'You take it with a pinch of salt': An All Black view on Rassie's team for third Test
INTERVIEW: All Blacks attack coach Mike Blair shared his thoughts on the Springbok team selected by Rassie Erasmus for the third Test of the Greatest Rivalry series at FNB Stadium.
Erasmus named his first team of the RGR series on a Thursday, but following the defeat to the All Blacks at Ellis Park, the Bok boss went back to naming his side on a Monday for two consecutive weeks.
Before the second Test, which the Springboks won 33-26 in Cape Town, Erasmus bracketed Paul de Villiers and Siya Kolisi from his starting XV.
Kolisi was then cleared to start on the Tuesday, but the changes didn’t stop there.
A late change on Friday saw Handré Pollard being withdrawn from the starting XV, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu promoted from the bench and Manie Libbok drafted onto the reserves.
Erasmus also drafted Cheslin Kolbe in for Kurt-Lee Arendse, with Kolbe earning the Player of the Match award following his flawless display off the kicking tee.
An hour before kick-off, Erasmus shuffled the deck once more by swapping around the starting front row, who dropped to the bench and the replacements taking their place in the run-on side.
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Blair said that the All Blacks didn’t take too much notice of the Bok team selected for the third Test, and will remain focussed on their own game and plans.
“I mean, you take notice of it, but you take it with a pinch of salt as well,” he said.
“And, you know, listening to what he said after the first Test about how he changed the team around depending on the weather, it shows that they’ve got the capability of doing that.
“So, you know, it gives us a little bit of an idea potentially of what they might be thinking.”
Blair added: “Historically, we know that the team, although it’s announced on a Monday or a Tuesday, we know that it’s changed in the past and it’s regularly changed.
“So, as I said, there’s an awareness, but, you know, we focus a lot on what our game is.
“We understand the South African DNA in terms of their game, in terms of how they defend as well.
“And a lot of the individuals coming to that will fit within that system.
“So we prepare for the, I guess, the team’s ethos as opposed to the individuals.
“But we’re also, you know, we’re not going to spend huge amounts of time planning for a certain individual in a certain position when we’re pretty aware that that can change right up until kick-off.”
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Blair also elaborated on which areas the All Blacks will look to build on where he felt they’ve done well in the first two Tests.
“I think we had big improvements from Test one to Test two,” Blair said.
“I think Test one was 28 minutes of ball-in-play time and we’re up to 37 minutes in Test two – We were able to get a multi-phase [attack] going.
“We got six-plus phases eight times at the weekend, whereas in the first Test we only got it two times.
“So we are, you know, growing in that area. We also understand that you’re not always going to get the situation where you can play tempo the whole time.
“So us having the ability to balance our game is important in that space as well.
“But, you know, we still want to play with tempo. We want to move around their pack, but there are different ways to fatigue an opposition as well, which we’ve looked at.”
