RUGBY NEWS - Springbok assistant coach Franco Smith believes it won’t be difficult to get the Boks back on track after their horror show in Albany where they went down by more than 50 points against the All Blacks.
Smith said that on analysing what went wrong in New Zealand the team had identified a number of good areas to work on, and believe that if their setpiece works and there is a bit more composure and they manage to keep the ball in hand, the turnaround will happen naturally.
Smith says the team need to gel together “as quickly as possible” this weekend in their Castle Lager Rugby Championship match against Australia in Bloemfontein to truly bury the memory of the Albany massacre.
“I’ve been pretty blessed in my life, in the sense I’ve been involved in teams that have been here a lot of times,” Smith smiled.
“So to get back from a 50 point loss is quite easy. It is actually much easier than people think, in the sense that you can only improve on that.
“Actually in looking at the game in depth, often and more times than most other people do, you get a real feel of what was happening out there. The main thing is for us to get the ball back in our hands.
"I think the fact of the matter – especially in the second half, we were completely without the ball.
"We dominated territory against the All Blacks, 63 percent in the first half, and we were having a good go at them, but unfortunately in the first half, because of our setpiece not functioning, we could hardly get the ball in hand, and we were thriving on turnover ball or counter attack possibilities.
“Basically what we prepared for now, we wanted to play against the All Blacks, and that couldn’t come to light, due to our starters not going well. It is easy, there has been enough said about the All Black test, what we will try to do to turn it around is keep ball in hand, then we are a real factor.
"I believe winning the World Cup in 2019 will be about the team whose general attack is best developed. Because 90 percent of the game consists about general attack from nowhere.
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