he said.
The Springbok assistant coach said that although the team was hurting from the shock defeat to Japan – just their second-ever World Cup pool defeat – they have no choice but to focus on putting things right this weekend.
"The whole weekend was disappointing but that is in the past now and you can only control what you can control.
"It is a new week, a new game and we have got to go and set it right on Saturday.
"I think the biggest thing is that we let ourselves down, but it was a new day and new week and you have got to move on.
"That is the World Cup, there are upsets and we do have a choice – either sit down and stick our heads in the sand or get up and take the next job and go.
"We as a whole group took responsibility, we can't control what happened on Saturday but we can control what happens this Saturday and I think everybody wants to be on the field whoever the coach selects will take that field and we have got a lot of things to put right on Saturday," he said.
Van Graan said that while their execution had let them down against Japan, there was no lack of desire amongst the players.
"We have been working so hard over the last few weeks and we scored some fantastic tries on the weekend. Sometimes it is an excecution thing, I don't thing it was a desire thing.
"The players, the guys around me are as disappointed as anybody here or back home. It is not from a lack of trying we have just got to go out, train again, go out again and fix it on Saturday," he said.
He added that they have plenty of respect for Samoa who are the second-ranked team in the pool with a number of talented players at their disposal.
"Samoa is a fantastic team, we played them in 2013 at Loftus and they have some brilliant players. The Pisi brothers are world class and Kahn Fotuali'i played for the Crusaders and I have watched him at Northampton he is a brilliant player, Jack Lam at the Hurricanes we have always had a lot of respect for, a guy like Census Johnston in the front row is a fantastic player.
"They have some physical players, they are a well-coached team and I thought they did some good things over the weekend. We have been watching them for a while, this is World Cup rugby and like we experienced first-hand and everybody in the rugby world saw on the weekend there are no weak teams in this competition," he said.
