A big focus for the Springboks ahead of the second Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test will be on how to use their scrum dominance and convert those opportunities into points.
After overpowering the All Blacks in the opening match at Ellis Park with some roaring scrums, the world champions failed to utilise that platform to assert themselves on their opponents. Missed opportunities and poor discipline eventually led to a 33-16 loss in Johannesburg.
Now they have it all to do in Cape Town on Saturday to keep their hopes of winning the rivalry alive. A victory for the home side will see them draw level, while a Kiwi win will assure the visitors that they cannot lose the historic series.
The Springboks’ chief destroyer in the scrums, Wilco Louw, says they were disappointed with the first loss, but gave credit to the performance of New Zealand.
“Us and the All Blacks have a good scrum culture and we pride ourselves in that, we had some wins and they had some wins,” he said.
“However, our scrum is not just about one guy, it’s the whole pack. So credit to our forwards and to theirs, we really scrummed well. Credit also to Jan-Hendrik (Wessels) and Zachary (Porthen) and the pack who scrummed and fought with seven players when we were down to 13 players.
“It is not ideal to play with two less players against a team like the All Blacks who uses the full width of the field.”
According to Louw, they will take the lessons from the first game and look to improve in certain areas ahead of Saturday’s second encounter in the Mother City.
They will look to be sharper and capitalise on those opportunities, especially at scrum time.
“It’s a four-match series and we have an opportunity this week again.”
