Sir John Kirwan ‘had a laugh’ at Springboks tactics in their ‘worst and most frustrating performance’ in a long time
Although All Blacks great Sir John Kirwan has commended the Springboks’ inventiveness in defeating Italy, he thinks it was one of the
poorest performances Rassie Erasmus’ team has put on in a while.
Kirwan’s former squad, the Azzurri, was thrashed 45-0 by South Africa, who scored seven tries, two of which came from their
innovative open play lineout strategy.
Despite Jasper Wiese’s red card in the 20th minute of play and even being down to 13 men at one point after Wilco Louw was yellow
carded, the Boks managed to secure the decisive victory.
The worst and most annoying The performance of the Springboks
Kirwan, however, was not impressed by that. The former winger did, however, appreciate the creativity, especially the game’s first
scrum-making ploy when Manie Libbok chipped the kick-off short to Andre Esterhuizen.
Kirwan said on The Rivals podcast with Springboks great Victor Matfield, “I laughed at that because we did that kick-off against
Ireland in about 2003 when I was coaching Italy because we felt that we had a better scrum.”
And like South Africa, we were fined right away.
Although I like innovation, we must recognise when it is being used to circumvent the law rather than being creative.
“I think Rassie’s innovations are fantastic, and I adore them. However, we’ve discussed how the physical player changes. Will
implementing some of these changes radically alter our shared values in the game?
Referring to the Boks’ performance as the worst he has seen the Springboks play in a while, Kirwan believes that teams like France and
the All Blacks might learn a lot from it.
He declared that the performance was the worst and most irritating he had seen from South Africa in a long time.
They can be really annoying at times when you’re playing Italy. Although I am aware that they scored six or seven tries, I didn’t think
they really settled into their game’s rhythm.
The two sides that I believe have the most depth are South Africa and France, although I didn’t think some of the players on the
weekend were as good as the more experienced players.
It was a genuinely eye-opening performance. As a Frenchman or All Black, you are constantly searching for a flaw or a method to
defeat the current world champion Springboks. Therefore, I don’t think South Africa as a whole gave a very good performance.
Matfield hits back
Matfield looked perplexed by his remarks and asked Kirwan to name the players who, in his opinion, failed to “stand up” against the
Azzurri.
The New Zealander answered, “The entire front five.”
“With your prop [Thomas du Toit], who was having trouble with the Italians, I’m not sure if it was a tactical shift early on.
“I simply sensed your leadership, and you became irritated, which made the red card less helpful.” However, it didn’t appear that you
followed through on your plan to overthrow Italy, then run them off their feet and let them blow up.
“I believe they somewhat neglected them.
“They simply wanted to intimidate the opposition rather than outplay them, and I didn’t think the front five were dominant.”
All Blacks greats: World Rugby will outlaw Springboks tactics after Rassie Erasmus used Italy as ‘guinea pigs’
In contrast to the match in Pretoria, Matfield thought it was a significant improvement over the Springboks.
At Loftus, South Africa won 42–24, but the Italians outplayed them in the second half, scoring three tries.
The former Bok lock thought Erasmus’ team still played well in spite of the dismissal to Wiese.
“Going up playing good rugby and then getting a red card, then going to 13 men but still nilling them, and scoring 45 points I felt was a
much better performance than last week,” he remarked.
Being one man down is never easy because you can lose a centre who must play forward and then back in the backline. The physicality
was present, they completed the tasks at hand, and their intent was far superior to that of the previous week.
“Considering they only had 14 men for 60 minutes, I don’t think it was that bad of a performance.”
Read more news on https://www.sportupdates.co.uk/
Leave a Reply