Marx: Boks have to adapt quicker

IN THE SPOTLIGHT:  Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx pinpointed his side's inability to adapt their game plan as one of the pitfalls during the defeat to the All Blacks.

South Africa suffered a 13-23 defeat to New Zealand in their World Cup opener in Yokohama on Saturday.

Springbok and hard man hooker Marx said it was a tough contest, especially up front where the All Blacks had managed to upset the South Africans.

The hooker struggled to isolate one key thing in the All Blacks approach but admitted that their variation during scrums certainly played a major part in disrupting the Springboks' intended plan.

"There were one or two calls that went our way and one or two that didn't," Marx told the All Blacks website.

"The All Blacks have a quality set-piece, so it was always going to be tough to execute our plan against them,"

He added: "We didn't see a consistent picture and everything changed at each scrum.

"Having said that we just have to assess and adapt to the situation much quicker,"

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Prop Steven Kitshoff shared his teammate's sentiments, stating the Springboks need to be able to think on their feet and develop the skill to find real-time solutions.

"They disrupted what we planned. We need to fix it on the field. You have to find solutions while we are playing. You can't say afterwards that this and that went wrong,"

The lineouts proved a different case as the Springboks had been able to secure their ball. However, their lineout maul was given no chance to get going.

“Our line-out went decently, but couldn't get our maul going because of their sacking and that worked well for them.

"Nonetheless, we can't cry over spilt milk. This result didn't go our way so now we start prepping for next week's game," Marx admitted.

While, Kitshoff identified the ruck as another troubled area for the team.

"Sometimes you felt you have the ball and it doesn't go your way. It was a real physical confrontation," he said.

South Africa meet Namibia at the City of Toyota Stadium on Saturday

Source: @AllBlacks