Beleaguered All Blacks coach Ian Foster’s broadside against the officials and his plea for his team to have more protection in the air ahead of Saturday’s return match against the Springboks has been rejected by his opponents.
Foster called Kurt-Lee Arendse’s clash with Beauden Barrett “one of the worst I have seen” and suggested the Boks were illegal in the way they won the aerial battle. He called on officials to give his side more protection in the air.
But in reaction, the Boks have been rather bemused by the comments and coach Deon Davids rejected any suggestion that the Boks had been untoward.
In fact, he had only praise for his wingers for their aerial abilities, even though Arendse did receive a four week ban for the clash with Barrett on Tuesday.
For most of the game, both Arendse and Makazole Mapimpi outjumped the All Blacks and won a number of balls back in the air for their side.
“It is interesting, we know the aerial game is a very important part of our game. I must commend our players in their fearlessness in the way they competed for the ball in the air. Also when they received kicks from the All Blacks, how they handled that,” Davids said.
“I think in our execution, looking back to previous games, there was a big step up in terms of that area. Because we kick contestable kicks, there will always be a contest in the air and in terms of that players like Kurt-Lee and Mapimpi were outstanding in terms of that, going up for the high ball.
“There may be one or two cases where their judgement was at fault. I don’t think there was anything that we did intentionally. It was to put our opponents in a difficult position.”
While the one telling stat that the Boks will have to look at this week is the 25 defenders beaten, Davids wasn’t too concerned by it, especially as the scramble defence was exceptional in Mbombela and had a massive hand in the Boks winning the contest comfortably.
“I think when you play New Zealand, obviously with the intensity that they play and the amount of offloads that happen in the game, you are always going to be exposed in missing one or two tackles. It becomes a combination of how dominant you are in the collision which gives your defence an opportunity to set and handle the next phase, to stop momentum.
“You have to look at your system, you have to look at the execution in terms of the tackle and also in terms of the effort of the players to get into position. It will be a combination of all those areas.”
The Boks will name their side later on Tuesday for the clash.