Looking back on the World Cup and what it can tell us
The Springbok parade through Cape Town on Monday will bring to an end a week of celebrations and mark the starting point for Rassie Erasmus of his build-up to the next four-year cycle. So this is a good time to take a look back at the Rugby World Cup final and what it told us.
The memories of the match itself don’t require much prompting. You just have to turn on your TV. The Bok scrum destroying the England unit is a joy to behold for all South Africans, but the more I watch the replays the more something else hits me: what were England up to?
Even early in the game, before they had to chase it, they were running the ball from their own territory. And getting punished for it.
The two games England won against the Boks in 2018 were achieved by them adopting a kicking strategy, and it was also what got them into the final. It is difficult to decipher exactly what the England strategy was against the Boks, which brings me to the abiding memory from after the game: England coach Eddie Jones telling the media he had no clue as to why his team didn’t pitch.
I can understand Jones’s frustration with the English media, but it did strike me as odd that he refused to give a straight answer.
A big part of the reason that England were so out of sorts was obvious: when you get as shoved about as they were in the scrums, it is almost pointless talking about game plans.
Notwithstanding that, I have wondered since leaving Japan whether Jones didn’t want to answer the questions because he knew he got it wrong across several different levels: in terms of game strategy and what he expected from the Boks, as well as what he thought was the primary requirement for winning the World Cup.
Those who say the Boks didn’t really change much for the final are not wrong.
They didn’t change much that had worked for them during the pool matches subsequent to their opening loss to the Kiwi opponents they were expecting to meet in the final.
But they did change a lot from their two previous play-off games against Japan and Wales, and in particular the latter, where the strict instruction to the players was clearly “play no rugby”.
There was much gibberish spoken in the build-up to the final. English writers who had made the Boks favourites before the tournament started were suddenly giving them no chance and making them rank underdogs.
All because of one England performance against an All Blacks team that might have been more focused on the Boks than they should have been and not focused enough on England.
The team that won the World Cup was the team that scored the most tries and scored the most points of those involved in the end stages of the tournament. So how did they get to be underdogs in the final? It speaks of a media narrative guided by emotion and not common sense.
Jones would not have been guided by emotion. But here is something that, because it has happened twice, can now be described as a trend.
Before this most recent World Cup, when Jones was asked about the most perfect performance he has presided over, he referred to his Wallaby team’s 22-10 win over the All Blacks in the 2003 semifinal.
That performance was pretty much equalled or even eclipsed by his England team in the 2019 semifinal.
It also happened to be against New Zealand, and was won by precisely the same margin of 12 points.
Both times his team went on to lose in the final.
Former England lock Ben Kay predicted this week that the British and Irish Lions would beat the Springboks in their 2021 series. He bases his reasoning on a perception that the Boks are easier to plot against than the All Blacks, who the Lions enjoyed relative success against in 2017. But surely what the World Cup final should have reminded Kay was that knowing how the Boks are going to play and stopping them are different things.
Which cues another quote from Jones. When he first took over as England coach he said England were too preoccupied with physicality and needed to place a much greater emphasis on being more skilful. No argument against the second part of that statement, but where did England lose the game against the Boks?
It is going to be interesting to watch Jones as he approaches the next World Cup.
What he does, how he goes about things, could tell us if there is a tacit admission from him that he may have got a few things wrong building up to Japan. The focus on the Kiwis, and not recognising the potential threat posed by an SA team that takes physicality to a different level, perhaps being among them.