Is Allister pulling a fast one over Eddie?

Bok coach Allister Coetzee has changed his tune completely. In his first press conference of the tour, he said that his team has kicked too much this year.

Cape Town - Is Springbok coach Allister Coetzee trying to get one up on England boss Eddie Jones in the mind-games stakes?

Jones started the verbal warfare in late August already ahead of next weekend’s clash at Twickenham by labelling the Boks as “bullies” in reference to their traditional physical style of play.

And Coetzee, since the disastrous Rugby Championship campaign, has reinforced that notion by emphasising the fact that the Boks need to sort out their defence and tactical kicking game.

In fact, he went so far as to remark that the problems in defence was “maybe it’s because we became obsessed with ball-in-hand rugby and being expansive”, and that for this Saturday’s game against the Barbarians, the Boks “are not going there to entertain… we have to make sure we stick to our processes of how to win Test-match rugby”.

But on Monday in London, Coetzee changed his tune completely. In his first press conference of the tour, with only British journalists present, the coach actually said that his team has kicked too much this year and that he wants them to hold on to the ball more often.

Asked what would make the November tour a successful one, Coetzee said: “I think Test-match rugby is all about winning, isn’t it? Besides that, I’d like to see this team playing better, especially on attack. We’ve been kicking too much ball away during the Championship, and that put massive pressure on our defence.

“We looked at that and the way we want to play, and hopefully that balance between running and kicking, and defence, we can get right. I think the mindset is definitely there, and I’ll be happy if we do use the ball and keep it more in hand.”

While the traditional Bok style is known - keeping things tight with the forwards, lots of kicking from nine, 10 and 15, and wings chasing up-and-unders - teams like the Lions and Cheetahs have tried to employ a more attack-minded style, with the ball being kept alive instead of being kicked away.

Coetzee was asked about how that contrasted with the Boks, he responded: “I just mentioned about the balance. Definitely more ball-in-hand, without neglecting or becoming reckless. But kick with purpose, to get the ball back obviously. Where the space is on, we have to run it there or kick it there.

“I just think we didn’t make good decisions (in the past Tests). I don’t want to move away from the strengths of South Africa. We are really good at mauling and putting pressure on teams. I think the laws have somehow favoured the defensive side, but we have had a close look at that…

“If you look at England, that is also a powerful part of their game. They’ve got a very effective maul, and that is what we would like to get back in our team.

“Basically, we enjoy scoring tries, we really enjoy doing that. And that is one of our missions on this tour - to be able to score tries.”

But the British press weren’t going to let Coetzee get away without bringing up Jones’ “bullies” comment, and the Bok coach didn’t hold back either. “I haven’t read the comment, but if he’s referring to the physicality and strength of the South Africans, then I don’t think he’s wrong at all. But we would like to see a balance, with our physicality and playing a bit smarter rugby. I think that is the aim and the mindset, and hopefully we can get that right over the next four weeks,” he said.

“It’s a challenge again, playing in Europe in autumn, but we are not going to be holding back with what we are trying, and the mindset, definitely. We are used to harder pitches and faster tracks, but we are not changing our philosophy at all.

“I mean, Eddie’s been to South Africa a lot and has worked with a number of South African players, and he understands that that (physicality) is something that is always there. We’ve got big athletes, which we would really like to utilise, their athleticism. We have really mobile locks and Malcolm Marx is also a big, physical guy with lots of pace.

“The game that we want to play is actually designed to make sure that all our big forwards can get a chance to run, sidestep, evade with ball-in-hand.”

That would represent a seismic and necessary shift in the Springbok approach, not only on this tour, but going into the future as well.

But it just sounds too good to be true. Is Coetzee pulling a fast one over his old mate Jones?

ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za

@ashfakmohamed

Independent Media