All Blacks coach Scott Robertson hinted that he may follow Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks’ “bomb squad” tactics ahead of their hotly anticipated Rugby Championship matches later this year.
The Springboks swept the All Blacks aside in the last year’s Rugby Championship after two thrilling late comebacks. The impact of the Boks’ bench was telling in Cape Town and Johannesburg, as the All Blacks had no answer to the South Africans’ quality and power off the bench.
In fact, the Springboks kept the All Blacks scoreless in the last 20 minutes in both those encounters.
But now Robertson seems to want to fight fire with fire, with Robertson saying in a recent interview that closing out matches will be one of the biggest areas that they will be focusing on in their upcoming Test series against an understrength France team.
The Springboks have successfully used their bench over the last six years, using a 6-2 or 7-1 split in favour of the forwards. In the second Test against the All Blacks last year they went with a conventional 5-3 split and still got the desired impact in the second half to win the match.
It remains to be seen if Robertson will move away from his preferred 5-3 bench split for the Tests against the Boks in Auckland (August 31) and Wellington (September 7). But what we do know is they will have to come up with a plan to get one over the Boks, who have won their last four matches against the Kiwis.
“What Rassie [Erasmus] has done beautifully is he’s really clear in the second half of games how to make great impacts. That’s an area of growth for us,” Robertson told the Sunday Star-Times.
“He’s got a really good formula – their Boks style. They can be extremely brutal, can put you in the corner, and they can play some great rugby off turnover.
“Of course you learn from others. Our game has to become a little bit of imitation, but also innovation.”
Robertson will enter his second season as coach of the All Blacks looking to build on some of the areas where they ticked all the boxes, such as making fast starts and creating chances.
However, execution is another area of their game where they need to improve. They are not as clinical as some of the great All Black teams of yesteryear.
“You’re always evolving your identity. We created so much in Tests, and just didn’t finish. The effort was there – just not the discipline and self-control,” he said.
“We played some incredible rugby – just not for long enough. Looking at how we can get better is the great part of being a coach.”
