Durban — I have a confession about the Springboks versus Australia game at the weekend. I got my prediction spectacularly wrong but if I replace my reporter’s cap with my supporter’s one, I am thrilled at my failure.
I had looked at history and saw a pattern of Springbok teams starting the year hesitantly before finding their feet as the season wore on. I also looked at Eddie Jones’ impressive record of successful ambulance jobs. He is a Mr Fix It and there is no coach better at generating quick remedies for ailing teams.
I looked at the new combinations in a Springbok team that was shorn of 13 classy players and figured the side would not gel quickly but, on the other side of the coin, I factored in the Loftus factor — the Wallabies had never won in Pretoria and had suffered some horrendous failures there. Even Eddie’s Queensland Reds suffered a 92-3 nightmare in 2007 against Victor Matfield’s bully boys.
So when my good mate Greg from Amanzimtoti Bowling Club asked me for a prediction for a sweepstakes at the club, it was with little hesitation that I said “Australia 24-17”. In any case, it was his money going onto the bet, not mine.
We were looking good when the Aussies scored first, a good-looking try by the backline after five minutes, but they wouldn’t again trouble the scorers until the full-time hooter when one of their subs picked up a consolation try. In between was some powerful rugby by the Springboks that had my eyes as wide as they have ever been in 27 years of rugby reporting.
On one level it was wonderful to observe the backline cashing in on the power play of the forwards, on a deeper level it was reassuring to understand how a plan is coming together at Springbok HQ.
Remember, the Springboks were hit much harder by the Covid-19 lockdown than most of their adversaries. They played zero rugby for 18 months after the World Cup final in 2019. When they resumed in mid-2021, for the series against the British and Irish Lions, they had no choice but to play conservative rugby. They had lost almost two years in which to grow their game.
Last year, 2022, was their first opportunity to test new players and try a few different things on attack beyond the infernal box kick. Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber were cursed for playing a B team against Wales in Bloemfontein. Wales won for the first time on South African soil but a new batch of Boks had been blooded. I recall Rassie saying that if the Boks won the World Cup in 2023, the experimentation of 2022 would be forgotten.
Last November, the Boks lost close games to France and Ireland but hammered Italy and England as signs of life stirred in the Bok game plan.
In their first game of this World Cup year, they have hit the ground sprinting with a team containing half a dozen first-choice players and the rest are fringe players. The depth of quality is frightening. At this point, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie are behind Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe; Andre Esterhuizen is back-up to Damian de Allende; Manie Libbok is second choice to Handre Pollard (or is he?). And so on through the team.
It bodes extremely well for the World Cup and it will be a long time before I tell Greg at the bowling club to back anyone but the Boks.
IOL Sport