The world champions take on Scotland, England and Wales in the UK this month.
The Springboks take on Scotland, England and Wales over the next three weekends in Edinburgh, London and Cardiff respectively. While the world champions go into the Tests on the back of five wins out of six matches in the Rugby Championship, there will be three key areas coach Rassie Erasmus will want to see an improvement in on the UK tour.
Here are the boxes the Boks will want to tick this month.
Set-piece dominance
While the Boks were the top try-scorers in the Rugby Championship with 24 and dominated their opponents most of the time, they weren’t as clinical as they would have hoped to be in the scrums and lineouts.
They gave away a few penalties at scrum-time and finished the competition as the fourth best scrumming unit, winning 79% of their scrums. New Zealand were first with 91%, followed by Australia and Argentina, who both succeeded with 87% of their scrums.
In the lineouts, Ruan Nortje was the top winner of ball in the Rugby Champs with 32 takes, but the Boks were second overall, behind the All Blacks, for lineout success. A lot of their ball also wasn’t always clean, possibly due to Nortje being the new caller with so many lock injuries in the squad, while several throws missed the target.
With tighthead prop Frans Malherbe missing this tour and the hookers’ lineout throwing under the microscope, there will be plenty of eyes on the Boks in the set-pieces this month.
Discipline
Players from all the teams have been harshly dealt with by the officials over the last few months when it’s come to “dangerous tackling” and accidental head clashing, with the Boks picking up seven yellow cards during the Rugby Championship.
Fortunately they were not too badly affected by playing with 14 men at times, but they will certainly want to do better in the UK this month, where the referees and TMOs are sure to keep a close eye on proceedings.
The above-shoulders, head-high tackle is often going to be a debatable 50/50 call, but where the Boks must be more disciplined is at the breakdowns and set-pieces where they have been pinged quite regularly in recent times.
Maintaining good discipline in all departments and not giving away soft penalties will be key if the Boks are to go unbeaten on tour.
Kicking
One doesn’t ever want to point fingers at individuals in a team game, but had Manie Libbok not missed a fairly easy kick at goal in Santiago against Argentina, the Boks would have gone through the Rugby Champs unbeaten.
The goal-kicking generally was not of the highest order, with Libbok, Jaden Hendrikse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Handre Pollard handling the goal-kicking duties over the Rugby Championship. All had their ups and downs.
In their six matches in the Rugby Champs, the Boks managed a 63.6% conversion success rate while their penalty success rate was 78%.
In what are likely to be tight, close matches this month, especially against Scotland and England, in difficult conditions, every point will be crucial and goal-kicking will inevitably be important.
With Feinberg-Mngomezulu not on tour, Libbok being the best attacking No 10, but Pollard probably the best kicker, it will be interesting to see who Erasmus backs at flyhalf and as the team’s first choice goal-kicker.
