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De Allende : « Il faut qu'on regagne le respect »

Damian de Allende espère prendre sa revanche sur l'Irlande, vainqueur du dernier affrontement entre les deux nations (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)

Le 6 juillet, dans l’atmosphère suffocante du Loftus Versfeld, l’Afrique du Sud va rencontrer l’Irlande, à l’occasion du premier match d’une série de deux tests qui désignera – officieusement – la meilleure équipe du monde. Une semaine plus tard, les deux équipes remettront le couvert à Durban.

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Ce duel, « presque une guerre » selon le Springbok Damien de Allende, est attendu par toute la planète rugby : le double champion du monde en titre accueille la meilleure nation d’Europe depuis cinq ans, longtemps N.1 au classement World Rugby avant de se faire dépasser par les détenteurs actuels du trophée Webb Ellis.

Dans le dernier épisode de Walk the Talk, la série de RugbyPass TV, de Allende raconte à Jim Hamilton combien il a hâte de se frotter aux vainqueurs du Tournoi des Six Nations, avec l’idée d’inverser la courbe des résultats.

L’Irlande a en effet gagné les trois derniers matchs entre les deux mastodontes, dont le match de poule de la Coupe du Monde 2023 (13-8). Cependant, le XV du Trèfle ne s’est plus imposé sur le sol sud-africain depuis huit ans (26-20 à Newlands en 2016).

Synthèse du match

1
Coups de pied de pénalité
2
1
Essais
1
0
Transformations
1
0
Drops
0
89
Courses avec ballon
93
4
Franchissements
4
18
Turnovers perdus
12
3
Turnovers gagnés
9

« On a perdu de peu le test de 2022 à Dublin (16-19), il y a eu quelques matchs compliqués contre eux », rappelle le trois-quarts centre.

« Ils nous ont battus 38-3 en 2017 et à la suite de ça, les médias ont été très irrespectueux envers nous. Donc pour le groupe, pour les Springboks, il faut qu’on regagne le respect. Pas le leur, mais le respect qu’on a pour nous-mêmes. On n’en a pas besoin, mais on a vraiment envie de battre l’Irlande. Ça va être un match incroyable. »

« Incroyable », cet adjectif revient souvent dans la bouche de de Allende quand il évoque le prochain adversaire des Springboks. « L’Irlande est incroyable, son staff travaille incroyablement bien. Leur jeu d’attaque est incroyable, avec cette manière de multiplier les passes, en particulier quand ils sont en confiance.

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« Avec l’Irlande, la plus grande menace se situe sur les points de rencontre. Ils sont tellement forts sur les rucks. Même s’ils sont dominés sur le contact, ils parviennent toujours à ressortir le ballon assez vite.

De Allende, 78 sélections, atteint ce match à disputer devant les supporteurs sud-africains avec impatience. « J’ai hâte, car il s’agit du premier test à domicile contre une équipe du Tier 1 depuis qu’on a gagné la Coupe du Monde.

« On n’a jamais eu ce luxe après notre succès en 2019 à cause du Covid et tout ce qui s’est passé. Ce premier match contre l’Irlande au Loftus Versfeld Stadium, que je joue ou non, ça va ressembler de près ou de loin à une guerre.

« Le statut de N.1 et le fait qu’ils jouent un rugby si brillant, ça pèse dans l’esprit des gens. Mais ça va être une bataille incroyable. »

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Cet article a été publié à l’origine en anglais sur RugbyPass.com et adapté par Jérémy Fahner

 

Dans le dernier épisode de "Walk the Talk", Jim Hamilton s'entretient avec Damian de Allende, double champion du monde de rugby, au sujet des Springboks, en particulier de la Coupe du Monde de Rugby 2023 et de la série à venir contre l'Irlande. Regardez l'épisode gratuitement dès maintenant sur RugbyPass TV.

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Flankly 55 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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