Victor Matfield is encouraged to see the Springboks experiment on attack, but believes it’s in the DNA of the world champions to employ a set-piece dominant gameplan.
The Boks’ strength lies in their physicality and abrasive style, which has made them back-to-back world champs. However, in Saturday’s win against Ireland at Loftus Versfeld, the South Africans opted for a more expansive and offloading strategy.
Rassie Erasmus’ troops squeaked home after they turned to the power of their Bomb Squad, which yielded a pivotal 78th-minute penalty try from a five-metre scrum.
Speaking on the latest episode of Sky Sport NZ’s ‘The Breakdown’ with All Blacks icons John Kirwan, Jeff Wilson and Mils Muliaina, former Bok Matfield highlighted the impact of Kiwi Tony Brown as part of Erasmus’ backroom staff while addressing some of World Rugby’s law changes from 2024.
“Tony Brown coming in, [there’s] definitely more width to our game and attack and playing a little more in our own half as well,” the 127-Test World Cup winner said.
“Just after half time I thought we overplayed a little bit; being up by five points we probably would be better being a bit more conservative, kicking into their 22 and trying to get that turnover.
“Definitely something new and that’s what’s nice, Rassie is very open with that. I think we started very conservatively in 2018, 2019 before that World Cup.
“Then a guy like Manie Libbok came in just before the [2023] World Cup and we played a little differently, and now Tony Brown coming in as attacking coach there’s definitely something else to the Boks as well. We keep on developing our play.”
Teams no longer having the option to choose a scrum from a free-kick has been interpreted as an attempt to limit the influence of scrums in the international game, especially as it comes after the Boks used the set piece as a weapon to successfully defend South Africa’s World Cup title last year.
“If you look at the rules I think there’s only two that have a big impact; one is you can’t go to scrum off a free-kick and that’s only once, maybe twice a game that you can’t go to a scrum and you’d rather have a quick tap,” Matfield added.
“But again, if you have big strong ball carriers that can get you over the advantage line you can use that as well.
“We’re not a team that really kicks long, we kick mostly contestables [so] I think that whole thing with guys who can’t advance … It doesn’t really play that big a part in South African rugby, it’s more the French who like a long kicking game.
“We go more for the contestables, we like that and want to play off those turnovers. So I don’t think the laws will make a big difference.
“I saw [on Saturday] again the fans love a big maul and a big scrum – it was the biggest cheer when we got that penalty try from a big scrum.
“That’s the style we like to play, that’s our DNA and I don’t think we’ll go away from that.”
Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
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Src: sarugbymag.co.za
