How Springbok game plan was forged in the English Premiership

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Article by Owen Slot in The Times

South Africa’s chances of beating England in the World Cup final in Yokohama on Saturday have been strengthened by the schooling that many of their players have had in the Gallagher Premiership.

Nearly a quarter of the Springbok team have played in England’s top tier. Those players acknowledge that their English clubs have improved them as players. The irony is that the professional game in South Africa does not prepare them for the tactics that they are employing here in Japan, but the Premiership has done.

As a result the South Africa players will have strong knowledge on every opponent they will face in Saturday’s final. Furthermore, they believe that their knowledge of the English game, particularly the game played by Saracens, will help them too.

“The knowledge of our players playing with those guys at the clubs is definitely going to be a benefit to us,” Rassie Erasmus, the Springbok coach, said. Crucially, too, he said that tactical control was a lesson that they had also learnt in England.

“In Super Rugby it’s a more flowing game,” he said. “In the northern hemisphere, with the conditions they have, guys like Faf [de Klerk, the scrum half] can’t always play this running, fast, X-factor game. The No 9 has to control kicking, the pace of the game, getting the forwards in the game, deciding when to kick, when to run, when to speed it up, when to slow it down. Those kind of things.

“I think that’s something Cobus Reinach [another No 9] has learnt there; a lot of guys in that team have. For guys like Faf, it’s controlling the game a bit more tactically.”

De Klerk, who plays at Sale Sharks, and Reinach, who plays at Northampton Saints, have been two of the best scrum halves in the English game over the past two seasons.

“Your game understanding changes over there,” De Klerk said. “It is a lot more tactical in terms of how you want to play, and the conditions come with it. As a No 9, it is about reading the conditions and how the game flows. Should we attack more, should we kick more, put them under pressure in certain areas?”

These are the exact skills that De Klerk has been employing at this World Cup. The Springbok game has become about kicking and tactical control and De Klerk is the decision-maker at the heart of it.

The fact that the England team are packed with Saracens players, and that they often use a lot of the same tactics as Saracens, also helps with the Springboks’ knowledge of what they are up against.

Vincent Koch, the Springbok tight-head, plays at Saracens; Schalk Brits, the hooker, left Saracens a year ago having played there for nine seasons. “There are a few things that we saw that Saracens do that we can manage,” Koch said yesterday. “We are ready for that; different jerseys but similar game plans.”

Koch also knows what South Africa are up against in the scrum. Mako Vunipola is a Saracens team-mate and Joe Marler, the other England loose-head, is a player with whom he is familiar. “Mako — I’ve played with him,” he said, “and I’ve scrummed quite a lot against him in training as well.”

He has scrummed against Marler on a number of occasions. “I know exactly what they do,” he said. “I’ve felt what they’ve done in the past. It’s going to be exciting to go up against them again. This is different, it’s not a training field, it’s quite a big test.”

Koch also testified to the improvement in his game in his three seasons at Saracens. “Moving to Saracens,” he said, “was quite a big decision for me. As a player I’ve grown quite a lot. They have worked on me to try and make me the perfect player. I think over the last three years, they’ve made me work harder, mentally prepared me for big games. Definitely moving abroad made me an all-round better player.”

Aside from Koch, De Klerk, Reinach and Brits, the other players with extensive knowledge of their opposition are Franco Mostert (Gloucester), Francois Louw (Bath) and Willie le Roux, who has just left Wasps. Lood de Jager, the lock forward, is set to join De Klerk at Sale after the World Cup.

The Springboks intend to make the most of the inside knowledge that their England-based players have of their opposition. While this works both ways, they will know all the English players.

De Klerk has been briefing his team on how to deal with Tom Curry, his Sale team-mate. “Tom Curry has been absolutely amazing for England this year,” he said. “I know him pretty well now and have a few things on him to share with the squad here. That’s always a bit of a positive.”

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Thanks John.

I sort of pointed to this in a couple of posts in some other threads.. Louw, De Koch, De Klerk, WLR. I'd forgotten about Reinach, also don't (didn't) Wuss have a Sa 9.. then you look at the players Ackermann has brought in. For some reason SA players seem to flourish in the premiership and in most cases have developed and become better.

SA as a team were all over the place a few seasons ago (which coincided with a lot of top players coming to the premiership to earn decent money) but the seismic shift was the appointment of Erasmus and his determination to be able to pick foreign based players and perhaps its just coincidence but since then the team has been more successful.

In a similiar vein the NZ loss has allowed the media to question their mindset.

Alex Payne interviewed his NZ equivalent (an online video) before and after the game against Eng. Before the game the NZ Sky  pundit was farily dismissive (cocky/arrogant) of Englands chances. Fair enough.. NZ have been near or at the top for years. After the game she admitted that she was surprised at how good some of the Eng players were but didn't really know much about them, and on the back of that admitted that NZ players and fans take little or no interest in the NH rugby. Alex Payne summised the NZ are firstly All Black fans and 2nd, rugby fans.

Various NZ players who come to our shores have admitted they knew very little about the game and players before they landed and I'm wondering whether this partly explains why some really struggle to make an impact.. its as if they are shocked that Eng club players can pass and tackle.