Bob Dwyer Rugby Workshops

Pretoria. 27th June, 2009

During the half-time break, 1997 Lions hero, Jerry Guscott remarked that this was a proper intense test match. Being an Aussie, I said to myself, “This is a fair dinkum test match.” In this context we don’t use the description lightly!

They say that a week is a long time in politics. It seems like it’s an even longer time in rugby. Last week, the Springboks blasted out of the blocks, demolished the Lions scrum and generally were so dominant that we feared for a Lions humiliation.

Then the Lions finished so strongly and attacked with such quality that a most unlikely win seemed a distinct possibility.

The Boks, however, were up to the challenge and hung on for what most people thought was a deserved win.

Fast forward to this week.

The Lions got off to a flying start and dominated early. Their scrum, now with an all-Welsh front-row, turned last week’s effort on its head, and had much the better of this vital area of the game, until injuries unfortunately forced the referee to call for uncontested scrums. They drew two early penalties , both for the Springbok hooker lifting up under pressure from the Lions front-row. One indeed relieved an attacking Springbok five metre feed that threatened to bring South Africa back into the game.

Lack of discipline from the Lions was replaced by lack of discipline from the Springboks.

Last week, of the goal-kickers, Ruan Pienaar seemingly couldn’t miss while Stephen Jones was astray. Now, Jones was impeccable and Pienaar unable to convert even simple chances.

There were, on the other hand, some similarities. The expected Springbok lineout advantage was maintained, even widened, from that of the first test. This understandably proved significant.

But the real telling point was that, when a fight-back was required from the Springboks this week, they were able to produce it, and, when it was the Lions turn to show that they were up to the challenge, they could not.

Courageous and committed they were, but battered and riddled with injury replacements, they could not answer the final Springbok challenge.

Last week, it was three Lions tries to two from the Boks. This week it was three to the Boks, but only one from the Lions.

By half time, the Lions had enjoyed 70% possession, even though the Springbok lineout, as anticipated, had been well on top. The Boks had been so intent on establishing field position, that they seemed to forget that you need possession to put continued pressure on a defence. They hadn’t learned from last week that, despite their dominance for a large proportion of that match, without the ball, you cannot score tries and mount a sizable score.

Joel Stransky, the Springbok hero from the 1995 RWC and now a knowledgable commentator, made exactly this point during the break. There is a place in the game for the taking of some calculated risks in order to put your ability to the test. Someone once said: “To win without risk, is to triumph without honour.” Food for thought!

As you would expect from such a great match, there were some great individual performances.

For the Lions, Rob Kearney was fantastic at the back. Simon Shaw, in his first Lions test cap after two previous tours, was huge up front. Their centre pairing of Roberts and O’Driscoll was all class once again and Stephen Jones showed all of the qualities of a top class fly half.

For the Springboks, the quality of their attack from the set-pieces brought them two scintillating tries.

In my web-site Coaching Manual, in the section Advanced Attack from Set-Pieces, I stress the need for the attack to threaten the space between the set-piece, be it lineout or scrum, and the defensive fly-half. This puts pressure on a defence that is eager to drift – and this covers most, if not all, defences.

And so it was that, when the Springbok attack asked two reasonably difficult questions of the Lions players defending this zone, they over-read on both occasions and came up with the wrong answer. On each attack, the blindside wing scored – first it was Pietersen and then Habana.

For the Boks, both wingers, Habana and Pietersen, contributed a great deal In both attack and defence, in the set plays and in the loose. Fourie du Preez played his usual high quality game, after a less-than-best performance last week.

Huge contributions came from the Springbok bench with the arrival of Heinrich Brussow and Morne Steyne, while very few players could have scored the crucial try that was placed by Jacques Fourie.

The Springbok selections and substitutions continue to be a mystery to us mere mortals!