Collisions key to consolation win
Martyn Williams attributed the Lions’ victory to superior physicality at the tackle point and set-phase excellence.
In fact, the Lions were superb across all facets of play, but were aided by some ordinary stuff by the Springboks, who reverted to the brainless brand they attempted to sell as the future in 2008.
Impatience on attack, manifested by ball carriers isolated on numerous occasions, and fundamental errors cost them a chance of a whitewash. To overlook the Lions’ skill would be foolish, and it was their superiority at the breakdown, in particular, that played a massive role in their victory.
Williams led the charge in this regard, and his ability to slow or steal possession was central to his side’s success.
‘Dominance at the breakdown begins with dominance at the tackle point and the boys did brilliantly in that regard,’ he told keo.co.za.
‘It allowed us to determine the pace of the match on defence and when you do that against the Springboks you have a better chance of winning. It wasn’t me alone, it was a collective effort and I’m sure the coaching staff will be happy about that.’
Williams did, however, have some encouraging words for his counterpart, Heinrich Brussow.
‘He’ll go on to be one of the best openside flanks in the world. That’s if he’s not there already,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure if I got the better of him today, but if I did it’s a compliment because he is one helluva player.’
Williams did outplay Brussow on the day, and this benefited flyhalf Stephen Jones immensely as he was able to dictate play under little or no pressure.
‘We were able to recycle quickly and that gave us an edge on attack,’ Jones said. ‘That hasn’t always been the case in the series and I think we [the backline] gave a good account of ourselves today.
‘It’s taken us awhile to get to this point, too long evidently because we’ve lost the series, but it is pleasing to have finished playing something like we know we can.’
For scrumhalf Mike Phillips, it was a bittersweet victory.
‘Honestly, I’m happy about the win but I wish we were celebrating a series victory now, not celebrating a dead rubber win,’ he said.
‘It was hard to get up for this one. I wanted to leave on Monday already, but we had to lift ourselves and I think we did that.
‘It was devastating the way we lost last week and I think that sucked the life out of the boys. Credit to them that they were able to pick it up for one last time.’
By Ryan Vrede, at Ellis Park
July 4th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
brussow had no support from his pack
July 4th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Comprehensive outdone up front by those British and Irish “souties”, hey? That’s a huge kick in the guts for the dutchies, who fancifully fancy themselves as always being that much gruntier!
July 4th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
it happens when you pic the likes of kanko chillie and muller they have no b@ls
July 4th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Are they flying out tonight already?
‘Honestly, I’m happy about the win but I wish we were celebrating a series victory now, not celebrating a dead rubber win,’ he said.
I wish, if only … that sums it up.
There were 2 dead rubbers in this series: this game and the one in Mike Philip’s back pocket
July 4th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
#3 smallies72: Harsh on Chili. I thought he was pretty physical when he was on, watching the match again now.
July 4th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Jonny as a hooker you are suposed to be one of the bad asses of the pack,he is ok in the loose but is not aggresive enough he has the size but not the aggro.go and compare him with keith wood and see what i mean
July 4th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
tackler – there you go insulting people and cultures again with stereotypical nonsense.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
#7 sideline: Toughen up. Don’t be a cry-baby.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
tackler – you are using the engels version of an afrikaans idiom… whats wrong, have you forgotten you don’t want to be a part of this team. hush now and go to sleep.
July 5th, 2009 at 1:50 am
#7 sideline:
Suck on it. I know, he knows, you know, we all know that he is right.
The Dutchies fancy themselves as ‘gruntier’ than everyone else and being bossed by the Lions will have hurt their meat head pride.
Obviously the Germans at Tobruk didn’t think much of the Dutchies, they thought they were softer than the Italians the way they dropped their rifles and surrended at the merest sight of a Nazi uniform.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Martybn williams had a real enforcer lock in support. Brussouw could steal on adefence, but could not hold the entire Liosn pack off by himself. The boks cleaning REALLY let them down tody.
this was exaclty like the game Snor tried to play initially – where we got killed in the brakdowns. Maybe he thought that having Brussouw wil fix the problems. But Brussouw is a plus on defence – not in attack (although he gets some good yardage from slippery running in attack too). The flaw in Snor’s game plan is in not having enough players at teh ruck to clen to get quick recycling ball. The only way to ensure that you do have this is by telling the forwards where the first few phases are going to be, so that a sufficient number of them are there in support. They also need to have the cleaning out techniques down pat (clean from inside out). The tackler must present the ball as well with BOTH hands.
It does not help that the ball carrier tries to stay on his feet until the support arrives- that is also giving time to the defence to regroup. The ball carrier must get between tacklers and drive with is feet to make ground and stay on his feet until the support arrives.
Our forwards to go ground WAAAAAY too quickly, and if they do stay on their feet, they get stopped in a maul situaton which then requires a LOT of support which negates the attack. This is why the forwards must receive the ball at speed, and use that speed in the right direction to make ground and keep the legs pumping.
If the forwards are too spread outin the line, then they cannot be there to support en masse, and cleanout effectively.
July 5th, 2009 at 4:53 am
#10 Dubliner: Not too many dutchies at Tobruk itself, even if Klopper was in charge. Quentin Smythe of 2nd SAI Div won his VC during the preamble, and poor old Klopper had to do the job without proper minefields, anti-tank artillery or air cover thanks to the tentative nature of pom Generals Auchinleck and Ritchie.
Lots more dutchies were locked up in internment camps back home at bleak places like Koffiefontein for openly being Nazi sympathisers. Ex-PM and president Balthazar John Vorster was one such scoundrel.
(And the remaining SA soldiers serving up north who weren’t whisked off after Tobruk served under Monty and made a crucial contribution at winning El Alamein, thus ending Rommel’s lovely run of good fortune.)
They all served under that old orange-white-blue flag and were known by one and all of their allies as “springboks”.