Former All Black coach Laurie Mains has identified key areas of the game the All Blacks will need to work on if they want to get the better of the Springboks in their two-match series. The sides will do battle at Eden Park on September 6, before meeting again in Wellington a week later on September 13. The Springboks are coming off a hard two-match home series against the Wallabies, where they suffered a 22-38 defeat at Ellis Park before recording a sloppy 30-22 win in Cape Town. Meanwhile, the All Blacks suffered their own hiccup when they lost 23-29 to Argentina in Buenos Aires, following their 41-24 win in Cordoba. Mains saw plenty of failings in the All Blacks’ game in Buenos Aires, and he has questioned their identity before the Bok series. “The idea that the All Blacks have got to up-tempo their game, not try to play the power game, is absolutely right,” the former Test fullback told the Millsy & Guy Sport Nation radio show. “The great All Blacks teams of recent years have played a fast-tempo game and kept the ball moving. So, where do we go from here? “Well, let’s be fair. Argentina were a good team and probably played the best that I’ve ever seen them play. And just when the All Blacks were getting themselves into the game, they lost line-outs, they gave bad passes, and they dropped the ball. “I’m sure the players went on the field with a great attitude, but it didn’t look like it in some of the mistakes that they made. “That was a big concern for me. We’ve got one or two players out with injury, and one or two just coming back that probably weren’t as fit as they could have been. “But the single biggest concern for me was our line-out tactics. At times, the line-out calls were very good, and there were hands in clear air – that’s a term I always used to talk about, get your hands in clear air. “To do that, you’ve got to beat the player on the ground, and sometimes we did it, and other times we didn’t. The line-out tactic, I think, just wasn’t quite right.” Mains, who coached the All Blacks between 1992 and 1995, has been a keen observer of the tournament so far and believes the Boks are ripe for the picking. “Well, there does need to be a bit of innovation [from the All Blacks], but Australia showed us in that first Test, after being down 22-nil [at Ellis Park], how to upset South Africa,” Mains added. “Now, I don’t think they [Boks] are as good as they were at the last World Cup, and I can see vulnerabilities that I’m sure the All Blacks will work to expose. “But, again, it comes down to what you do up front; you’ve got to have good line-outs, you’ve got to have good scrums. “One strong point of our game on Saturday was our scrummaging, but you’ve got to have good, clean line-out ball that you can do something with. “And then, what I’d like to see is creating these rucks a lot wider away from the previous set play or ruck. A lot further away, so the opposition have got to work hard to get there. Now, this one-off bashing, it’s too easy to stop. “The wider you get from the set play, or the previous ruck or maul, the less likelihood you’re going to be bashing into forwards. And I think that’s a part of our game we need to concentrate on and improve on.” https://rugby365.com/countries/new-zealand/i-can-see-vulnerabilities-former-all-black-coach-wants-boks-exposed/   submitted by   /u/Sedert1882 [link]   [comments]