GATLAND HAS GOT THE BUNGLING BOKS ON THE RUN

Coaching confusion is playing into Lions’ hands

If South AfricA are to stand any chance of levelling the series in Saturday’s second test, rassie Erasmus must be in a suit in the stands playing no part in any matchday decisions.

confusion at the top and a lack of demarcation between the roles of director of rugby Erasmus and South Africa national team coach Jacques Nienaber is killing the Springboks.

there can only ever be one man in charge in match week and on match day — and that has to be the coach.

the Lions will have been disappointed with their first half, but their leadership went to work and found a way back, just as South Africa became fragmented and confused. i put that entirely down to their coaching dynamic. Warren Gatland and his backroom team were in a different league.

Erasmus has had his day as coach, he did a brilliant job fashioning a Boks team in a short time good enough to win the 2019 World cup. But that was his moment, Nienaber is now in charge.

they are friends, they worked together at the free State, the Stormers and Munster but the dynamic has changed. Nienaber must now be in charge of the team, he is the main man, but on this tour you would never know it.

it is clear that Erasmus has started taking over again, he is running around in a tracksuit and donning the water carrier bib even though — as Gatland observed last week — he never seems to dispense any water, nor even carry a bottle! he never forgets his clipboard, though.

it looked comical, it was comical, and i am surprised South African rugby are allowing it to happen.

Erasmus is still coaching the team in all but name, but that’s not his job. he needs to butt out.

his job now is to appoint the coaching team and let them get on with it, offering advice when asked but no more. he has become centre stage again. All the pre-match banter is conducted between him and Gatland — and Warren is eating him for breakfast. And it’s affecting the team. South Africa are making bad decisions. their starting front row were excellent on Saturday and should have stayed on as a group until deep into the second half. instead they were pulled off at half-time and the so-called Bomb Squad called on, a relic of Erasmus’s ploy at the World cup. And why on earth would you pull faf de Klerk and handre Pollard off in the closing stages when one try could still have decided the match? And who in the South Africa camp is coming up with a game-plan that involves Willie le roux kicking aimlessly from full back and the world’s best wing — cheslin Kolbe — being starved of possession? Kolbe is a modern-day Jason robinson — he is so good you need to involve your entire game-plan around him, not send him to coventry.

Nienaber is not a big name but he is a very experienced coach in his homeland and has also worked with the Springboks previously. he does not need protection, he needs a free run at the job.

i’ve never been wholly convinced as to the world-beating qualities of this South Africa team, even though they are the world champions. their reputation is built pretty much wholly on their dismantling of a complacent and badly distracted England team who were shambolically poor in the 2019 World cup final.

And since then the Boks have hardly played so there has been no opportunity to grow and mature and build on that win.

Some of that came home to roost on Saturday night, although we must not downplay how well the Lions have done to even undertake the tour and secondly to pull themselves together at half-time after an extremely average first half. it was not looking good, the combinations weren’t really working and the Boks hadn’t done much to earn their 12-3 lead.

it was all a bit low key and uninspired and let’s, as always, pause to remember how challenging it must be playing in front of empty stands. Both sides appeared to miss crowd engagement badly.

But somehow Gatland, the extraordinary Alun Wyn Jones and his other big leaders on the field — Maro itoje, courtney Lawes, Dan Biggar — immediately got the Lions on the right track when they came out of the tunnel again.

Arguably the key moment was when they turned down a kick to make it 12-6, went to the corner instead and Luke cowan-Dickie was rumbled over for a try.

Now it was 12-10 and you could sense the Boks’ unease. it was a game-changing decision from

Jones — brave and brilliant. Itoje was the Lions’ key player producing yet another 80 minutes of sheer excellence — something we have grown used to.

Back in the Six Nations he got into a rut of giving away needless penalties but he seems to have sorted that out and gave a near perfect performance.

A couple of times Eben Etzebeth tried to wind him up a little but Itoje was having none of it. Nor were there any of the extravagant celebrations that he sometimes produces to mark a big turnover or tackle. He was strictly on business. He was awesome.

As was Lawes in the second half with his power running, tackling and lineout work. We are possibly in danger of underestimating Lawes — a man who has won 85 England caps, remember — with power to add. It’s probably because he can play both lock and blindside flanker. His versatility has almost disguised his world-class excellence.

I see him as a second row and that’s where I would always play him but England are never short of top locks and neither are the Lions on this tour. It is hugely to his credit that he can do such a great job at six.

Do the Lions make any changes? Possibly a tweak here or there but I would also be tempted to say ‘go again’ because that starting XV can play much better.

They were only really finding their A game in the second half. They can cause more problems out wide, they are capable of creating many more try-scoring chances and they can produce a better 80-minute performance up front.

Prop Wyn Jones might be fit so there is potential for him to return while there is talk of revamping the midfield with perhaps Elliot Daly giving way to either Bundee Aki, Chris Harris or even Owen Farrell, the argument being that the one part of the Boks’ game that worked well was big Damian de Allende punching holes in the midfield.

Do we need to meet fire with fire? It is a valid line of thought but if the Lions can expand their horizons a bit and use their possession it should be the Lions who are setting the tone. I would still like to see Daly with more ball in hand and more opportunities to do what he does best.

It is South Africa with questions to answer, finishing the game with no momentum while the Lions were going from strength to strength. South Africa were flattered by the scoreline and only threatened from rather freakish broken play. The biggest question though is who is really in charge?