Veteran World Cup winner Makazole Mapimpi has rejoined the Springbok camp as an injury replacement for the two injured wings, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Edwill van der Merwe, at a time when the mood will be a familiar one for him.
Yes, the Boks have won two Rugby World Cups since 2019, and have been the world’s most successful team during the time Rassie Erasmus has exerted influence on them, but there have also been times they have had their backs to the wall.
Like in Erasmus’ first season, when they lost to Argentina and Australia on the bounce before scoring a shock away win over New Zealand.
And then again a year later, when the Boks lost the first game of the World Cup against the All Blacks in Yokohama but then were true to their pledge of winning the next six to claim the Webb Ellis trophy. In the last World Cup there was the loss to Ireland but then three successive one point wins amid unbelievable pressure in the knock-out stages.
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp described his title winning team of 2020 as mentality monsters, and this group of Bok players are that. And Mapimpi, who has 47 caps to his name and was the scorer of the first try scored by a Bok in a World Cup final in 2019, has plenty of familiarity with that environment.
Canan Moodie, who is more likely to start on the wing this week than Mapimpi is, is a young player who doesn’t have as much experience of the Bok ability to channel their hurt into something good as the more senior player does, but he has sampled enough of it for him to know what this week is about for the South Africans.
“Everyone is extremely disappointed, and we are hurting, but as coach Rassie has said, we know what we have to do,” said Moodie on Monday.
“This week we need to stack the positives and ensure that we stick to our plans on the day. Our defence has to complement our attack and our kicking game has to be spot on this week, so this is an important week for us. With the backing of a Cape Town crowd, we know what’s at stake. It’s about getting the detail right and delivering a full 80-minute performance.”
“THEY GAVE US SHOTS”
There could actually be several injuries in the Wallaby squad for Saturday, as several of their players had to leave the field during the come-from-behind 38-22 win at Emirates Airlines Park, but Erasmus feels the number of players that will have to sit out this week on his side was an indication of how physical the Wallabies were, particularly in the breakdowns.
“They gave us shots there. Siya (Kolisi) hurt his knee about five minutes from halftime and shortly after that Marco’s [van Staden] mouthguard pinged which meant he needed to be assessed. Then Kwagga had to come on, then Pieter-Steph du Toit had to go off concussed,” said Erasmus.
“The Wallabies were really good at the breakdown – and legally so. They really had our number there.”
It doesn’t require a soothsayer to predict that the Boks, while still wanting to express the attacking dimension that was so successful early on in Johannesburg, will be paying more attention to their fundamental strengths in the buildup to the Cape Town game after they were guilty of overplaying in the first test.
“I felt we were on the wrong side of the balance (in our approach), but we hope to go back to our strengths. Our downfall was going 22 points up and then losing momentum from there. It’s very hard to win a test match when you don’t have momentum,” said the Bok coach.
THERE WILL BE CHANGES TO THE TEAM
Erasmus will be naming his team later on Tuesday and it will be an eagerly awaited selection. Erasmus said at the post-match press conference in Johannesburg that the team for the Cape Town clash had already been announced internally before the first game but that he would have to rethink and on Monday he hinted at significant changes.
Of course, it goes without saying that there will be at least four, as Arendse, Edwill van der Merwe, Kolisi and Du Toit have been ruled out with their injuries. He said a week ago that Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu would be involved in this next game, and that will almost certainly be the case - but who will start and who will finish?
What cost the Boks in Johannesburg was the lack of the calming effect of experience at the back once the game had started to go against them, so while many are predicting that Pollard, with all his experience, will start, it may be that he is more needed as a finisher, a player who can be relied on to kick the clutch kicks should they be needed.
So Feinberg-Mngomezulu may get a chance to do what he did against New Zealand last year by starting out in the No 10 and Pollard operating as a finisher. Erasmus suggested he wanted to see Moodie at No 13 in this game but the injuries to Arendse and Van der Merwe may force a change in thinking, with Moodie playing on the wing, which would accommodate the retention of Kriel’s experience and leadership alongside his regular midfield partner Damian Willemse, who is set to return.
Cheslin Kolbe is fit again and should be on the other wing, with the back row mix being particularly difficult to predict now that Kolisi and Du Toit are out. Interestingly Erasmus didn’t call for loose-forward replacements because he said he had enough cover which may well mean that he sees one of his locks - Ruan Nortje, Franco Mostert or Cobus Wiese - as a potential blindside flank replacement for Du Toit.