It’s not as if any of the Springbok players chosen to take on New Zealand at their Eden Park cauldron are not aware of it, but assistant coach Jerry Flannery reminded them anyway.
As they readied for the Rugby Championship clash, Flannery refreshed the Boks’ memories — it is going to be a herculean task to win against an All Blacks side full of X-factor players at the revered stadium.
The All Blacks are almost impregnable at the feared Auckland venue where they have not lost a Test match since 1994, a highly impressive record that stretches over 50 matches.
They are on a run of four straight defeats to the Springboks and want to turn it around, which explains why they took the match to Eden Park, but the Springbok defence coach said they were focusing on their preparations.
“We don’t know what they are going to throw at us; they have individuals who have the X-factor [special quality] but we are prepared for that. We played well against them last year but their team is relatively settled compared to then and there is a lot of consistency there,” said Flannery.
We don’t know what they are going to throw at us; they have individuals who have the X-factor but we are prepared for that
— Jerry Flannery, Bok assistant coach
“We have to defend individuals, and they have tightened a bit on how they play, and they maul more. We have to work on our maul defence, it is something that hasn’t been where we want it to be. In general, they have good individual players, with massive X-factor, and we must try to defend them within our system. Their maul is something that is going to be a challenge for us.”
In the opening match of the Rugby Championship, where the Boks imploded in the second half against Australia at Ellis Park a few weeks ago, they lost their identity — and Flannery said they couldn’t afford to repeat that mistake.
“For us we just have to play Springbok rugby and be at our best, I think we have been fairly consistent this season. We put up some really good performances against the Barbarians. The second Test against Italy was good and we will need to be at our best this weekend.”
To be successful, Flannery said their defence will have to improve as they had given away nine tries in their opening two matches against Australia.
“We work on it every week, we conceded more than we would have liked, especially in the first Test against Australia. We overplayed a bit and that took juice out of our legs, but we feel we have good plans coming up against New Zealand.
“With the way we defend, we will probably miss more tackles than other teams because we blitz hard. But it is something we want to keep working on to increase our tackle completion. If your attack is more expansive, it means your defence is stretched more when you turn the ball over. But I think that’s been the progression for the team in that, as we grow our attack, our defence has to be more adaptable.”
The Springboks take on the All Blacks with their coach Scott Robertson under pressure after a limp performance losing to Argentina last week. And if the Boks can remember Flannery’s advice of being at their “very best”, they may well break New Zealand’s Eden Park record that has stood since 1994.
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