Comment by Mike Greenaway
The furrowed brow of Victor Matfield and a shake of his head said it all when he was asked about the Springbok lineout woes in the weekend’s match against Scotland.
The South Africans won the game comfortably on the scoreboard (32-15) at Murrayfield, but there were a few areas of the game when they were put under pressure – and the lineouts were by some measure the most serious.
One lineout lost against the throw in the second half directly led to a Scotland try and threatened to take the game away from the Boks.
Matfield is recognised as a genius in the art of the lineout and he ruled the air in 127 Tests for the Springboks.
It was not just his brilliance in ensuring the Boks won their ball, but he also had an uncanny ability to read the opposition movements and pilfer their throws.
Matfield said on SuperSport that the problems with the lineout are nothing new, and pointed out how the All Blacks disrupted the Boks’ set-piece in the second Test in Cape Town in the Rugby Championship.
Matfield did not want to criticise the players or coaching, but pointed out the long list of injuries the Boks have had to key locks over the last year.
They have had seven second-rowers out, many of them No 5 locks who call the lineouts.
Ahead of the Scotland game, Ruan Nortjé, who has grown into a good lineout caller, was injured, and a rusty Franco Mostert started.
The Boks have had the problem of an unsettled second-row combination for well over a year, starting with the injury to Lood de Jager and incorporating the sidelining of RG Snyman, Jean Kleyn, Mostert and Nortjé.
But players coming in and out of the No 5 role is only part of the problem. The overthrowing by mostly Bongi Mbonambi and occasionally Malcolm Marx has been understated.
You can’t always blame the locks for not catching the ball, and the hookers are often culpable.
However we look at it, it is a glaring area of weakness in the Springbok game at present, and they have to fix this for England at Twickenham on Saturday (7.40pm kick-off) because it is one area where the home team are extremely proficient.
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Matfield did offer some advice.
“The Boks have to get wiser with varying the numbers in the lineout. It is clear the opposition has done their homework on us, but it makes it harder for them to read you if you mix things up.”