RUCK N ROLL
GAVIN RICH: Springboks leap out of jail with refreshing tactical flexibility
Hands up all those who either posted a disparaging tweet about the Springboks or thought about posting one during the first 20 minutes of the Ellis Park Test. My hand would go up were it not for a reluctance to get involved with that form of social media for the very reason that many might now be wishing they’d resisted the temptation on Saturday. Those who did tweet can’t be faulted. The Boks were in a huge hole when they fell 24-3 behind, and at that point England were bossing the game. That the Boks came back to win a freaky match was down to something Rassie Erasmus’s predecessor Allister Coetzee did not seem capable of achieving. They saw where they were going wrong and quickly adjusted their tactics. The difference between Erasmus and Coetzee was further made apparent at the postmatch media conference. Erasmus blamed himself for the slow start, saying he had got the tactics wrong. He had expected England to kick and it left the players needing to make an adjustment. Coetzee wo...
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