Africa-Press – South-Africa. When Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu fronts the media, his attacking prowess is more often than not the topic of conversation.
However, in the lead-up to Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash in Cape Town he had to front questions about how the Springboks would keep the Wallabies, with their tails up, at bay.
The Boks failed to do so at Ellis Park last weekend as Joe Schmidt’s team beat their opponents’ rush defence, a hostile crowd, the altitude and the odds. They buried the Boks in a 14-minute blitz from which the much-fancied home team could not recover. The Wallabies’ 38 points was their highest match-day tally against the Boks in 14 years.
The Boks may have to perform what Aussie performer Rolf Harris described in his ditty Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.
“We have a defensive system where we apply pressure on the opposition and sometimes you have to concede a few metres on the edges,” said Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who is among the substitutes for Saturday’s Test
“It is something we know about and nothing new to us. We haven’t focused on it too much. There were system errors leading up to these bridge passes that caught us in those positions, so those are things we looked at fixing.
“However, sometimes we are going to have to give the opposition a bridge pass and we are going to scramble as we always do and catch them on the next phase.”
The influence of vastly experienced Wallaby utility back James O’Connor in the Ellis Park debacle was not lost on the Bok tyro. “I think he had a solid game,” he said. “In the first 20 minutes he sort of felt what we were about, so we want to replicate that.”
Those passes he was getting over the top — we’ve analysed why that happened and how that happened and we think we’ve got the solutions to stop that from happening.
“I wish him a solid game, but I think we will be able to tie him down better this week.”
Apart from tightening their defence, the Boks will also need to screw clockwise when they turn to their bench.
The Bok bench failed to make the desired impression at Ellis Park in the final quarter and though they won’t deploy their full Bomb Squad on Saturday, they are not short of fire power.
Among others, Feinberg-Mngomezulu will have Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Kwagga Smith and the explosive Cobus Reinach for company on the bench.
He was keen to explain they won’t take too many preconceived notions onto the field.
“In your role as a reserve, a lot depends on the situation your team is in when you come onto the field — or you could be coming on for an injury,” said Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
“I experienced that against Ireland last year. There are a lot of situations you could be in and you need to be adaptable. I think just sitting next to the backup scrumhalf on the bench and also staying in touch with [assistant coach] Felix Jones on the side sets you up the best for what is needed when you come on, be it in the first minute or the 79th minute.
“Just staying in touch with the game as it develops, with the other guys in the Bomb Squad, set us up — and I think because of that we are usually alright to go when we come on.”
One element of the Bok game that will require reining in from last week is their attack. They were widely criticised for their desire to play with width in Johannesburg but the wet weather predicted for Cape Town on Saturday should dampen their spirit for giving the ball air.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
