OPINION: How the Springboks Continue to Confuse, Innovate with Style

Whether it’s the 7-1 split, the now-infamous scrum-call from a mark, or any other mid-play trick, the Springboks continue to innovate in many areas, while also delivering a healthy dose of confusion to their critics and opposition.

Saturday’s second Test against Italy produced another interesting trick-play: a midfield lineout move in the centre of the field. The Springboks did this twice, with a try then being scored by Canan Moodie shortly after.

Interestingly, the origins of the move were not from a Rassie Erasmus fever dream, but rather a schoolboy tactic. Spotted from a video that did the rounds of a Paul Roos 14 game, where the players lifted the ball carrier to prevent being tackled, Rassie decided to implement that at the highest, most elite level of rugby, because… why not.

There are debates about whether legal or not, based on how it was executed, but either way, the point of the move was not necessarily to score from it, but rather to create confusion.

During that phase in the 36th minute, the shape and positioning of the forwards looked like Ruan Nortjie, Ox Nche, Pieter-Steph du Toit or another big ball carrier was going to take a short ball off Grant Williams in a usual bash-and-ruck move. The Italian big-boys lined up, stacked that short side and prepped for the hit-up, only to be given a ‘WTF moment’ and suddenly faced with a lineout maul.

The moment simply creates a shake-up of the routine of the defensive pattern, causing the Italians to lose concentration and focus for a second. In the next phase, Williams has as a snipe to the open-side, and due to the confusion, the Italian line-speed is all over the place, two defenders rush out of the line, and there’s a gaping hole for Canan Moodie to run through.

The second iteration of the move created a perfect mauling opportunity, where Malcolm Marx was able to score from it as he would usually during a normal lineout maul from 5 metres out. This phase created a rolling maul that wasn’t anticipated, and the Italians couldn’t get enough bodies behind it to stop it heading to the tryline.

It’s clever – whereas the Springboks would usually hope and wait for a lineout opportunity to pull off the famous rolling-maul move, they can now (somewhat synthetically) create one.

It just goes to show that some of the most interesting and inventive ways to play are being tried in the most unusual of places.