Mallett satisfied with his Italian job
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:38
Italy coach Nick Mallett praised his charges for their gritty performance after their 0-26 loss in the one-off Test match against the Springboks at a rainy Newlands on Saturday.
The Springboks took the game to the Italians by trying to play an expansive game, but rain and the slippery conditions caused the match to unravel into somewhat of an untidy affair.
Many thought that the Springboks would score an avalanche of points against the understrength Italians, but the Europeans stuck to their gameplan, much to the delight of their coach.
"I'm just very proud of the way our players played," said Mallett. "I thought after every try they got back there.
"They stuck to the gameplan, which was to put the ball behind the wings, and to come with a good line of defence, and to make their tackles, and we did that."
Mallett explained why he saw the match as a big success for Italy, despite the fact that they lost by 26 points.
"I make no apologies for the way we play. My job is to keep the score as low as possible, and for Italy to remain in the game as long as possible.
"It would have been a very big error for Italy today to try and chuck it around and try and play phase-play rugby. If the Springboks couldn't do it, Italy certainly couldn't do it.
"We kicked a helluva lot of ball today. It wasn't a very pleasant game for the poor spectators, but unfortunately rugby is played under all conditions, and I'm pleased that we conceded only four tries."
Mallet revealed that the conditions blunted South Africa's attacking capabilities, and probably favoured his team.
"As I've said the whole week, when you come out with a side that's missing a few key players - and playing the world champions, who are a fantastic side - I was praying for rain the whole week and it rained the whole day," he said.
"I think that on a day like this, it was very difficult for either side to run the ball. The Boks were brave enough to try, but I don't think they managed to keep the ball in hand out wide a lot.
"They managed to make a few individual breaks, and the try by Francois Steyn was exceptional, a great individual effort.
"[The Boks] forward play and their driving maul was good, but it wasn't a day where you could really make an assessment of the quality of the game that Peter de Villiers is speaking about."
Mallett was very complimentary of the current crop of Springboks, saying that he had never seen such a large group of high quality players in the South African set-up.
"I think on a dry day it would have been a very difficult game for us.
"Just the speed and size of the South African forwards and their great ball-handling ability, and the speed and size and strength of the backs would have made it a very, very hard game for us.
"I wouldn't like to say what the score would have been on a dry day. I'm very relieved that it was only 26-0 on a day like today.
"And on a day where it wasn't easy to score tries, [the Boks] still scored four tries," said Mallett.
Even though conditions took the sting out of the game, the Italians were surprisingly competitive in the tight phases of the game, and held their own in the scrums.
Mallett summed up the strengths of his team and the way they brought it to the fore during the game.
He said that he was fairly confident that his team could go on and challenge Argentina on the next leg of their tour, based on their defensive display against the Boks.
However, Mallett also felt that his team had a lot of work to do in attack.
"To be honest, we weren't in a situation, except for the last ten minutes, where we actually controlled the ball quite well and stopped South Africa from getting out of their 22.
"But we weren't really in a very dangerous position where we could threaten the South African line.
"Our line-out was good against the South African team. We lost a couple in the second half, but we had a lot of line-out throw-ins and we did very well.
"Our scrum was quite solid, and I thought our phase play around the fringes was good, and that was the way to play today.
"But unfortunately we just don't have the strike power that the Springboks do."
By Phil Coetzer
