Three things Boks need to fix ahead of World Cup

● The Springboks concluded their end-ofyear tour on a high but their mixed results against Ireland, France, Italy and England would have given them as much reason to celebrate as contemplate.

While the style of play they embraced on tour has brought a fresh dimension, they have three eminently fixable work-ons they can take into World Cup year.

Discipline

The Boks’ discipline hasn’t exactly been from the top drawer. They lost a player to the bin in nine of the 10 Tests they played since the start of the Rugby Championship. In four of those they lost two players to the bin.

On the three occasions a Springbok received a red card, two were down to questionable tackle technique, while the other was a poorly timed jump under the high ball.

That should be easily remedied.

The two reds they received on last month’s tour actually sparked them into action as they dug deep to mitigate their numerical disadvantage.

Losing players to the bin is, however, a trend they would best do without.

Goal kicking

The Boks’ problem wasn’t so much their goal kicking as having a clearly defined kicker after Handré Pollard got injured.

The Bok management admitted before the start of their endof-year tour that the team’s success rate at goal needed improving.

Damian Willemse and Frans Steyn weren’t entirely convincing off the tee in the wins in Sydney, Buenos Aires and Durban, and without the latter kicker it perhaps came as a little surprise they failed to hit their targets in Dublin.

Willemse and Cheslin Kolbe missed crucial kicks that might have brought the Boks victory. Kolbe, however, was impeccable in the narrow defeat in Marseille before Manie Libbok brought even greater assurance in Genoa.

With Libbok on the bench Faf de Klerk assumed kicking duties in London and acquitted himself well, while Willemse famously added two drop goals in the win.

It was only the defeat against Ireland that poor goal kicking cost the Boks. They won five of the seven Tests since Pollard got injured but they still need to cross their tees, as it were.

Online opprobrium

The Springboks and all those associated with them require a clear, coherent social media policy that resonates not just with its audience but with the wider rugby community. The actions of director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, who has now been banned twice by World Rugby for online outbursts, has cost the Boks through his match-day suspensions. Any argument to the contrary would be an insult to that tactical nous and gravitas he brings to their match-day operation. Erasmus this week took to video hosting platform Vimeo to explain his online activity. He said he had always been against social media but “soon realised that giving media access to the team is important so that fans can have a better understanding of how we are operating”.

He said it helped him feel closer to supporters. Erasmus hinted the frequency of his online engagements would be determined by public demand. That cannot bode well.