Allister Coetzee congratulates Malcolm Marx on his Man-of-the-Match performance. Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images.
Springbok coach Allister Coetzee likened himself to a winemaker during the build-up to the first Test against France at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria at the weekend.
Although their 37-14 victory stopped short of being a vintage performance, it is clear something good is brewing in the national team.
Coetzee used the winemaker analogy in reference to getting the right balance between attack and defence, ball-in-hand and kicking.
And to a large extent the Springboks struck a good balance.
Also read: Springbok ratings: Bruising Malcolm Marx, classy Siya Kolisi
France coach Guy Noves attested to the Springboks’ physicality being the difference between the two teams.
They bossed the advantage line and were good on defence, completing 86% of their tackles.
That said, they were exposed out wide a bit too easily at times.
Nonetheless, it was the best way to lay the down the ghosts of last year.
“We’ve closed the chapter on 2016, we really have. I’m very pleased with the performance, to play like that was really pleasing and you can see we are moving in the right direction,” said Coetzee.
“It was only step one out of 13 we have to take this year, but defence, attack and the kicking game were all there, even if it was baby steps. But the guys showed they have the belief and ability to play different types of rugby. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing is in this game.”
The win was set up by the outstanding efforts of the forwards, and their dominance in the scrums and collisions was especially pleasing.
“Test rugby is about things like the set-piece, your defence and how hard you work in your kick-chase. The guys worked hard, the scrum especially was the result of a lot of hard work.
“The impact off the bench was also excellent, the guys are really pushing for positions. They had a job to do and they came out and made an impact,” Coetzee said.
New Springbok captain Warren Whiteley was similarly delighted with the attitude more than the actual performance.
“I am really proud of the intensity and effort, we really worked on keeping our shape both in defence and attack. There are always going to be mistakes, but I feel we fixed those really well and the players worked hard for each other. Every player did his part.”
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