Jantjies the man to rely on – coach

SPRINGBOK flyhalf Elton Jantjies has been given a ringing endorsement by coach Allister Coetzee ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash against Ireland. Coetzee says his pivot must take control and get the Bok pack moving forward and turn the Irish around in the series decider at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

If it is a close-run contest, the pressure will be firmly on playmaker Jantjies’s young shoulders to help steer the Boks to victory with a well-executed game management plan.

Jantjies’s goal-kicking radar was not always finely tuned when the Boks won 32-26 in Johannesburg, and every point will have to be taken if the Boks are to emerge victorious.

Asked whether he was happy with Jantjies’s game management, Coetzee said: “The big thing is sometimes the media pushes the players in a certain way . . . best attacking, brilliant guy.

“The player has to understand there is always a balance to it.

“Test rugby is not about just your attacking ability, but about the balance of a No 10 needing to take control.

“Elton can do that and it is a discussion we had the other day.

“He can bring balance and Elton has an educated boot.

“It is just to make sure that his decision making – and he is doing it at the right time – is important. “I think Elton did really did well. “Sometimes it maybe not always be the best-executed kick – if I think about one that did not go out – and he knows about that. He meant to kick it out.

“If it does not go out the defence will look after that bad kick. Elton has the balance and the ability to give direction to the team, to turn the Irish around and get our pack playing forward.”

Coetzee also has full confidence in Jantjies’s goal-kicking.

“It is an individual skill like the hooker throwing in. It is a work-on.

“Elton has the ability to hit the zone and hopefully he can get that right this weekend.

“That is the other reason I have Ruan Combrinck in the squad as an additional goal-kicker and a long-range goal-kicker.

“If all else goes wrong, we also have Morne Steyn who can do the business as well.”

Coetzee said there would be many ways to apply pressure on the Irish.

“It can be through your attack, your defence or your kicking game,” the Bok coach said.

“That last 20 minutes in Johannesburg was a lot of everything and it was really complete display of all aspects of the game being put together.

“Rugby will always be a game line battle and once our ball line carries were nice and low, we got tries.

“Test rugby is a momentum-based game and that is a battle we have to win on Saturday.

“Now it is about resetting. The second half’s last 20 minutes is really what we want to see more of now.”

The Bok coach said the bench in the second half in Johannesburg would not affect how he viewed the selection of his starting lineup

“Test rugby will always be a game of two halves,” Coetzee said.

“The first half is a battle of attrition, and how do you know that the guys who started the first half did not do their job for the rest to come and finish?

“That is how we see it and we still view it that way.

“It is going to very tight and close in the first half and we just need to be more accurate. If you have a bench they must make an impact and it is fortunate that those guys did their job.”

Meanwhile, Ireland’s ace lineout forward Devin Toner says his team are anticipating that the South Africans will start the deciding test with the style of play with which they finished off in Johannesburg.

“We are definitely expecting them to start the way they played in the last quarter in Johannesburg,” the lock said as the Irish reflected on the second test defeat and started to look ahead to what is to come.

“After putting it together and winning as they did, they will have the confidence to play that way now.

“For us it is crucial that we don’t just allow them to pick up the momentum early in the game that they enjoyed towards the end of the last one.”