Plenty to work on for Boks in next two games against Wales

The Springboks have a lot to work on ahead of the next two matches against Wales, in Bloemfontein this weekend and Cape Town next week.

An under-par performance saw the Boks escape with a last gasp 32-29 win in the first Test at Loftus at the weekend, just keeping intact their unblemished home record against the Welsh.

A dismal first half put them on the back foot, but an inspiring fightback in the second half allowed them to steal the win at the death.

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They will need to vastly improve, however, if they don’t want to be caught in a similar position in the next game, and put in a much more assured performance to start building some momentum ahead of the start of the Rugby Championship next month.

“The first half wasn’t great. But we came back from 18-3 and I said to the guys afterwards, that’s one thing, they never give up. They stayed calm at half-time and then scored 28 points, so I would much rather focus on that,” said Bok coach Jacques Nienaber.

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“That was really good. But the first half didn’t go as we planned. I thought we created some opportunities, but we didn’t capitalise and they had two great opportunities which they finished off,” he added.

“I don’t think our kicking game was functioning. That’s one reason we were struggling to get out of our half. So that is one thing we will have to improve on.”

Second Test

Looking ahead to the next match, Nienaber hinted that there may be some changes due to players returning from injury or suffering knocks, and they wanted to make sure they started the match better.

“We will obviously have to look at injuries. Performance wise if you look at the second half, that is pretty much the type of performance we are looking for, and not the first half, when things didn’t go our way and we didn’t start well,” he said.

“I thought we started with intensity and a good attitude, but I think our execution let us down there, so we have to improve on that.”

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Despite the Bok backline looking a bit lacklustre in the first Test and not managing to break through the Welsh defensive line for most of the game, Nienaber believed things would start to improve as they continued to get the balance right over the coming games.

“I actually thought our carries were good at some stages. Our execution wasn’t where we would like it to be but I think it’s always going to be like that. Guys like Faf (de Klerk), Lood (de Jager) and Jasper (Wiese) only started training with us on Monday,” said Nienaber.

“That’s why I said during the week we tried to pick a balanced side of players we had worked with for a few week… some youngsters and some older guys.

“We are building into the season and that’s what we tried to do today.”