"And don't be fooled by the final scoreline. South Africa were absolutely done in by Nigel Owens." – Mark Reason, Stuff New Zealand. Volume 1, Number 7 20 September 2018 Register to receive your own free weekly newsletter at www.leopardnewsletters.co.za How Faf de Klerk is causing headaches One of the enduring memories of Saturday's game was seeing the diminutive Springbok scrumhalf take out players far bigger than himself - in one case I think it was a prop (I forget which one) that he drove backwards in the tackle. And the match stats bear that out. According to the Rugby Stats app on my smartphone, South Africa made 39 dominant tackles on Saturday while New Zealand managed only four – two each by Liam It is probable that the All Blacks will single him out Squire and Ben Smith. for special attention in the return fixture at Loftus in about ten days. For the Springboks, Faf and Pieter-Steph du Toit each made four dominant tackles while four other Will Rassie have conceived a plan by then? So far, he players (Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Franco has considered Faf’s former Lions teammate Ross Mostert and Jesse Kriel) each made three. It’s Cronje, as well as the Blue Bulls’ Embrose Papier probably one of the few stats that the Springboks and Ivan van Zyl, none of which have been deemed dominated in the game but in a RugbyPass article, good enough to start ahead of Faf. Ben Smith has singled out Faf for special mention. It’s not as if he doesn’t have options, South Africa Describing his approach as an “NFL-style defence”, has six quality scrumhalves doing duty for clubs in Smith writes that it is causing headaches, clearly both Europe: on and off the field. “His ability to make big plays on both sides of the ball gives the Springboks a unique Dewaldt Duvenage (Treviso) player no other team has.” Cobus Reinach (Northampton) Francois Hougaard (Worcester) But therein lies the rub: As brilliant and effective as Rory Kockott (Castres) Faf is, who do we have to back him up? The Ruan Pienaar (Montpellier) revolving door in the scrumhalf position on the bench Piet van Zyl (Stade Francais) is evidence that this is one of Rassie’s big conundrums. And this is something that Smith has But none of them is a Faf, so, who will Rassie try noted. next? KEY TOPICS IN THIS NEWSLETTER REGULAR FEATURES Has rugby gone soft? Examining the Laws of the Game Unlocking the Boks Defence Analysing the Referee in NZ vs SA Journey Through the Stats The Rugby Weekend Ahead Page 1 Has rugby gone soft? The headline above hints at a common refrain, But now, thanks to technology and the internet, it has particularly among former players who like to say the potential to go viral on social media and force the game was a lot tougher in the old days. And yes, it citing commissioner into action. Then again, World may well have been but we didn’t have television Rugby seems to have different rules for New cameras at every game and it wasn’t always possible Zealand. to spot, often after the fact, foul play and sanction the offending player(s). To illustrate this, consider the shoulder charge by All Black captain Kieran Reid on Francois Louw, late in the game on Saturday. Not only did he not use his arms in cleaning out Louw, but he also appears to have come in from the side. Nigel Owens didn’t seem to notice this infringement. In days gone by, only the pundits with access to video footage that could be played over and over would have known about it. But we live in a different But I digress. All Out Rugby has a superb article that world now, where even school rugby is televised discusses, in some detail, if rugby has gone soft. [Check out the YouTube channel School Sport Live – Personally, I don’t think so: It’s just as tough as it Ed.] always but there are more eyes on the game now. Journey through the stats: how did they do it? Whichever way you look at them, the stats were Perhaps the most consistent message to come out of almost completely against the Springboks and yet the all the analysis of last Saturday’s stunning victory only one that really counts is the final score. over the All Blacks in New Zealand had to do with the match statistics. Certainly, the All Blacks made a lot of uncharacteristic errors but these were largely forced because the Springboks had closed down their space, putting on pressure that resulted in two intercept tries and a number of other errors. At the same time, and as the Planet Rugby article linked to below suggests, it’s perhaps the stats within the stats that provide the answers. For example: “In the first-half, we counted 64 structured phases of New Zealand possession, of which only 34 made it over the gainline. By contrast, South Africa had only 25 phases, but 18 made it over the gainline.” The bottom line is that hoary old chestnut: New Zealand had many more opportunities but South Africa made the few they had count more. Read the full analysis here. Page 2 Page 3 Unlocking the Boks defence A huge thanks go out to Oom Rugby for highlighting the excellent analysis of the Springbok defence by New Zealand’s Ben Smith. It is indeed a very thoughtful and useful analysis and may give the All Blacks coach, Steve Hansen, some ideas – if he needs any – on how to counteract that defensive system in the return fixture on 6 October. It may also give Australia head coach, Michael Cheika, some ideas for his team’s match in Port Elizabeth next weekend. One thing is certain, after Saturday’s fantastic win against the All Blacks, the Springbok team the Wallabies come up against won’t seem like the same team that was defeated in Brisbane, even if most of the personnel is the same. It’s quite ironic, however, that after disastrous results in Australia and Argentina, where Springbok defensive frailties were clearly evident, that a New Zealander should be writing, just a couple of weeks later, and with apparent praise, about the self-same defensive system. Two weeks would appear to be a very long time in rugby these days. Boks move up the world rankings Following a fantastic away win against the champions of the last two years, the All Blacks, the Springboks have risen to fifth in the world rankings. Meanwhile, Australia has dropped to seventh after its defeat, at home, to Argentina in the self-same Rugby Championship. Looking at the table, it is conceivable that, if the Boks can bag two bonus point wins in the last two matches of the competition, they could rise at least to third place before they embark on the November tour to the northern hemisphere. It is also conceivable that, should that happen, Ireland could supplant New Zealand at the top of the pile. Then again, maybe not. Whatever happens in the world rankings, South Africa's tour matches will be against England, France and, finally, Wales. New Zealand meanwhile begins against Japan in Tokyo, then the team flies across the world to play England, followed, a week later, by Ireland. The joker in the deck is England, which, if successful against both the Springboks and the All Blacks, should move up the rankings from current fourth spot. Page 4 Page 5 Examining the Laws of the Game Undoubtedly, one of the most contentious parts of the game – both during play and in the debates afterwards – are around the rucks and mauls. This week, we look at the ruck and we’ll cover the maul next week. The newly simplified rugby laws of rugby, note that the purpose of a ruck is to allow players to compete for the ball. The law states clearly that a ruck is formed when at least one player from each team are When the Referee Gets it Wrong in contact, on their feet and over the ball, which is on the ground. Local rugby commentators tend to be reticent about criticising a referee in a match but this is not the case in other rugby playing nations. Take, for example, last weekend’s Rugby Championship match between New Zealand and South Africa. During the match the local DStv commentators appeared to gloss over the many glaring mistakes made by Nigel Owens. And reportage after the fact makes it quite clear that the Welshman had a bad day at the office. Importantly, the law also states that players involved in all stages of the ruck must have their heads and shoulders no lower than their hips. A player that allows his (or her) head and shoulders to get below their hips in a ruck, runs the risk of conceding a free- kick to the opposing team. Another important issue at ruck-time is the offside line. There are two: one for each team that runs parallel with the goal line through the last (or hindmost) foot in each side of the ruck. If one of those feet is on or behind the goal line, the offside The primary beneficiaries of that performance were line for that team is the goal line. the All Blacks but even they suffered at times, apparently. But the most scathing was Mark Reason, writing for Stuff New Zealand. He wrote: “…don't be fooled by the final scoreline.