Close, but no cigar for the Springboks

Beating the mighty All Blacks has always been high on the Springboks’ agenda. It’s one of those must-do-things for the South African national rugby team, a box that they dearly want to tick off.

But unfortunately that’s not going to come in Albany tomorrow, even though these are one of the times that I dearly want to be proved wrong.

Success against the old enemy has come too rarely for South Africa’s liking.

Since 2009 when the Boks achieved the rare feat of getting the better of them in three consecutive games, only two more successes followed in the next six years.

In 2011 the Boks beat the All Blacks 18-5 in Port Elizabeth on a day when the now almost forgotten Morne Steyn kicked the passionate Boks to a rare win in what was a World Cup year.

In 2014 the Boks scored a lastminute 27-25 win at Ellis Park when Pat Lambie converted a 79th minute penalty, but since then the New Zealanders have racked up another four straight wins.

Fair enough, the Boks have made big strides this year after the nightmares of last season, a topic they have preferred not to discuss this year. Dead and buried, they like to say.

And as Bok coach Allister Coetzee said this week, the All Blacks are still the benchmark to measure how far a team has come and how much they have progressed. Ditto the Boks tomorrow.

Their drawn result against the Wallabies last week has slightly dampened the huge enthusiasm that was emerging after the first five Bok Tests this year before the Perth clash.

Surely the 3-0 whitewash over the French and the back-to-back wins over Argentina home and away were great achievements. But Perth showed the Boks are still way off the pace when it comes to challenging New Zealand.

But they have definitely moved quite a few notches closer since being humiliated 41-13 and 57-15 by the All Blacks last year and it will show tomorrow that the Bok side are a vastly more united and proud team compared to this time last year.

Coetzee and his assistants have worked on last year’s weaknesses – the two major deficiencies being defence and conditioning.

So I don’t agree with former Sharks coach John Plumtree that the Boks’ defence won’t stand up to the All Blacks.

They could push them very close.