More possession, more territory and more carries for the Boks, but given the toothless attack and disorganisation, it was the Welsh who easily prevailed where it counts.
Tank Lanning
“This is the worst Springbok side I have ever seen” said former England hooker Brian Moore, who formed part of the international commentary team. And while that might seem a tad harsh, the loss against Wales does see Allister Coetzee’s team finish with a 4-8 record and a 33% win-rate – worse than Rudolph Straeuli’s Class of 2002, which lost six of 11 matches.
And we thought last week might have seen the Boks hit rock bottom …
Off 9 less carries, Wales made 9 clean breaks to the big hairy zero from the Boks, beat 12 more defenders (19-7), made 87 more metres with ball in hand (327-240) and offloaded the ball five more times than the Boks in the tackle (7-2). Quite astonishing stats to be honest.
Which all speak to a team that lacked any sort of plan, cohesion or organisation. Again, they looked like a bunch of individuals put on the park and told to do their best.
Throw in the errors stats (the Boks made 18 to be 6 clear of the home side), the truly woeful defence (the Boks missed 19 of the 107 tackles they were asked to make for a success rate of only 82%) and they fact that they wanted to run everything instead of mix it up with some astute use of the boot (the Boks only kick 16 times, 8 less than the Welsh) and it all makes for some truly unpleasant Sunday morning reading.
The final whistle could not have come any sooner for a Bok side quite clearly industrially low on confidence and in complete disarray.
CLICK HERE to see all the sorry match stats.
There seems no stamp of AC on this team. He has exacerbated the decline of the Springbok side. AC wants more time, but looking at ENG under EJ, how much longer can SARU ignore the on-field shambles. The French must believe, the series in SA is there to be won. How crazy is that? I hope 2017 sees the resurgence if the Boks.