Boks primed for All Blacks
● Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks are primed for their World Cup opener against the All Blacks in two weeks after beating Japan 41-7 on Friday.
Erasmus was satisfied with the win, which leaves the Boks undefeated this calendar year after four wins and a draw while captain Siya Kolisi came through 66 minutes unscathed.
The only downside was an injury to tighthead prop Trevor Nyakane, who hobbled from the field with 14 minutes to play. But the Sunday Times has learned that the injury is not serious.
Scoring six tries to one, with wing Makazole Mapimpi bagging a hat-trick, Cheslin Kolbe a brace and scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies the other, it looked like a one-sided romp. The score might have been decisive but Japan had chances in the second half after the Boks had stifled them in the opening stanza. Only some belligerent defence kept the Brave Blossoms at bay — another positive sign before RWC 2019.
No way back
With the Boks leading 22-0 at the break, there was no way back for Japan but they never stopped coming, which was underlined by the six line breaks they made.
The high humidity and temperature seemed to sap the Boks more than Japan, but despite having to do the bulk of the defending in the second half, the Boks showed their ruthlessness by scoring two late tries. Kolbe intercepted from 80m and Jantjies picked a way through the Japan defence from turnover.
“The game went pretty much as we wanted it to,” Erasmus said. “We put up a lot of contestable kicks because they have not faced that much and we wanted to see how they handled that.
“We scored four of our tries from contestable kick turnover so we’re happy how that turned out.”
In the difficult conditions, the Boks did all they could to slow the pace of the match and it took almost 10 minutes for their first meaningful attack.
Fullback Willie le Roux’s raking touch finder led to a Japan lineout inside their 22. The Boks pressurised the Japan set piece, forcing a knock-on and a scrum. From the scrum the Boks took it through two phases before right wing Kolbe scored his first try.
Le Roux countered from a poor Japan kick for Mapimpi’s first and flank Pieter-Steph du Toit, playing his 50th Test, put Mapimpi away for his third. In between a powerful Bok scrum created space for Mapimpi to grab his second.