Disappointing but defeat hasn’t changed outlook for the Boks

Those of us who were there won’t in a hurry forget the attitude of the Springbok players we interviewed in what is known as the media mixed zone following South Africa’s defeat to New Zealand in the opening game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The Boks had just lost to their arch-rivals and yet almost to a man the players, instead of wearing their disappointment and looking dejected, spoke about what they had learned from the game and expressed confidence that with hard work they would reverse the result against the Kiwis in an anticipated return in the decider.

Thanks to England turning it on in the semifinal, that rematch never happened, but the Bok attitude that shone through that Saturday night in Yokohama was to be the making of their World Cup campaign.

It could be encapsulated in the following words: “We just have to win every game we play from here, but we would have had to do that anyway, regardless of this result.”

Fast forward four years and they are in precisely the same position, and while the loss did introduce potential jeopardy when it comes to the battle to get out of the pool stage, they will only be under threat if they don’t get full points against Tonga and Scotland pull off what would be a massive upset by beating Ireland.

What the five point loss in Paris on Saturday night really meant to the Boks was that it set up a probable quarterfinal clash with the hosts rather than with New Zealand.

Who can really say with certainty that they are now in a worse position than they were had they been heading for a crunch playoff clash with the All Blacks, particularly now that some of the key French players are either out of the World Cup or struggling with injury? The reality is that whoever the Boks play in the mid-October quarterfinal it will be a 50/50 game or pretty close to it.

Even if they’d won against Ireland and won all their pool matches they would still, thanks to a highly questionable draw which lumps the top four teams into the same half, be going into the quarterfinal needing to be on top of their game in order to win it.

Whether they meet France in the quarters or in the final, they still need to beat the French if they want to win the trophy.

As Naas Botha said when he was serving as team manager to Jake White when the South African under-20 team had to beat a crack New Zealand team in a semifinal on the way to a Junior World Championship title in 2002, to be the best you have to beat the best.

And that’s always been the case for the Boks at this tournament, there was never going to be an easy pass through to the final and title like there was in 2007, when France knocked out the Kiwis and England the Wallabies, and arguably also in 2019, when England won their semifinal against the one team capable back then of beating the South Africans.

So in what way has the defeat to Ireland really changed the Bok outlook? They would always have known there wasn’t much between them and the world’s No 1 ranked team.

A clash between these sides is always going to be determined by small margins, at least in this era where Ireland have become such a powerhouse. It will be the same if you are referencing the French – when they met in Marseille last year it was a tight game, and it will be again in October should it happen.

And in that sense the tightness of the Stade de France showdown might help the Boks. What the Paris game would have done is send out some reminders to the Boks of what they need to do in order to reverse the result if they play Ireland again.

In that sense, it should also be disturbing for the Boks is that there was such a strong similarity between the game at Stade de France and the one against the same opponents in Dublin last November.

The Boks lost at the Aviva just under 11 months ago because they failed to kick their goals and were not clinical with their finishing.

In this game it was a similar story, plus they weren’t as disciplined as they should have been.

There have been some rightful claims the Boks were on the wrong side of some 50/50 refereeing calls towards the end, but they should have been better than they were and skipper Siya Kolisi was on the money about it afterwards when he refused to blame the defeat just on the 11 points missed from the kicking tee.

“We didn’t lose the game in one department. We gave away 12 penalties, often at the breakdown. We created such good opportunities and we got to the 22 and we didn’t take them,” said Kolisi

“In a game like this that is what happens. Some things went well. The intensity of the game was exactly what we needed. Ireland were quicker than us and able to get those opportunities.”

That’s an interesting comment – “the intensity of the game was exactly what we needed”. It is almost as if the Boks were using the game against the No 1 team as a tester and rehearsal for something bigger to come.

Ireland’s man of the match Bundee Aki also said something interesting in his post-match interview: “The Springboks are a great team, they are not world champions for nothing and we know they are going to be very hard to beat if we meet them again.”

It was almost as if Aki is expecting the Boks to beat France and be the Irish opponents should they get through their likely quarterfinal against New Zealand.

If the Boks are less spray gun with their kicking and make fewer mistakes they can certainly reverse the result against a team that looked distinctly like it had been taken out of its comfort zone in Paris.

Having said that, Ireland did hold their nerve and they won the big moments, which makes them strong World Cup contenders. Which they always were.

What the Boks need to do to retain the World Cup hasn’t changed a jot – they need to beat the best, regardless of whether it is in mid-October or two weeks later in the decider.

Now the challenge is to recapture the spirit of 2019 and just go out to win every game, starting with Tonga in the final pool match on 3 October.

“Whoever won this game, it would take a bit of pressure off the last round,” said Nienaber afterwards.

“That (pressure) is now on us. We need to beat Tonga to get out of the pool, that’s the sole thing to focus on. We have an eight-day turnaround. If we slip up against Tonga we won’t even get to a quarterfinal. If we start thinking about France now we will be getting ahead of ourselves.”

Indeed. And it sounds so familiar – it is precisely the sort of thing that was being said after the opening defeat in 2019, you just have to trade Tonga with Italy, who the Boks had to beat in Shizouka to get out of their pool.

Source: eNCA

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