A new-look All Blacks loose forward trio will be primed for another direct approach from the Springboks in the fourth Test in Baltimore on Sunday in the knowledge that the world champions may attempt to go off script at times.
The All Blacks will tomorrow travel from Washington DC to a city in Maryland made famous by television series The Wire which was written by a former Baltimore crime reporter and they would be foolish to ignore the clues pointing to a more expansive game plan from the Boks in the final Test of the series.
South Africa’s attack was far more effective in the recent third Test in Soweto and they appear to want to continue with a more expansive approach.
The results of it were obvious: four tries in a 29-24 victory at FNB Stadium as opposed to three in the previous win in Cape Town and only one in the first Test at Ellis Park.
With outside backs Damian Willemse and Ethan Hooker in form and the creative Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu at first-five, Tony Brown’s influence as attack coach of the South Africans finally appears to be breaking through and head coach Rassie Erasmus has already stated his men will attempt to run the ball more at M&T Bank Stadium.
“We don't just want to score maul tries or scrum tries, we also want to use other opportunities, so we've been working hard at that,” Erasmus said.
It might be dangerous to take Erasmus at his word given his previous deceptions in this series but All Blacks attack coach Mike Blair appears to be.
“Potentially with them being 2-1 up they may look at exploring a slightly different game and they’ve certainly got the players to do that as well and we saw a little bit more of that on Saturday from them,” Blair said.
Moving the ball further from their bulky pack to the wide channels in what are likely to be hot and humid weather conditions could create opportunities for the All Blacks, however, and Dave Rennie’s men will again attempt to play at a high tempo to stretch a Boks defence that was better last weekend but still conceded four tries.
Above all, the key for the All Blacks will be to build scoreboard pressure.
The Boks are at their best when defending a lead and hurting teams with their set piece strengths – their last two Tests contain plenty of evidence of that, but they were in near disarray in the first Test at Ellis Park when attempting to fight back against the All Blacks.
In that match the converted tries by Fabian Holland and Luke Jacobson late in the third quarter put the All Blacks out to a 26-16 lead and the Boks went into a proverbial tailspin in losing Marco van Staden and Cobus Reinach to the sinbin for cynical penalties in the space of a minute.
A converted try from Will Jordan completed the capitulation.
The problem for Rennie’s men, however, will be attempting to contain the Boks and then make good on their opportunities without Jacobson and skipper Ardie Savea.
The injuries to the two loose forwards, especially Savea, are blows but will almost certainly give more of an opportunity to the impressive Peter Lakai and potentially Wallace Sititi and Ethan Blackadder.
Lakai started at No.6 last weekend, with Sititi performing well when coming off the bench to replace Savea.
Blackadder, meanwhile, has not been sighted on the pitch after putting in a memorable effort in the tight victory over the Lions in Johannesburg before the second Test. He must be a good chance to be named in the No.7 jersey or on the bench at the very least.
“We definitely lose a bit of quality there but at the same time there’s a lot of competition in that loose forward group,” Sititi said of the injuries to Savea and Jacobson.
“There are a few young boys there but a bit of experience as well. We’ve been together long enough to know when it’s time to step up and hold each other accountable.”
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