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Springboks handed road-map to beating Wales

Aaron Wainwright is tackles by Siya Kolisi during the Autumn Nations Series /PA

The Bulls and Stormers gave the Springbok coaching staff some big pointers ahead of South Africa’s three-Test series against Wales in July.

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The two leading South African franchises laid down impressive markers away from home against the two teams that will provide the bulk of the Welsh team in July – 19 members of the 33-man touring squad coming from those two.

The Bulls retained their unbeaten record against Welsh opposition with a 38-31 win over the Ospreys, while the Stormers also maintained their 100 percent record against teams from Wales by beating Scarlets 26-21.

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Dominating the physical exchanges, the Bulls made the star-studded Ospreys pack look ordinary at times.

Given the quality of the Ospreys’ tight forwards – all of them in the Welsh tour squad, including British and Irish Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones – the Bulls’ performance showed the Boks how to subdue the Welsh.

Now throw in Adam Beard, Tomas Francis, Dewi Lake and Gareth Thomas and you begin to understand how impressive the Bulls pack’s performance was in Swansea at the weekend.

Springbok veteran Cornal Hendricks’ second-half hat-trick saw the Bulls turn a two-point (12-10) half-time lead into a dominant 38-17 advantage with just over 10 minutes remaining on the clock.

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Two tries in the final three minutes gave the Ospreys’ scoreline an air of respectability.

White said the Springbok coaching staff would have been watching all the encounters between the South African teams and their Welsh counterparts throughout the URC season.

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“The Ospreys are a very big set-piece team,” White said of the Bulls’ impressive performance in Swansea at the weekend.

“I am sure the Springbok staff and coaches would look at that game,” he said, adding: “Vice versa, the Welsh staff and coaches would be looking at the games and looking at ways in which they can try and nullify the set pieces and the way we play as South Africans.”

Wales has never beaten the world champion Springboks in South Africa in 10 previous attempts.

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The first Test is in Pretoria on July 2, with the series continuing at Bloemfontein before finishing in Cape Town.

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Tom 1 hour ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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