Who is in charge of Boks’ attack? Rassie answers ex-player

The Boks’ perceived struggles on attack, and when it comes to finishing opportunities, have led to the suggestion that it may be time for a specialist attack coach to be hired. As director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus is certainly in a position where he would also be overseeing this facet of play.

The Springboks particularly lamented several missed opportunities in the Boks’ 25-17 defeat against Australia in their opening Rugby Championship tour match at the Adelaide Oval.

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The Boks bounced back to claim a well-deserved 24-8 victory this past Saturday, notably scoring four impressive tries, but there were still a few chances that they failed to convert.

Taking to social media, former Springbok forward Rob Louw asked: “Who is in charge of our Springboks attack? Why are we making so many basic attack errors? We should have won that game yesterday by 40 or more!!! Something is not right????”

Responding to this criticism, Erasmus sought to set the record straight, while also pointing to the fact that the Boks have in fact scored 10 tries in the Rugby Championship, not all that far behind the All Blacks even after they racked up a 53-3 victory over Argentina on Saturday.

“Hi Rob, thanks for all the support and backing the Boks,” Rassie wrote on Twitter. “All five coaches help out in all departments, we can’t even give the rain as an excuse for only scoring four tries (All Blacks showed us that). We will work hard to get better at it ! Lekka.”

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You can see the response from Rassie and Rob Louw on Twitter below:

Last week we took a closer look at some of the official Sanzaar statistics, which showed how the Boks are certainly creating plenty of opportunities.

In terms of attacking statistics, the Boks in fact made 436m to just 280 from the Wallabies in the opening Test, while beating 24 defenders to Australia’s 14. The visitors made seven clean breaks compared to just four from the home team.

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In a debate on SuperSport’s Final Whistle show, former Springboks attack coach Swys de Bruin, and ex-head coach Nick Mallett, also took a closer look at just how the Boks are battling to click on attack.

It has also been a talking point on social media, and there is a school of thought that perhaps Rassie Erasmus and the Boks should be looking to bring in a specialist attack coach. Someone like Crusaders superstar coach Scott Robertson would surely be a popular choice if there was some way to lure him into the Bok camp.

Previously, De Bruin did use to perform this role, while there are the likes of Felix Jones and Mzwandile Stick who currently provide some elements of input into the team’s attacking aspects of play. However, there is no specialist designated attack coach in the current management team.

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