Highlighting the Bok flaws
Jake White, in his weekly column, highlights the Springboks’ flaws in their 20-39 loss to Australia.
White said that it is very difficult writing this, as he don’t want to sound too negative firing shots at the team from afar.
“But it would be remiss of me as a former Bok coach not to point out certain things in their game.
“Firstly, the result again shows the difference between the A and B sides, and how experienced that A group is.
“You cant put a team together in two weeks in this competition and expect to get away with it.
“Many drew inspiration from our 2007 result when we went down 17-25 with a B side. We went up 17-0 then; this time around they never looked like they were in the game.
“This group of players haven’t played in at least a month, in 2007 we had the incoming Tests against England, Samoa and two Tri-Nations Tests where those inexperienced players got a chance to build confidence.
“Many people forgot to acknowledge that this time around and merely thought the Boks could turn up and be competitive.
“Living in Australia now I realised how much pressure the Wallabies were under after their loss to Samoa.
“If we’d played our A side the Aussies wouldn’t have enjoyed that, as there would’ve been even more pressure on them. With guys like Fourie du Preez and Victor Matfield, it would have been a different game.
“Now, the reality for the Boks is that we’ve opened the door for Australia to build momentum.
“We missed an opportunity to strike a mental blow.”
To read more on Jake White’s thoughts, CLICK HERE, or visit RugbyXV.
