The Springboks probably learnt more at the weekend about their biggest opponents of their three match November tour of the UK than their more immediate ones.
Their immediate opponents are Scotland, whom they play on Sunday in the opening game of a tour that then goes to the blockbuster showdown with England at Twickenham before finishing off with the final game against Wales in Cardiff. Scotland started off their autumn programme by hosting Fiji in a game played outside the international window.
The timing meant Fiji were well short of full strength, with their players who earn a living playing in Europe missing. Scotland weren’t quite as denuded of their top brass as Fiji were, but watching them from the stands as they put Fiji to the sword with a 57-17 annihilation was Finn Russell.
The England-based Finn is such an influential player in the Scotland team that it is nigh impossible for an opposing team to learn much about his side’s attacking ploys when he is not present. The Scots produced an imperious performance first time out that will no doubt be read in their country as a loud warning to the Boks.
However, even given that this particular Fiji team was drawn from the side that plays in Super Rugby, and therefore there was some continuity and the players knew each other, it is always hard to know where Fiji are. Particularly at the start of a tour given that they play so little together and even this team wouldn’t have played since the end of Super Rugby in June.
The Boks, with their physicality and strong first phase game, won’t allow the Scots the attacking opportunity and space they enjoyed against the Pacific Island nation. What we do know though is that there are several players who the South Africans will know from competing against them in the United Rugby Championship who are in good form.
Special focus
Sione Tuipoluto was in excellent form in both games Glasgow Warriors played in SA, and so was his centre partner Huw Jones. Adam Hastings will probably give way to Russell next week, but he produced a solid performance against Fiji that followed on from his one against the Stormers in Stellenbosch last week.
Another Glasgow player at the back, Kyle Rowe, will probably make way for the return of Blair Kinghorn, the Toulouse fullback, in the other move that should strengthen the Scots, but it is the influence of Russell that will pose the biggest question mark for the Boks next week. Russell has warranted special focus ever since as a replacement he changed the flow of the deciding Test of the 2021 Lions series.
The man filling the No 10 jersey for England in the London game six days after Murrayfield will also attract a lot of focus. Make no mistake, Marcus Smith brings a different dynamic to the England attacking game that makes them more dangerous than they were when George Ford and Owen Farrell were filling the decision-making 10/12 axis at last year’s World Cup.
But what the Boks brains trust would have learnt from England’s narrow defeat to New Zealand would be that their adversaries in the other dug-out at Twickenham haven’t lost the conservative mindset that is holding their team back.
The decision to send on Ford for Smith when Smith had recovered well from a first half where he’d been overshadowed by New Zealand flyhalf Beauden Barrett and was starting to boss the game was no doubt directed around Ford’s good game management skills. England were leading when the change was made.
But when Smith went off so did any semblance of unpredictability to the England attacking game, something they always looked short of in a contest in which the Kiwis scored three tries to one. Ford’s arrival was a signal the hosts were playing to protect their lead, but England were only still in the game at halftime because of the Kiwis’ poor discipline.
England have now lost three games to the All Blacks this year by less than a score, and in all of them there were tactical errors, both on the field and from the people deciding who comes on from the bench and when, that cost them.
The big positive from a SA perspective was how the All Blacks took the replacement England front row to the cleaners in the second half. That was one of the reasons England lost, and some sharp-minded members of the England camp might have spotted a touch of déjà vu. Just as was the case when they lost to the Boks in last year’s World Cup semifinal, they were ahead by more than a score (eight points) deep into the final quarter. You shouldn’t lose from there.
That they did was because they still lack front row depth and because the conservative mindset of head coach Steve Borthwick robbed them of the ability to do anything other than drop for goal in their quest for the winning score in the final seconds of the game.
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