{"id":27862,"date":"2025-09-17T14:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/27862\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T14:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:06:14","slug":"springboks-prepared-to-lose-mindset-breeds-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/27862\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks’ ‘prepared to lose’ mindset breeds winners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Blues<\/a> captain and two-Test All Black James Parsons<\/a> has commended the Springboks\u2019 commitment to playing innovative rugby, after recognising a curious compromise in the team\u2019s game plan that downed the All Blacks<\/a> in Wellington.<\/p>\n

The hooker turned Sky Sports analyst maintained several key talking points made in the wake of the Eden Park Test in the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.\u00a0Those points included concerns over the territory game and defensive efficiency against an energised Springboks team.<\/p>\n

But he also came out with a hot take that South Africa<\/a> were \u201cprepared to lose\u201d, and were rewarded for that attitude at Sky Stadium, formerly known as the \u2018Cake Tin\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I will say about the Springboks is they have massive courage, and they\u2019re prepared to lose,\u201d Parsons said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big difference, mindset-wise. They are prepared to lose. They don\u2019t like it, their people don\u2019t like it, but they are prepared to go all in. Once they\u2019ve done their prep, they go all in, and they stick with it. That\u2019s not as easy as they make it look.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think the difference in mindset, here in New Zealand, is we can\u2019t afford to lose. And that\u2019s a different mindset in itself, and that pressure and being able to deal with that. I\u2019m not saying that should change, absolutely not, but they are prepared to lose and are probably a little bit more accepting of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fans will have a go at the team, because they were in control of it. Whereas a lot of the Springboks fans will look for reasons like the ref and things that were missed on the field. They have their players\u2019 backs. When they lose, it\u2019s quite a different pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey expect them to win, but they go, Why didn\u2019t we win \u2013 because we are the best? and they\u2019ll find (reasons), whereas we sort of pile into the team, which I get because they\u2019re in control. They\u2019re the only ones that can go out on that field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to show you that it does change the ability to go, well, we just didn\u2019t get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parsons had begun the episode by delivering his key analysis of the Boks\u2019 game plan, and didn\u2019t reserve his criticisms of the All Blacks for just the latter stages of the game when they were blown out on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can isolate the second half, but it wasn\u2019t going all our way (in the first),\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think also, looking back to Eden Park, we said it last week, if we allow South Africa to have that many opportunities again, and we knew Wellington<\/a> was going to be dry conditions, it was too much ball, too much territory to be able to withstand it. Any defence would crumble.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa still had 21 turnovers, but there\u2019s some key stats for me that just show why they were able to find the space on the outside. We\u2019ll deal with the set piece on a separate example, but I think the breakdown\u2019s really critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say rugby\u2019s simple, and I\u2019ve said it the last few weeks; you win the collision, you put yourself in a position defensively to bring linespeed or play on top of teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, South Africa won the collision on attack, in particular. They had 70 per cent gain line, which is no surprise, but I think the All Blacks haven\u2019t faced 70 per cent gain line this season. They had 50 per cent lightning-quick ball, but one of the smart things, and I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s Tony Brown<\/a> or Rassie Erasmus<\/a>, is they only had 13 per cent dominant carries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve outlined, they\u2019re used to 50 or 60 per cent dominant carries, and you\u2019d look at that stat and go, oh, man, the All Blacks must have done a job in the tight collision, but it was more that the South Africans didn\u2019t try and overplay their hand in the contact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis idea of post-contact metres and fighting your way, it actually buys defence time. And what they did is they actually sacrificed those extra two or three metres to recycle that ball quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a logical point of view, 70 per cent gainline, you\u2019re on the back foot defensively. 50 per cent lightning-quick ball, you\u2019re again on the back foot. You\u2019ve got no chance to just get set. And then, every time they took a close collision in tight, and you\u2019re expecting it to be that big brute collision, the D (defence) tightens, doesn\u2019t get that (big brute collision), then they get that quick recycle, and then they play to the width and the skill of (Damian) Willemse and co. just exposed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it would be easy to look at the 70 per cent defensive stat and go, oh, one-on-one tckles is a key focus, but to bring it back to why it makes it challenging, it\u2019s purely around that collision area. And the way the South Africans dominated that area, but also played the chess game really well in terms of deciding when to go through the middle, but when to sacrifice a little bit to gain a lot on the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Blues captain and two-Test All Black James Parsons has commended the Springboks\u2019 commitment to playing innovative rugby,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-27862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}