Nick Cain reports
Zulu war cry sums up these new Rainbow warriors
“There is no doubt that the spirit with which Shaka built his Zulu empire still survives”
SOUTH African rugby is hoping for a brave new multi-racial dawn. That much was evident at Montecasino as Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus struck an upbeat note as he announced an integrated starting side of seven black players and eight white for the series opener against England at Ellis Park.
Despite the strife in South Africa over quotas in recent years the venue for the announcement of the side led by Siya Kolisi, the first black captain of the Boks, should not be confused with the savage World War 2 battle of the same name which opened the road to Rome for the Allies.
Instead, the mock-Italian Johannesburg version, which is one of the huge mall developments which are entertainment, shopping, and restaurant hubs for the wealthier inhabitants of South Africa’s biggest city – with a metropolitan sprawl of eight million people – was a new staging post for reconciliation, in the form of the first truly ‘Rainbow’ Springboks.
Nowhere was this clearer than in the interview with S’busiso Nkosi, the Sharks wing selected to make his debut against Eddie Jones’ outfit. At a Press conference which at first featured the two main white languages English and Afrikaans, there was no holding Nkosi.
Speaking English initially, the articulate, powerfully-built 22-year-old set out his stall. “I think it’s not a dream come true yet, it’s the beginning of a dream come true. I don’t just want to play for the Springboks, I want to be excellent for the Springboks. I want to do great in the jersey.”
As a machine-gun rattle of questions were fired from the media seats, there was an undercurrent of confidence as Nkosi continued: “I’m not very nervous – more excited. We’ve prepared well and I’m confident in myself and in the players around me. I feel like I always knew I’d be here, knew I’d play for the Boks.”
Nkosi added that two Sharks black wingers who have preceded him in the South African side, Odwa Ndungane and Lwazi Mvovo, are among his role models – as is one his current teammates, veteran prop Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira.
The young wing explained: “He’s always been great for the Boks...he shows a passion and a desire that is undying.”
Then, for the first time I can remember in many years of attending South African Press conferences, some of the black journalists present asked Nkosi questions in Zulu. The last of these, which again asked if he was apprehensive, drew a short, defiant response in his mother tongue: “Angesabi”.
It translates as “I’m not scared of anything”, leaving them in no doubt that the spirit with which the warrior monarch Shaka built his Zulu empire still survives.
The inclusive tone of the events at the Montecasino complex – which includes a casino, two hotels, two theatres and cinemas – even extended to allowing England to stay there at the same time as South Africa for the flying 48-hour visit from their Durban training base for the opening Test.
South Africa will have no intention of being as accommodating on the field against England, and they were being tipped by local bookies this week to win the series.
They have probably taken note of England’s Six Nations losses to Scotland, France and Ireland being inflicted by much less experienced teams.
Having vied with New Zealand as the most successful rugby nation in the world during the amateur era, South Africans have never lost the notion that England are a side they should beat.
A lot of this stems from them dominating the early international matches between the two countries after a 3-3 draw in the opening fixture at Crystal Palace in 1906.
The match was played despite emotions still being raw only four years after the end of the Boer War, which concluded with British victory but a great deal of bad blood over their strategy of confining Afrikaner families in concentration camps, with thousands, mainly children and women, dying from typhoid, measles, and malnutrition.
Having been a consultant coach to the 2007 World Cup-winning South Africa side who beat England in the final, Jones has alluded to their depth of anti-English emotion more than once. That theme was echoed in a documentary by South Africa’s SuperSport channel aired this week entitled
War with the Roses, looking back at over a century of rugby rivalry.
