Below a piece FRG’s Tank Lanning wrote for the www.sportindustry.co.za website yesterday:
So the English have come and gone and the key question has to be which of Stuart Lancaster or Heyneke Meyer walked away from the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in better spirits?
One could almost break the activity between the white lines into six sections …
Durban (South Africa 22 – 17 England):
First 40 minutes: Even
Next 25 minutes: Boks
Last 15 minutes: England
Joburg (South Africa 36 – 27 England):
First 45 minutes: Boks
Last 35 minutes: England
Port Elizabeth (South Africa 14 – 14 England):
Turgidly even
So in terms of dominance on the field, I would suggest that the Boks, like they shaded the scoreline, shaded the contest by 70 minutes to 50, or 58% to 42% … Which probably matches my gut feel on the contest.
But, the Springboks were playing at home, mid-season, while the English were away from home after a very long season. And while not getting a win, Lancaster’s young (and they are VERY young and inexperienced) did manage to stop the rot – a loss would have been the 10th in a row for the English against the Boks, and probably walk away from the contest feeling that they had learnt the most.
I thought Lancaster probably got a few early selections wrong, with Thomas Waldrom, James Haskell, and a very physical performance from both locks, Tom Palmer and Geoff Parling, showing that taking the Boks on at their traditional strength, the forwards, is probably the way to go. Danny Care could probably done with an earlier appearance as he showed the grit and guts needed to rattle the Boks, while both Jonathan Joseph and Alex Goode looked very much at home on the international scene.
All excellent learning’s for a young and inexperienced international coach. But perhaps most importantly, in the words of Lancaster: “It’s been a fantastic opportunity for us to take a wider group of players and work with them and, for me, that has been the real benefit of the tour.”
Which is probably also the reason why what should have been a fantastic old fashioned five match tour, was badly tarnished by including the mind numbingly boring midweek games? Lancaster was insistent on having easy midweek games to build confidence in the tour group. Hence the pesky North and South Baa Baa games that gifted the tourists 50 point wins!
Dull. Pre-Test and mid week games should be about making it as tough as possible for the tourists. A warm up game against a proper South African Baa Baa team including a few players who just missed out on Bok selection , and then midweek games against WP at Newlands and the Bulls at Loftus … That would have been more like it!
