Boks now know they can live with the best
There are six compelling reasons why Rassie Erasmus’ side pose such a threat to England today
monsters include Du Toit, a second row in a back-rower’s clothes, and Kolisi, their athletic captain.
One area where they have shown the odd weakness is in Marx’s throwing. Good as he is elsewhere, he sometimes gets the yips. The Boks’ style of play is very different under Rassie Erasmus. For all the talk of big men, you would assume that they are focused on set-pieces, hunting and wanting a gain-line slugfest.
No longer. Erasmus knows there are top defence coaches and tackling experts in world-class teams. Old-fashioned, straight-upthe-middle, smash-em-bash-em is not enough to win Test matches.
The inability to pick Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux is a major issue for the Boks. They have been special, but just because their two stars are not playing does not mean they will revert to type.
South Africa will build on the all-court, ball-handling, offloading play that has seen them take huge steps in competitiveness at the highest level this year. The weakness is in not building on three years of game time with this style. When opponents go hard at them with a defensive press, their handling game has struggled. Adjusting takes time. South Africa do want to handle, but when they need to come hard at you down the middle, they have some real beasts.
If they need to win a couple of gain lines to free some space, they have the personnel to do it. This is especially true if the pitch gets congested, breakdowns are competitive and slow ball limits a team’s ability to look for space. At this point, they must stick on their tin hats and try to knock down walls.
Leading that charge this summer has been talismanic captain Kolisi. He runs a little upright for the purists, but Michael Johnson ran in a strange way and set plenty of records.
It is about finding your own style and making the most out of it. Kolisi runs chest-on, tall, making a nice, big, juicy target for potential defenders to hit. But good luck taking him on as he generates so much power. The way he changes speed or gear, suddenly dropping the hammer, makes him a fearsome opponent. When he jabs that arm straight in to your chest, it is like being hit by a titanium broom. He has willing team-mates all around, but Kolisi is the main man. He runs free, and you are in trouble. Aphiwe Dyantyi and S’busiso Nkosi are bullets, while Jesse Kriel also has pace from 13. With and without the ball they are going to trouble you. In the summer when Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe were also in the selection mix, South Africa were a little clumsy stylistically. Defensively, they started narrow and pressed very hard as a flat four in the midfield. Even in defeat, it looked like England could get round them at will. Send decoys up the middle, pull balls behind the runners and find space in the 15-metre channels. The Boks pressed so hard that when they were beaten, they had gone so far past the ball and attacking line that they could not get back (see graphic below). They have got better since then. The most improved is Dyantyi. He looked lost without the ball in the early Tests, chasing lost causes. Now he closes the space down on the attacking team, and if he judges he can get man and ball, he keeps coming. If he is unsure, he stays square and waits for your move as an attacker and can turn his hips out and hunt you down from the inside. If he realises early he cannot shut down the play, he works with his 13 and has the pace to chase anyone down. The Boks are in a very different position mentally than at the start of the summer when it was all passion and hope. Now they know they can live with the best in the world and beat them. They were within a gnat’s whisker of doing the double on the All Blacks.
They have the classic Boks mindset: we will beat you. Athletically, they can match anyone. In style, they are developing different ways and routes to the try line. Mentally, they do not believe they will lose.
This makes them a cracking prospect for Eddie Jones’s side who face a very tough game and must hit the ground running.