Scott Robertson’s All Blacks need to run the Springboks off their feet if they are to defeat the two-time defending world champions in South Africa during the Rugby Championship, says John Kirwan.
New Zealand went unbeaten through their July internationals against England and Fiji and will now turn their attention to defending their Rugby Championship title for the fifth year in a row.
Robertson’s All Blacks get their campaign underway with two home games against Argentina, before travelling to South Africa for the much-anticipated double-header against the Springboks.
Under Ian Foster, the All Blacks faced a similar challenge in 2022, falling to a then-record 26-10 loss at Mbombela. However, they bounced back in style, scoring two tries in the last 10 minutes at Ellis Park to secure a come-from-behind 35-23 win at altitude.
Speaking on The Breakdown, Kirwan said the All Blacks need to take more risks with the ball, if they want to win at Ellis Park and Cape Town.
“I’m sure we’re starting to see a little bit of it. If you remember back to the first few minutes against England in the second Test at Eden Park, they actually threw it around,” Kirwan said on The Breakdown
“They tried to give it some air, tried to run the opposition off their feet. How are we going to beat South Africa? We’re not going to beat them at their own game so we’ve got to run them around.”
Former All Blacks scrumhalf Justin Marshall recalled how the All Blacks beat the Boks under Foster two years ago.
“We did that successfully a couple of years ago at Ellis Park, literally run them off the park,” Marshall said. “They had to replace their front-row before half-time, they couldn’t handle the pace.
“We’ve got to learn to beat that blitz defence. Some of those movements that were highlighted [against Fiji] is exactly what you need to do to do that,” Marshall added.
“You’re not going to have the time but, equally, as long as the players are all expecting it and are running at that depth with that type of precision, and the handling is clean, then yes you can execute against blitz defence.”
Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
The post Razor urged to ‘run Boks around’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
