Ireland have maintained their Grand Slam push at the halfway point of the Six Nations as they continue their quest to carry momentum into the World Cup, but where do the Springboks stand with less than 200 days to go to the kickoff of rugby’s global showpiece event?
Given that they are in the same pool as SA, Ireland continue to raise a big red flag. Scotland too, for they are also in the group. There has arguably never been as big a prospect of the Boks not making it out of the pool phase as there is at this World Cup.
Since they will then have to face one of France or New Zealand, the road to the final is indeed a tricky one. England, who won against Wales at the weekend but still look short of the Full Monty, have a much easier path to negotiate.
But while the draw is a nightmare for all contending teams in their half of the draw, I’d argue that Siya Kolisi’s team are better placed to retain a World Cup title than at any similar stage of a previous build-up the Boks had entered as the reigning champions.
The Boks aren’t in action now, but they are busy with an alignment camp attended by the SA-based players that was timed to follow the four-week rest granted them. Kolisi, Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff, Lukhanyo Am, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Makazole Mapimpi and company are effectively now in the preseason that they would have enjoyed a month ago had SA’s franchises still been aligned with the southern hemisphere season.
Coach Jacques Nienaber has had to find a window to accommodate a rest period followed by a development period due to the problems associated with the continued Bok participation in the Rugby Championship (TRC). As long as they remain in the TRC, the national team remains committed to a southern time frame.
Memorable day
It isn’t something that came out of the camp that should inspire confidence in South Africans, but something Nienaber said in midweek. Responding to questions at a media briefing, Nienaber made it clear that the move towards a more attacking template that we saw on the end-of-year tour will continue and had always been part of the plan.
With so many players involved in the 2019 win in Japan available again, and new players coming through, there has never been much doubt that the Boks have the personnel to challenge strongly again. What has been questioned since that memorable day in Yokohama is whether the Boks are prepared to grow.
The series win over the British & Irish Lions was achieved with a game plan that was a copy of that employed in 2019. In fact, it was even more conservative if you remember that the Boks surprised England with a more creative dynamic in the final than what they had employed en route to the decider.
Nienaber reminded us that it was an approach driven by necessity. The Boks were the only top rugby nation to sit out the first Covid-19 year of 2020, which meant a year of their development was lost. The Boks effectively went straight from the 2019 RWC final into a Lions series. Did they have any choice but to stick with what had won them the World Cup?
The first year back after the Covid-19 lockdown was made particularly challenging by the obstacles still put in the way by the pandemic, for instance, the quarantines and isolation required not only during the Lions series but also before the Australian leg of the TRC. The Boks were chasing their tails a bit that year just to keep up some kind of momentum. There was little room for them to grow.
Execute confidently
As Nienaber explained, when you have new angles to your game, you bring those through on the training field first. What we saw in November, the Boks had been working on. The only time we saw a glimpse of a more attacking template during the southern season was when an alternative team was selected for the second Test against Wales in Bloemfontein.
As the Boks lost that game we didn’t see the kick-on that Nienaber might have hoped for, but once the Boks got properly into the November tour, a more all-encompassing attacking style started emerging. Not only that, the Boks started to execute it confidently.
The fear was that it was a one-off and the Boks would shelve that approach and revert to the “defence wins World Cups” mantra in 2023. But Nienaber has made it clear the path his team embarked on against France, Italy and England will be continued with.
And as the overseas perception has long been that the Boks hold themselves back by not supplementing their forward strength and physicality with a more creative attacking edge, their World Cup opponents should be quaking in their boots.
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