{"id":769327,"date":"2026-09-13T12:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769327\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:24:10","slug":"ex-springboks-star-naive-ruben-love-buckled-under-the-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769327\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Springboks star: ‘Naive’ Ruben Love ‘buckled under the pressure’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Springboks<\/a> back Robbie Fleck has made a big prediction about All Blacks fly-half Ruben Love, but also claimed that he showed his \u2018naivety\u2019 in Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand playmaker started the first six Tests under Dave Rennie, including the three internationals in South Africa, but was replaced for the finale in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Richie Mo\u2019unga was selected in the XV to earn his first All Blacks<\/a> cap since the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.<\/p>\n

Head coach Dave Rennie stated that Love<\/a> wasn\u2019t dropped, but Fleck felt that the 25-year-old\u2019s performances decreased as the tour went on.<\/p>\n

\u2018Performances dropped off\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHow well did he do in those provincial games leading up to the Test matches? He kicked nearly everything,\u201d the ex-Springboks<\/a> centre said on the Boks Unpacked podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cA brilliant player but young and maybe a little bit na\u00efve from the leadership in terms of not taking those points and those opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA young fly-half who\u2019s a brilliant fly, who\u2019s going to be one of the better players we\u2019ve seen on this planet in a couple of years, but he buckled under the pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started off that last Test with a poor pass into touch and as the series went on, I felt that his performances dropped off and that pressure did come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Steve Hansen\u2019s verdict on Richie Mo\u2019unga selection after \u2018mental load\u2019 placed on Ruben Love<\/a><\/p>\n

Love has all the qualities to be a top Test player, having shown excellent passing and running skills, while at times stepping up to be the main decision-maker.<\/p>\n

He has also kicked well at goal, the acid test for international 10s, but that area of his game went awry in the third Springboks encounter as the hosts claimed a 29-24 triumph.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s those sort of moments. If you add those seven points, at the end of that game they\u2019re possibly winning that third Test,\u201d Fleck said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were in there; there was that 15-minute period where South Africa absolutely dominated, but prior to that the All Blacks were looking good \u2013 prior to Ardie Savea going off, they were looking really good.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of points there, three points here, another two points there and it goes a long, long way to the end result.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks\u2019 lack of pragmatism<\/p>\n

Fleck was joined on the show by Junior Springboks boss Kevin Foote, who believes that the All Blacks need to be more pragmatic.<\/p>\n

Rennie has effectively brought in an all-out attack mentality, but Foote insists there are times when they need to take the three points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say take the points because they\u2019ve got the ability to score tries. If you don\u2019t have the ability to score tries then you\u2019re in a pickle, but take the points, build the pressure and they\u2019ve done that mistake before when they haven\u2019t taken the points,\u201d Foote said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re still lacking that competition in not playing with us in Super Rugby and I think that pressure and that physicality, if you\u2019re not used to it, you can\u2019t make that environment up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the points, build scoreboard pressure and when the tries come, they will take them.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Nigel Owens weighs in on Ruben Love\u2019s yellow card: \u2018The law is quite clear\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Springboks back Robbie Fleck has made a big prediction about All Blacks fly-half Ruben Love, but also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-769327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}