Jake and Bob talk about the game

Jake White spoke to Dan Retief of SuperSport after the game about the importance of experience in contributing to the Australian victory.

“I think we got a great start. But I think this reaffirms what I’ve always said about being the national coach – you can’t buy experience. And they proved it. They just kept chipping away and they proved again why there’s ten guys there who have won a World Cup.

“I think everyone who’s watched that game will say we should’ve won that game. And as I said in the press conference I think that we lost that test match.

“Ten days ago when we landed here we were going to be the whipping-dogs and we were going to give the bonus point to Australia and we were basically going to be also-rans.

“When you look at the last move of the game, if the pass had gone inside to Breyton to score under the posts it would’ve been one of the best tries we’ve seen in the whole competition. And then George gets the ball and kicks it into touch. It sums up for me, as a coach, where we’ve advanced in ten days. They were happy to get a win. If you’d asked them that question after they beat the All Blacks last week they would’ve probably thought, not them but the Australian public, would have thought it would be one-sided.”

He was asked about some of the defensive errors committed by the inexperienced Bok backline.

“That comes with combinations playing together. I don’t think we stood off tackles – I think we really tried to defend – the one thing we pride ourselves on is our defensive alignment. But when you don’t trust people inside or outside you and you haven’t played with them before you’re always going to be a bit vulnerable. And when you’re playing against a backline like Australia where they’ve got so many test caps in their backline – and so many players who understand [eachother] – they play together week in and week out at the Brumbies.

“When they bring in Mark Gerrard who’s played at the Brumbies his whole life – he knows Stephen Larkham and Gregan and Matt Giteau and Mortlock so even though he looks like a newcomer into their backline he’s been running those moves with them week in and week out.

“And when you’ve got an inexperienced backline like we’ve got – Bevin with a minimal amount of tests, Waylon playing only his second test, JP with five test matches it’s always going to be a tough uphill battle. So I’m not taking anything away from the fact that it’s a very good Australian backline attack –  we did concede 3 tries and I suppose we’re not happy with that – but we also played about 16 minutes with fourteen men and that’s always difficult at Test match level.”

On the subject of the effect of the two yellow cards on the outcome of the game, he said:

“Every single one of these games has gone down to the last 10 to 15 minutes and every game has been influenced by a card. Carl Hayman’s card in the All Black – Wallaby Test match was massive and tonight we had two cards. You can’t play against a team that’s running at you and attacking you and holding the ball and keeping the ball with 14 men, because eventually you’re going to slip a tackle and then they score.”

Bobby Skinstad has returned to South Africa after injuring a rib in Saturday’s game. Jake spoke about the likely candidates to take over the captaincy.

“We’re fortunate that Gary’s a captain of provincial rugby, Johan Muller is a captain of provincial rugby, Wickus has been a captain of provincial rugby so I don’t think we’re going be too short in terms of getting a leader.

“But I think the challenge is quite simple. Imagine being the captain of South African rugby against the All Blacks in Christchurch when they’ve just come off a loss and you’re obviously hurting because you’ve lost a Test match. It will be a huge challenge for the poor guy who takes over but I’m fully confident that the guy who gets the job will put his hand up and do the best he can.”

Retief then had a few words with Bob Skinstad about the defeat.

“It’s never nice to lose – we’re not losers we’re winners. But now and again we stumble. I think [they showed] a lot of experience – they came back exceptionally well and unfortunately the balls they use in Australia aren’t that easy to kick for the guy who’s kicking to poles. He’s probably one of the best goal kickers in the world but just didn’t have the sights on today. That would’ve been another 12 points which I think would’ve helped.”

It was mentioned that he seemed to have a battle understanding the application of the rules.

“I did or Paul Honiss did? We’re going to fight that one forever against the referees. I just felt there were a couple of players on their side – maybe that was the difference between the two teams – a couple of senior players in their side who were just picking away at the referee and putting a lot of pressure on him to keep forward momentum for Australia. It felt like a bit of one-sided traffic at a couple of stages in the game,” concluded Skinstad.

                

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One thought on “Jake and Bob talk about the game

  1. The backline defence was atrocious. If Paulse hadn’t been there the ozzies would’ve scored at least 2 more tries.

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