After training in Top 14 with Montpellier, I always like to keep an eye on affairs in France. With the first round of fixtures, the standout game was La Rochelle’s last-gasp 30-27 win over super club Toulouse.
At the end of the game, Ugo Mola, their head coach, was apoplectic. He saw his star-studded side lose to Ronan O’Gara’s men with the last kick of the match. What was interesting was that his anger was directed directly at his bench and the lack of impact they had on the game. He fired them.
It got me thinking about rugby’s greatest rivalry. The third and decisive test was the first I thought of All black people he looked a bit flat in those 20 minutes. They finished the Tests the stronger team in the previous two Tests, so did their use of substitutes weaken them? When the commentators bring up ‘here comes the bomb squad’, or ‘here comes the bench’, I’m not sure if the average rugby fan in the street knows what that means.
If you look at the bare facts, New Zealand have outscored the Springboks 13 tries to eight and have the better points difference. Indeed, the stats are pretty even, but the most important stat of all is that they are 2-1 down in the Test series. That’s all that matters.
So why did the All Blacks run out of steam and claim a historic Series win? Travel could have been a factor. The All Blacks chose to travel on Wednesday, while the Springboks flew straight back to Jo’Burg on Sunday after the second Test. Sports scientists will say that you either go as early as you can or as late as you can to acclimate to the altitude. Dave Rennie also kept the same backline, so did they blow late, after deciding not to inject new energy? That could have been a factor. I think that got me thinking about the number of Test matches on the bench. It is interesting that the Boks averaged almost 30 games per player. Take Anton Lienert-Brown’s 91 games and the average for the All Blacks would be 19. It might be marginal, but it makes a difference.
So what is the purpose of the bench? Sometimes it’s to kill the game. Sometimes it’s to protect the lead. Sometimes chasing is an advantage. There are no set rules. Sometimes players come in dribbles and dribbles in the last 20 minutes for tactical reasons, other times it’s mass intimidation of the opposition. That image of four, five or six muscular players entering the fray is iconic, especially in South Africa. Like I said, there is no right or wrong way to do it.
One thing I would say though is that knowing when to bring in the right player is a learned skill. Personally, I felt like I had to get out of my half first before making the substitution, because I didn’t want their first action to be in a position where they could lose the game or they were rusty. To each his own.
Then, of course, you can have a set-oriented bench, with a 6-2 or even a 7-1 split. If you’ve tried a line under the pump yourself and have that explosive energy they can bring, why not introduce it? If you have a team full of athletes, you can try to avoid set plays and the bench has to understand how to exploit the opposition in space. The bottom line is that you have to coach your bench. Perhaps not enough time has been spent training the role of numbers 16-23. What do they do collectively? Magic won’t just happen and I’d like to see how much weight goes behind closed doors in that aspect of the game.
From personal experience, there is no hard and fast rule when to introduce a player. It’s a feeling. Sometimes you give a warning to a player that he will come on in the 55th minute, but sometimes because of an injury or a tactical change, you throw him in at another time and he has to be mentally ready. The coach must have a feel for how the game is going. It’s about trusting your players and instilling in them the confidence that they are the solution to problems under pressure. It’s the art of coaching.
As for Baltimore, Rasie would spend a lot of time on the flight Stateside processing the final three tests. He is a bright coach and would admit that the All Blacks are on an upward curve. You’d be crazy not to agree with that. I was listening to a podcast earlier this week where the bottom line was, if New Zealand can get a world class scrum and maul, they’re going to get some ground and that’s true. At least they know where they need to improve and have a year to work on it. Come Australia, with a clean bill of health, they will be in form and fire Ethan de Groot, Tamatai Williams, Codie Taylor, Patrick Tuipulotu and Scott Barrett back into the mix in that tight five.
Of course, they can’t turn things around in a week with a few scrum sessions, but I have no doubt that they will be working late into the night to find solutions for their franchises over the next 12 months. Dave Rennie has been a very successful age coach and will put an action plan in place to give them a more effective scrum.
I met with Dave here South Africa and he actually told me they were going to blow the springboks off their feet at altitude in that third test and if you watched the first 20 minutes it was a perfect example of them executing the game plan. They looked untouchable against the best team in the world in the first quarter and played some sensational rugby. They will play the Boks before the World Cup to see if they can make any gains, and the Springboks will have to keep their noses in front.
Looking from the sidelines for Saturday, Rassie made his intentions clear for this fourth and final Test. He wants to win the series 3-1. He’s not messing around. He hasn’t made any big changes and it will be a real test of how well those two sides can recover because crossing continents takes that away from you.
I have a word for Leroy Carter after those two missed tackles. As a coach, you don’t have to say anything. Nothing you can say will make it better or worse. He’s played the game long enough and he knows he needs to improve, but overall I think the All Blacks have exceeded expectations. A good portion of the Springbok fanbase predicted a 4-0 defeat, but most neutrals would now say a 2-2 draw would be a fair reflection as the games were super competitive. Indeed, some thought they would never win a Test in South Africa, but they did by 15 points.
As for the Springbok players, they have gone down the well again. I wondered if Jesse Kriel’s Test career was coming to an end, but the two line breaks he made were the difference between the sides. He was written off time and time again and proved his doubters wrong.
After a massive run, I also wonder if Malcolm Marx has 80 minutes left in him, because along with De Allende and Kriel, they have been the glue of this side, along with (Eben) Etzebeth and (Siya) Kolisi. Somehow they overplayed the Boks in the most difficult situations. None of us can answer how much mileage is left in their legs.
De Allende and Kriel will be relied upon to start again, with Esterhuizen – if not on the flank – as cover, and Ethan Hooker could step into one, if Kriel is broken.
All in all, it’s been a magnificent series, and I hope it ends with a bang in Baltimore.
