Boks looking to slay the Dragons and set a record

THE Boks will play their 13th Test of the year against Wales at the Millennium Stadium today and if they win, it will be their 10th victory of the season – something that has only happened four times in the previous 22 seasons since readmission to Test rugby in 1992.

In 1995 the team won 10 out of 10 under coach Kitch Christie, also claiming the World Cup on home soil along the way.

In 1998 they won 10 out of 11 under Nick Mallett as they won the TriNations for the first time. In 2007 Jake White’s Boks won 13 out of 17 on their way to the World Cup title in France and in 2013 Heyneke Meyer’s team won 10 of 12.

Should they record their 28th Test win over the Dragons today, Meyer will become the first coach to steer the Boks to back-to-back double digit winning seasons.

This year the Boks also claimed their first win over the All Blacks under Meyer – at the sixth time of asking – to ensure that they have beaten every opponent they’ve faced over the three years of his coaching tenure at least once.

Although the team’s performances have been inconsistent, they have continually found a way to win games under Meyer. They were poor against Ireland and lost, and poor against Wales in Nelspruit in June and against Argentina in Salta in August yet somehow won.

There was some unhappiness in the Bok camp this week that the quality of their performance in a 22-6 win over a rugged Italy in Padova last week wasn’t given due credit.

All week the Boks have maintained that, not only were Italy excellent on the day and effective at disrupting Springbok ball, but that they did a lot of good things in the game.

Stats show he Boks dominated all the key areas but they lacked the killer blow on several occasions and that is a theme that has been repeated throughout the season.

Against Ireland the Boks had enough opportunities in the second quarter to score several tries and change the shape of the game. But Ireland survived off Bok mistakes and thrived later on because they weren’t under scoreboard pressure.

Yesterday, captain Jean de Villiers again spoke about the need for the team to use their opportunities when they came.

He admitted that even when beating the All Blacks 27-25 at Ellis Park earlier this year, they were unhappy with their performance.

That is a good sign. The team is continually striving for excellence.