The task facing the Springboks the next time they square up to the All Blacks has been laid bare by the latter's former coach John Mitchell.
"They won't look at the eight tries," Mitchell said about the All Blacks' 57-0 annihilation of the Boks in Albany last weekend.
"They will look why they started so averagely. The All Blacks will be ready for the next challenge and have already rested players for their trip to Argentina before they come here," he said, in words that will hardly come as comfort to Bok coach Allister "Toetie" Coetzee.
First of course, the Springboks need to reassemble themselves off the floor next weekend against Australia in Bloemfontein and reassure they've made advancements to their game this season.
Against the game's standard-bearers last week, those advancements looked hopelessly inadequate.The question perplexed Bok fans asked after last week's mauling was, how come their team was so far off the pace?
The All Blacks' performance was no fluke. Yes, they had yet to deliver a complete performance this season, but that they, at some point, were going to produce a match of fist-thumping authority was never in doubt.Mitchell, the local authority on all things Kiwi, gave a glimpse into their psyche. "Their consistency comes from the integrated high intensity skills training they've done over five years. This part of the world has just started that training."
That training is specifically designed to deliver explosiveness. Substitute Anton Lienert-Brown's put down of Handre Pollard and the gain line busting exploits of Liam Squire and Rieko Ioane were in your face examples of choreographed rapid firepower.
"They are superior in their high-speed acceleration. In simple terms, they burst very quickly in their arrival to tackle contact.
"You can see their running lines and turnover mentality. That is what gets them through tough games as well," said Mitchell."They find space. They read space in their homework. They identify those trends and train them. They expect it to become available when it becomes available. They've got the confidence and the licence to go for it.
"If you look at their skills set, they can run, pass and kick. If you look at the backs, they have got those triple threats. In their forwards, they have double threats. They are probably the best pack in the world with passing pre-contact."
In cool, matter-of-fact speak, Mitchell paints a picture of a team seeking to push the boundaries, but who occasionally yield to the law of averages."They don't always get it right. Sonny Bill's [Williams] red card turned that whole series," said Mitchell about their drawn series against the British and Irish Lions.
"They got some injuries as well. They were untidy in the third test when they had the Lions on the ropes. That was a lot of young guys playing in the heat of the battle.
"Though the Boks improved, maybe their focus was on themselves. The All Blacks just happened to be on song. They had a nervy start. They worked themselves out of it and they'll clear their heads now."
How on earth Coetzee, who has to spend an inordinate amount of time arriving at and then defending his selections, will catch up with a team in such frenzied pursuit of excellence, is anybody's guess.He avoided panic mode in the way he assembled his squad for the two remaining Rugby Championship tests. He can't match the All Blacks for sheer explosiveness but he still needs to box clever.
The hairline cracks left unexposed against France, who were effectively on summer camp here, and an ill-disciplined Argentina, were prised open last week.
Among the more glaring cracks were the lineouts, which were reduced to shambles, but a change in personnel wasn't really an option. This year Malcolm Marx has been the Boks' Plan A and B, with Bongi Mbonambi's likely role in combat comparable to that of a Swiss Army reservist.To be fair, Marx's heavy-handed influence outside the lineout is too forceful to ignore. To locate his jumpers however, his game needs to develop more nuanced touches.
To compound matters, they missed the industry of Coenie Oosthuizen and the energy of Jaco Kriel. The balance of the back row has a jarring, makeshift feel about it in the absence of regular captain Warren Whiteley.
Ross Cronje's absence again deprived Elton Jantjies of the contented state of mind in which he operates best. As it turned out, he would have had just cause to protest against Francois Hougaard's service delivery.With halfbacks out of sync, it's no wonder indecision permeated the rest of the backs.
Without the ball the Boks were almost as poor. One SA Rugby decision maker argued this week that the Bok wings were "the best chasing wings in the country".
The chases Raymond Rhule embarked on failed to yield anything constructive.
The fact that he has been retained says more about Coetzee and his constraints than it does of a limited player.
delcarmel@sundaytimes.co.za..