‘Fast and loose’ Boks played into France’s hands

Nick Mallett says the Springboks failed to impose their game plan on France in Paris on Friday night.

The world champions suffered a 21-19 defeat in their Nations Championship clash at the Stade de France, having trailed 21-7 at half-time.

Speaking on the Talking Boks podcast, the former Bok coach questioned South Africa’s approach in the opening stages.

“We didn’t play territory. We were running from well within our own 10m line. In fact, between the 10 and the 22, we were starting counterattacks.

“We got tackled behind the advantage line a lot. There were some turnovers.

“So we were very loose and fast in that first half.”

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Mallett felt the Boks were unable to establish the platform required to give their backs quality attacking ball.

“I go back to what Morné van den Berg said straight after the Italian game. He said, ‘We must make sure that we impose our game plan onto them [France].’

“And we certainly didn’t do that. We were trying to match their game plan.

“In the first 20 minutes, we weren’t getting momentum. And if you don’t get momentum, you can’t start running from the back or going laterally and hoping that you’re going to get momentum.

“You have to create momentum from a set-piece or from a recovered contestable, or a really positive tackle that the ball bursts out and now we’ve got a transition.

“We must impose our game by keeping on forcing set-piece upon set-piece onto the opposition until such time as we get that momentum.

“The moment we get the momentum, we can score tries through our forwards or our backs.

“But it’s not by just playing at pace that you can actually beat New Zealand or beat France. That’s not going to work. They can do it.”

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Mallett said the lack of front-foot ball had made life difficult for flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

“We saw a guy like Sacha, and I don’t want to pick on him because he was outstanding against Italy, but when you’re under a little bit more pressure than he was, our forwards weren’t getting the dominance, our ruck ball was slower, and Morné wasn’t able to get the snap into his pass and get on the front foot.

“Then Sacha’s pushing it, and he’s pushing it by running laterally, holding it in two hands and trying to find someone to run on his inside and outside.

“And it’s quite difficult for the outside players to know what he’s going to do. So we didn’t get backline momentum.

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“I think it was a case of not imposing our game on France, rather trying to match France’s game or match New Zealand’s game,” Mallett added.

“We’re not as good as them at that. And until such time as we stick to what we’re good at, we will always end up struggling.”

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