In it former Springbok coach Nick Mallett described South African teams feeling humiliated if they lost to England, and delivered an anecdote from his own playing days in the Western Province back row against the 1984 Red Rose tourists. He described how Divan Serfontein, the Western Province captain and Springbok scrum-half, had delivered an impassioned prematch speech referring to the British concentration camps. Mallett said that as one of the few English-speaking South Africans in the side, “I kept my head down”. An article in the main Johannesburg daily, The Star, on Friday reflected on the context of that historic first Springbok tour under the captaincy of Paul Roos, and the hard fought draw between the colonists and the imperial power in 1906. The South Africans scored first from a try by Billy Millar, a loose forward who had been part of the imperial army as a dispatch rider for the Cape Colony Cycle Corps, and had almost been forced to quit sport after a serious shoulder wound. England equalised with a try by wing Freddie Brooks, a talented athlete who had played rugby for Rhodesia
in the Currie Cup, and later played Test cricet for Rhodesia as well as becoming national tennis champion. Brooks was persuaded to join the Springbook tour party despite being ineligible , but having taken up an invitation tour to play for Bedford, and then a North v South trial game, he was selected by England instead.
The article went on to argue that both trie, for and against, had been scored by touring Boks. However, it also stated that the overwhelming influence of the 1906 tour lay in the healing power attributed to it afterwards by Roos.
The first Springbok captain said: “South Africa was one, and all differences had been forgotten. Here we are it always be the same.”
South Africa won the next four ch spanned the period from 1913 to 1961, but then lost twice with England beating them for the first time at Twickenham in 1968, and then recording a great against-the-odds victory at Ellis Park under John Pullin’s captaincy in 1972.
By the time of the drawn series in 1994 just before the game went professional the ledger was 7-4 to South Africa in terms of wins, but England’s resounding 32-15 victory in Pretoria was a sign that going forward the Springboks would not have things all their own way.
With Clive Woodward’s England winning six Tests in succession against South Africa the victories were 13-12 to the Springboks in 2006. However, the post-2003 Red Rose slump allowed the Boks to sprint clear with 11 wins on the bounce until that run was ended by Jones when the teams last met in 2016 at Twickenham, leaving the win balance at 23-13 to South Africa.
Since then it is South Africa who have experienced a sharp downturn, with their losses last autumn to Ireland and Wales seeing them slip to sixth in the World Rankings – and leading to Erasmus supplanting Allister Coetzee as Bok coach.
Erasmus has cut an urbane, relaxed figure going into this series despite last weekend’s last-gasp loss to Wales in Washington, with both teams fielding weakened teams. This may in part be due to the six-year contract he has been awarded by SA Rugby in order to see a racially integrated Springbok side become a successful reality.
It could also reflect that having spent a year with Munster in 2016-17, after which he was voted PRO12 coach of the year, some of the maverick, volatile edges he showed as coach of the Free State Cheetahs and the Stormers have been filed down.
Some South African commentators believe that under pressure a more erratic Erasmus is ready to re-emerge, but there is no dispute that he has been a galvanising force in Springbok rugby both as an inspirational flanker in a 36-cap career from 1997 to 2001, and since then as a coach who many South African players swear by.
Erasmus earned the reputation of being an abrasive, smart competitor, and those hallmarks put him at the epicentre of the narrow Springbok miss to retain the World Cup in 1999 under Nick Mallett – including the tactical plan that saw Jannie De Beer’s five drop-goals send England crashing out in the quarter-finals.
In War with the Roses Mallett acknowledges that assistant coach Brendan Venter knew more about De Beer’s kicking ability than most having played with him for Free State. He said before the match against Clive Woodward’s side that they hatched the plan to make the most of De Beer’s tendency to play deeper than injured first choice fly-half Henry Honiball by turning his dropgoal accuracy into a lethal weapon.
However, part of the plan also revolved around the Springbok backrow tackling England to a standstill, with Erasmus in the vanguard. Erasmus delivered at every turn, but he pays tribute to Mallett for the way he “out-thought” England.
The lessons learned from that ambush have remained with Erasmus during his transition from Springbok player to Springbok coach.
It is one of the reasons why, despite South Africa’s first truly rainbow side being short of experience and any established combinations, they are unlikely to be caught short in terms of innovation or ambition in this series.
“Some South Africans believe that under presa sure a more erratic erasmus is ready to re-emerge”