How the Springboks’ rolling maul tactics secured a 45-0 win against Italy

The Springboks copied that open play rolling maul tactic from Paul Roos Gimnasium’s under-14 B side, and on Saturday against Italy, it paid off twice with tries.

South Africa scored seven five-pointers in the 45-0 victory and redeemed themselves after a lacklustre performance at Loftus Versfeld last weekend, to clinch the two-Test series 2-0.

On Saturday afternoon in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha, there were no signs of the Boks allowing the Italians into the game as they took control from the start to the final whistle. It paved the way for an exciting match as the world champions celebrated the 100th cap of Willie le Roux in style.

Despite a red card to eighth man Jasper Wiese and playing with 14 men for most of the contest and even 13 players for 10 minutes after a yellow card, the Boks totally outplayed their opponents. Some tactical innovations caught the Europeans unawares, especially the two mauls in open play.

“It worked twice for us (leading to tries), but people saw it, so it will be done for the next couple of games,” Erasmus said about the innovation.

“A lot of teams do different tactical moves, and we just did a rolling maul in general play, where we lift a guy. We actually saw it done by a school side, Paul Roos, where Willie was. With the maul in open play, you get all the benefits like in a lineout maul when you support the player jumping.”

Those manufactured mauls led to tries for Canan Moodie in the first half and hooker Malcolm Marx in the second forty.

Erasmus also elaborated on the short kick-off in the first half. He said they are always cooking up plans and people sometimes only see those that pay off. The short kick, which led to an early scrum, would’ve been a perfect platform for the Boks if they could shove Italy back. Unfortunately, they conceded a short-arm free kick for an early engagement.

That meant the short kick-off plan flopped.

“Manie made a mistake at kick-off,” Erasmus joked at first.

“We wanted to get into the contest with the scrum early on. We found that they played a lot of channel-one (quick scrums) balls last week to get it out of the scrum. We make a lot of plans that don’t work, and people don’t know it normally. But that is an example of something that didn’t work out.”

On the red card Wiese copped after only 20 minutes of play, Erasmus didn’t want to say much about. He stated, though, that Wiese will receive all the support from the team.

he eighth man missed the opportunity to play alongside his brother, Cobus, who was one of three debutants on the day.

“I’m not able to say it was wrong or right or how bad it was. It is said because he is not a guy who goes out to do that. He is very committed and passionate about the team.”