Victor Matfield is not happy with the way the Springboks lineout is being run and much prefers the tactics the All Blacks are deploying.
The legendary second-rower is widely regarded as one of the greatest lineout operators the game has ever seen and has lent his expertise to several teams since his retirement. He now combines his punditry work with a consulting gig in Eddie Jones’ Japan coaching team.
Matfield was on the SuperSport panel on Saturday to dissect the Springboks’ clash with the All Blacks at Eden Park and was visibly frustrated as he aired his dismay with the misfiring set-piece that operated at a 78% success rate.
Even the possession that South Africa did win was messy, with the ex-lock crediting that to the brilliance of New Zealand’s defensive lineout work.
Springboks’ struggling lineout
Speaking on The Rivals podcast with All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan, Matfield explained that Scott Robertson’s side doesn’t defend lineouts with a pod system like most other teams but rather a mirroring technique, similar to the tactics the Boks used during his playing days.
He further explained that he is against the pod system because it gives the opposition an easy out at the front of the set-piece.
“It’s actually something that we struggled with, even last year in South Africa as well. New Zealand were very good at contesting and do it differently from most teams in the world,” he explained.
“Most teams do the pod system, where they kind of give you a free throw to the front of the lineout, and it’s always easy – South Africa do the same, they give you the front ball. I’ve always been against that because, although you give the front ball, you can make plans from it, you can shift it, you can play, let your backs take it, let a forward fall out, and he can be the playmaker, so there are a lot of options, and you don’t feel the pressure at the lineout.
“When I played, we did pretty much what New Zealand is doing at the moment. We never gave a free ball, and even if you don’t steal the ball, you’re there in the air, adding pressure, which means that a lot of the time the delivery isn’t good, and that happened on Saturday.
“Sometimes we got the ball at the back with Pieter-Steph du Toit, but because the All Blacks are contesting, the delivery is under pressure, and it goes to ground, so we always said if you contest like that and you can get 30 or 40% of the ball not delivered well to the nine, you’re actually very successful.
“Last year, Vaa’i was outstanding. I prefer him in the second-row, and on Saturday, he was very, very good again. He brought a lot of energy, he was psyched up every time there was a positive for New Zealand, and he was in the faces of the South Africans.
“I feel the lineout plans that South Africa are going into games with at the moment aren’t good. They don’t understand the different defensive systems and what they need to do when they are up against them. So I think that’s something they need to work on.
“They’ve got the guys to do it. Ruan Nortje and Lood de Jager are great lineout callers. I think they are more worried about the attacking play [after the lineout] and not, first let’s win the ball and play off that.
“It’s difficult, but on the positive side, I think South Africa’s scrum was back to its best on Saturday. That’s something New Zealand will worry about.”
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When to compete and when not to
Asked by former All Blacks winger Kirwan if this meant that teams should be competing at every single lineout, Matfield said that it all depends on the area of the pitch.
“It’s got to do with the different areas of the field. Once you get into your own 22, then I’m happy with giving them the front ball because you can control the maul. You don’t want them to come hard into the vacuum [the space at the back of a lineout between the last forward and the first backline player], but when you’re between the two 22s, you want to build pressure,” he replied.
“That was the one thing South Africa were really good at, their kicking game and building pressure, but you don’t build pressure if you have a good kicking game, and then you give the front ball at the lineout, because then they can exit easily.
“So when you use your kicking game, you need to pressure the lineout as well. And at this stage, but that’s not happening. We’re not putting other teams under pressure; we are giving them that front ball.”
The Springboks centurion says that the All Blacks picked up in their analysis of South Africa that they don’t compete in the front and that hooker Malcom Marx is usually stationed parallel to the lineout and is required to cover a peel off the front and whatever happens in the vacuum.
They used this knowledge to their advantage by dummying in the front, forcing Marx to check before throwing over the lineout with Will Jordan too quick for the hooker as he shrugged off the tackle to score.
“Yes, the defence is normally much stronger because of the guys at the back, but New Zealand caught us with that one,” he said.
“Because we give that front ball, our hooker – that’s normally at the back of the lineout to defend the vacuum on – needs to check that bail out first. So he’s not off the back. Normally, you use your back lifter to fulfil that role [covering the front]. Now, New Zealand saw that pulled that back guy forward. Malcolm was halfway to the front of the lineout, and it went over the jumper and inside ball to Jordan.
“So that’s something that South Africa must know is a weakness. Now, the second guy at the back of the lineout should take that role when there is an overthrow because you can’t go wide from there because it’s at the line, and the first guy out should cover the inside ball. That shouldn’t have been Malcolm Marx’s tackle to make.
“But we give free balls to the opposition, and you can’t build pressure by doing that. New Zealand build pressure with their lineout at the moment. Their contesting is so good, they almost do the mirror man watch where they don’t give you any free ball. So the lineout caller feels that pressure the whole time, and he’s not comfortable calling anything at the back because he can feel that pressure.”
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Fighting with defence coaches
Matfield believes that lineout set-up is something that defence coaches push for and states that he has had fights with Japan’s coaching team to avoid similar occurrences.
“That’s a defence coach’s doing. It’s a defence coach who is only worrying about his defence. I’ve had this fight while helping Japan as well because the defence coaches wants everyone in a certain place,” he said.
“What they don’t understand is that it’s like a scrum; if that is under pressure, you don’t worry about the attack, it’s the same thing with the lineout. If you can stop them there, put them under pressure, force a poor delivery to the scrum-half, you can spoil their plans.
“If the attack knows that they can get the front ball, they can make plans around that. If you don’t know which ball you’re going to win and you’re going to be under pressure with a delivery, then it’s very difficult to plan any moves.”
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