Wallabies to target Bok pack
Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:11
Australia, who watched South Africa get dominated by New Zealand at Newlands on Saturday, will target the Springbok pack as an area of the game that will be crucial when the two teams meet in a Tri-Nations Test in Durban next Saturday, August 23.
Australia face the Boks in back-to-back Tests, in Durban next week and Johannesburg seven days later.
Wallabies assistant coach Jim Williams emphasised the need for Australia's forwards to sharpen their attitude and technique against South Africa.
The former Wallabies back row forward, Williams, showed his forwards video clips of incidents highlighting where they needed to improve ahead of the Bok showdown.
Just like the Boks at the weekend, the Wallaby forwards came off second best against the Kiwi pack a fortnight ago.
"We showed some footage, we just got out-enthused, it was a fraction of a second or one or two steps," Williams told AAP.
"They [New Zealand] were just a little bit more desperate.
"The talk is always about being physical, but not so much about the action, it's just a mindset, it's an attitude and a bit of technique that we need to work on.
"I just pointed out that our attitude and being technically very good at the breakdown will get us through there and being physical is just a by-product of that.
"It was just a matter of showing them a few clips here and there and making sure the guys understood where they needed to improve and what they needed to do.
"Things like working hard off the ball and trying to be balanced going into the breakdown and keeping our head up and making sure we maintain or take that space."
Williams said South Africa posed a different type of challenge at the breakdown to New Zealand.
"They [South Africa] are probably technically not the same as New Zealand going into the
breakdown, but they use a lot of power," Williams said.
"We've got to make sure that we are there in numbers and working as hard as we can to make sure we secure the ball or try and turn it over like we did against them in Perth.
"We were very good at getting numbers there and competing consistently and we turned over a few balls."
