Composed Boks will draw confidence from last-gasp win
It would not have been fun for South African fans with dickey hearts, but for the long-term prospects of the Springboks their last-gasp win over France might have been the perfect way to achieve the positive result they were looking for.
The Boks were expected to beat France and had they won by a margin of say 10 points, it might have been regarded as a regulation win over a team that after all has only won twice since the South Africans were in Paris 12 months ago.
But having to dig deep and having to show the composure that was required to win off the last play of the game provided a pressure litmus test that could prove a significant moment in the development of this young team. You could see it in the emotion shown by the Boks as they celebrated afterwards.
This was a big moment for them and it made up for the disappointment of losing a game they should have won against England the previous week.
Just as the Boks experienced heartbreak at the end of the Twickenham match, so this time it was their turn to experience elation. It took character and guts to win like that, but also calmness and bigmatch temperament.
Knowing they can win tight games when they are chasing should do wonders for their confidence.
The pressure test may well have been one that the Boks would have passed last week were it not for the appalling decision from referee Angus Gardner that denied them. They were building up well before André Esterhuizen had the ball dislodged by what most people agree was a shoulder charge from England’s Owen Farrell.
My choice for man of the match in Paris would have been referee Nigel Owens. The way the Welshman controls the game should be an object lesson to all other referees. Had that not been the case, the Boks would have left France with the same result.
Coach Rassie Erasmus may be right when he says his team’s London performance was better than the one delivered in Paris. The tactics were right at Twickenham, it was the execution the Boks got wrong. In this game the Boks were found wanting tactically, and their kicking-dominated strategy was either misdirected or overdone.
There was a time when we could be concerned about the size and quality of the Bok players out wide, but with Aphiwe Dyantyi, Sbu Nkosi and Jesse Kriel there is plenty of reason to feel the Boks could get more value if they backed themselves to run the ball wide more often than they do.
My line has always been that I’d back a good big one ahead of a good small one, but as an impact substitute the X-factor brought by Cheslin Kolbe counter-balances his lack of physical stature. The question marks over Elton Jantjies’ temperament when he plays as a starter also don’t appear to hold when he comes on later in the game when his attacking skills can come to the fore.
Time will tell whether Erasmus will be prepared to back the Jantjies/Handré Pollard combination in the key 10/12 decision-making axis in a big game, but it is a bigger consideration than before.
But there should be reluctance to tamper too much with the selections. The reaction to the win should have been a further reminder to Erasmus, as was the emotional win in Wellington earlier in the season, how significant just getting the right result can be when it comes to building the team for the World Cup challenge.
There is a line of thought that Erasmus should give another scrumhalf a go but Ivan van Zyl did start at Twickenham and before the Paris game Faf de Klerk, who admittedly didn’t play well against France, was regarded as a potential Bok saviour. The Boks are more likely to win with him starting, and winning should be the imperative in the remaining two Tests of 2018.
The record in Erasmus’s first year in charge is still just 50%, with six wins and six losses. While his demeanour suggests he has been told by his employers that results don’t matter as much for him as they might have for previous Bok coaches, it is nonetheless crucial for their standing with supporters and other stakeholders that the Boks end the year with the positive balance that will confirm the progress that has been made.