OOM RUGBY cuts through the hysteria to drill down into the loss against Japan – and discovers some surprising aspects to the shock loss.
I watch the Japan game three times on my computer on Sunday. I reverse many moments, and slow them down with my software. You can say I do my homework thoroughly for today!
As I watched, I waited for a big revelation of why the Boks lose. The closest I can come is this old coaching expression: If you can get set piece parity, and if you can get physical parity, then you bring other factors into play.
Quite simply, that is what Japan did and we must take our hat off to them for how they was able to create conditions that gave them a chance of beating South Africa. To just point a finger at the Boks is a inaccurate reading of this game and it is a insult to the Japanese excellence and improvisation.
A great example of this is how they sometimes removed the scrum as a area that the Boks could dominate. For instance the picture above is a scrum that took only 1,5 seconds from the moment the Japanese scrumhalf put the ball in to the moment the 8th man pass it to the flyhalf. 1,5 seconds. They did not even contest. The hooker only focus on striking and the props is happy to go backwards as long as they can manage the Springbok shove.
But at other times when they needed it the Japanese scrum was rock solid. We now understand why people are saying they have one of the top five scrums in the world. Add to that their true excellence in defence and their ability to secure own lineout and we can see this team play from a base that is much stronger than anybody expect.
It is like when the tiny minnows Sri Lanka announce themself to the world in the 1996 Cricket World Cup. This was not a “one-off” victory.
And as I watch the game I mentally put a England or even Australia jersey on the Japanese players, and I can tell you their patterns, defence and execution would not look out of place. South African fans will have to get over the mental block that Japan should not be able to play this way. They did, and it is a big part of why the Boks lost.
Of course the Boks did not help themself. But this idea that they played one-dimensional is untrue. They vary their depth and strike points and run well, but the excellent Japanese defence system, speed and attitude shut them out. Faced with defence like this, if you are not getting dominance in the set piece you are on thin ice….
We can point our finger at the Boks kicking game too. It was not good and it would have been the one thing that would have disrupt the Japanese plan.
A very interesting statistic I counted is that in the Red Zone the Boks missed 11 chances to get points. That is a lot! When you are within 20 metre of the opponent’s line you HAVE to come back with points. But poor handling and sometimes poor decisions let the Boks down on many occasions. They had territorial and possession dominance but left a lot of points on the field.
End of the day this was a perfect situation where all the ingredients come together to blow up in our face. We did not play terribly, but we make enough cumulative little mistakes and disciplinary errors that a team who virtually make no mistakes, and who prepare for two years for this game, was able to beat us.
Yes this was a dark day for South African rugby and the Springboks will have to look long and hard at their discipline, handling and kicking. But in the same breath I saw the way we play against New Zealand and Australia at times this year so I know the system is not as bad as it looks after such a shocking loss.
More important, there was a point on Saturday night when I stopped being a Bok fan and I just became a rugby fan. To watch the Japanese construct this victory is something I will always remember.
We loved the result, because we love rugby.
Groete,
Oom
Let's Chat