‘It’s about pitching up on the day,’ says Flannery about Boks’ defence

The Springboks will be aiming to produce an improved defensive showing during their Nations Championship matches over November. Springbok defence coach Jerry Flannery isn’t overly concerned about the team’s defence that has leaked a number of tries this season, ahead of their Nations Championship campaign this month, starting with a Test against Italy in Turin on Saturday. Over this year so far the Springbok defence has conceded 30 tries in nine matches, for an average of over three tries per game, although most of those came in their brutal Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks. During those matches the All Blacks scored 17 tries in four games, but the firing Bok attack meant they still came out on top with a 3-1 series win. Their other performances have been mixed; conceding five tries against the Wallabies, four against Scotland, three against England, just one against Argentina, while they conceded nothing against Wales. Asked on Tuesday about their struggles in defence this season Flannery explained that this was a worldwide trend and something that all defence coaches were experiencing and trying to work out. Way the game is going “It’s the way the game is going. I think if you went back even the previous years, (including) my first year with the Boks, we conceded fewer points. The trend in world rugby is that attack is scoring more points. So it’s always challenging as a defensive coach,” said Flannery. “Each year since 2024, the points we’ve been conceding has been increasing but I think that’s the trend in in world rugby and for every single team in the world, they’ve all been conceding more points. Defence coaches are all under the pump a little bit, but we’re trying to fix that as we go along.” Speaking about their last game against the Wallabies Down Under in September, Flannery said that they weren’t happy with the team’s defensive effort that saw them slip 42-17 down at a stage, before rallying late in the game to eventually lose 42-38. “We were very disappointed with the Australia game. But you have to give credit to Australia, they showed how dangerous they can be, but we were disappointed in our own performance,” said Flannery. “Not a lot of the individuals that played in that Australian game have been selected for the current game, but the defence is something that we’re always trying to work on. “We were disappointed to concede the five tries. We’ve been working on that, but we’ve had a limited amount of time (since joining back together), so it’s about really pitching up on the day.” The Boks will be desperate to work out any kinks in their defence against Italy this weekend, which kicks off at the Allianz Stadium at 1:40pm (SA time), ahead of huge clashes against France in Paris and Ireland in Dublin over the coming weeks.