Boks in rude health
Rassie turns SA into contenders for Rugby Championship and World Cup
THE Springboks head for Salta in Argentina this weekend in great shape not only for a shot at winning the Rugby Championship but also for the encroaching Rugby World Cup in Japan in September.
The Boks top the Championship table after beating the Wallabies with a bonus point in Joburg and then drawing last week with the All Blacks in New Zealand, meaning an away win over the Pumas would secure the Boks a title they last won in 2009.
And what makes the South Africans’ position atop the standings all the sweeter is that coach Rassie Erasmus has pulled it off while significantly growing his squad before the World Cup.
He fielded one team against the Australians and another against the New Zealanders after having sent 14 players to Wellington to acclimatise in the same week the other side was preparing for the Wallabies.
Erasmus has long had a reputation for meticulous planning, but with his latest strategising he has outdone himself.
Consider this: following their match with the All Blacks, the Boks stayed behind in New Zealand rather than fly back to South Africa, which would have resulted in another long haul from Joburg to Argentina via Brazil in the next few days.
This kind of forward thinking – preparing in New Zealand for a match in Argentina – has never been done before by a South African coach and it gives the Boks’ chance of beating the Pumas a genuine boost, just as the Boks would never have had the legs to fight back late in the game to snatch the draw if the majority of players had not gone to New Zealand early to overcome jet lag.
It’s likely that Erasmus will look to grow momentum now by fielding a pretty much full-strength side in Salta on August 10 because after that there is just a friendly against the same Pumas in Pretoria before they head to Japan on August31 to prepare for their September 21 Pool B opener against the All Blacks.
Incidentally, the Boks play a friendly in Tokyo early in September against Japan, there last action before the big one against the Kiwis.
Of the team that drew last week with the All Blacks, we should not expect too many changes to the line-up that will start the World Cup.
An obvious addition would be Siya Kolisi, the captain who is currently injured but should be fit by September 21, but in his absence Erasmus has seen his loose forward depth grow immeasurably because of the opportunities afforded to the irrepressible Kwagga Smith and recalled (from Ireland) flank Marcell Coetzee, both of whom have been excellent.
But it is at scrumhalf that Eramus has seen his stocks rise the most. Last year he trialled Embrose Papier and Ivan van Zyl as the back-up to first choice No 9, Faf de Klerk, but neither put up his hand.
And that situation became more complicated in Super Rugby this year when those two (both Bulls players) found themselves behind Andre Warner at the Pretoria franchise.
Fortunately for Erasmus, a certain Herschel Jantjies had a lively season with the Stormers, and well done to the Bok coach for rewarding the diminutive Jantjies with game time against the Wallabies and the All Blacks. The jack-in-the-box 23-year-old has scored three tries in two cameos off the bench to solve Erasmus’s scrumhalf concerns.
Also, Erasmus has shrewdly recalled Northampton scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, who was superb when he came on for Jantjies against the Wallabies (De Klerk was one of the players who went early to New Zealand). In short, the scrumhalf weakness of last year is now a strength.
On the subject of the small guys, another great success in Wellington was plucky little winger Cheslin Kolbe.
Another player brought back from overseas, the hot-stepping, tough tackling Kolbe has jumped the winger queue given that the first choice wings this time last year were Sbu Nkosi and Aphiwe Dyantyi.
Last week it was Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi, and while it is fair to say Dyantyi was not considered because of injury, Kolbe’s form makes him just about undroppable.