It's all about pressure

[disco]

After watching the Boks beat NZ on the TV last night I noticed the major difference between the Aussies & Saffas was the pressure the Boks put on the Ab's.

The Boks always have a high missed tackle count but that's because the players are not afraid to fly up out of the line to stop any momentum the AB's may have. The Boks have a lot of faith in thier scramble defence which works for them we don't seem to scramble well at all.

McCaw & Carter seemed flusted & frustrated by the Boks to the point were both at different stages got involved in some niggle with different players.

I think McCaw really felt the heat the Boks were putting on the All Blacks even to the point that his decision making suffered, he had a gift 3 points which would have put them within 7 yet he took & scrum & the Boks buried them for a tighthead win.

 

[JJJ]

Imo pressure through the chase is the difference between NZ's back 3 looking uncomfortable under the high ball against SA and them looking completely comfortable under it against us.

Personally though I thought at the time that Richie had made a good call going for the scrum instead of the easy penalty. For one thing who would've expected SA to shunt them off the ball after Brisbane, and for another thing they still had a shot at winning the whole lot at that stage. If you get into a penalty-kicking contest against the Boks with the two Steyns you are almost always going to come out the loser.

You may be right about the pressure of SA's rush-defence against NZ though. Watching that last match the field looked about half the size of Suncorp. Maybe the NZ backs are too big to side-step?

 

[Scarfman]

I merged this into the other thread, fellas.