Rugby
OPINION: 3 Things We Learned from the Boks’ Destruction of Italy
What are the key takeaways from the Springboks’ victory over Italy?
The Springboks’ ultra-comfortable 66-7 win over Italy got the Northern Hemisphere portion of the Nations Championship off to a good start, and further highlighted some of the core strengths of Rassie Erasmus’ side and showcased some of the things they’ve been working on too.
Maul still does the job
Maul is still the top. Out of the nine tries scored by the Boks, four came through mauls. Malcolm Marx got two, Kolisi got one, and Paul de Villiers rounded out these set-piece tries in the latter stages of the match. Due to the tight and well-executed nature of the binding, the Italians struggled to stop the progression of the mauls, and on top of that, the Boks mixed up the lineout position and carrier nicely, either throwing to the back of the lineout and catching the Italian defenders off guard with a midfield shunt, or going short and sticking to their usual approach. Overall, even with all the flash of the backline, the lineout maul is still the Springboks’ best attacking weapon.
Skills pay the bills
While the Springboks have some of the best playmakers in the world floating around in the backline, credit must be given to Tony Brown and his team to help develop the Bok forwards’ ball skills. From 1-8, all the forwards are delivering soft-skill touches on the ball. Two notable moments were Malcolm Marx’s out-the-back pass to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (who went through to score), and Jasper Wiese, who threw a dummy before breaching the line and throwing an inside pass to Damian Willemse. The Bok forwards always had skills, but turning them into ball-playing threats instead of pure battering rams will bode well for the squad.
Rucks were at their brutal best
In certain games throughout the season, the intensity of the rucks seemed to wane for portions of games. Against Italy, the Boks made a massive effort to ensure every ruck had quick and clean ball presentation for the likes of Morne van den Berg and Grant Williams. The Italians were very rarely able to have any effect when the Boks had possession, and it was due to the aggressive counter-rucking from all the forwards and backs, not only starving the other team of the ball, but also draining them physically.
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