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'It's a big task to fill Duane's boots': Wiese on impressive TRC campaign

Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The Springboks might not have won the Rugby Championship, however they head into their year-end tour with a formidable No.8 – Jasper Wiese.

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New Zealand won the tournament for an eighth time on Saturday after South Africa failed to secure a bonus point and a wide winning margin when beating Argentina 38-21 in Durban.

The Springboks needed a bonus point in the final match of the tournament and victory by at least 39 points to pip the All Blacks for first place.

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“It is always tough playing Argentina,” Wiese said, adding: “They put on a hell of a performance. Lucky we got the win, but it’s a bit disappointing not to win the Rugby Championship.

“We wanted to get the [winning] margin we needed, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it. But we got the win over a very tough side.”

The result was bittersweet for the Boks, especially for Wiese, who scored his first Test try on Saturday.

The No.8 delivered yet another amazing performance which saw him named the man of the match.

“I must give it to the more experienced guys that have helped me settle in,” said Wiese.

“There’s tough competition within the team, and we keep pushing one another to play well. So, I certainly can’t take credit as an individual.”

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Competing with experienced campaigner Duane Vermeulen for the No 8 jumper, Wiese relished the challenge and said he hoped to continue growing as a player going forward.

“For me, it is always important to perform well,” he said.

“It’s a big task to fill someone like Duane’s boots, but I have learned a lot from him.

“It would be great to tour with the team at the end of the year, and there are things I definitely would like to work on, such as improving on my mistakes and becoming a better player.”

Turning his attention to the year-end tour which features Tests against Ireland, France, Italy and England, as well as two-midweek games, the No.8 said: ” The [Rugby Champs] was great preparation for the year-end tour.

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“It’s going to be a tough tour, and the momentum we built up in the last few weeks [winning three consecutive games] will certainly be valuable for the side.”

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Bobbyboi 770 days ago

Evan Roos deserves another chance

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Flankly 59 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
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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
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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.

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