The names of the busy Tokyo stations and the hubs you travel through on the journey from Yokohama to the central points in that vast and energetic city have begun to fade from memory. It is four years on and what became ingrained because of daily routine over a period of weeks requires some thought.
What hasn’t faded from memory though is the journey back through the Tokyo underground rail system to Tokyo Bay, where I cleverly based myself on the night of the 2019 Rugby World Cup final because that’s where the Springboks were staying and I wanted to witness the celebrations. Yes, this writer was convinced that South Africa would win and that there would be a celebration. Being close to the camp gives you an insight into the mood, and coach Rassie Erasmus in particular had exuded a quiet confidence all week.
“It’s a 50/50 game but if they (England) play their best and we play our best then we will win,” Erasmus told me when the Bok coaches treated the South African written media to a lunch two days before the final in Yokohama.
But the English media were far more bullish. It’s not often you see the All Blacks outplayed, so when England thrashed the Kiwis in the semifinal, the UK writers were duped into thinking the final was a done deal. I was pretty much laughed at when I participated in a podcast hosted by the writers from English newspaper, The Times.
FASCINATION WITH LUKHANYO
One of the participants in that chat was the paper’s Chief Sportswriter, David Walsh. But on the train heading through Shimbashi after the final, Walsh didn’t cut the figure of a disappointed Englishman. He looked excited, he was energised. And he was busy. He’s a prolific wordsmith and although he would have already penned a substantial view of the final, which the Boks won 32-12, he was already thinking of his next story.
He sat next to me for part of that train journey and you’d have thought he was South African the way he enthused about the Bok players and the performance they’d delivered. And there was one man he was particularly interested in - Lukhanyo Am. Walsh made it clear he’d seen something special that day and had witnessed a special player in action.
Walsh’s obsession with Am didn’t just stop there. When I was home, back in South Africa, the phone rang. Am was going to be in London to play for the Barbarians, everyone was eager to speak to him and wanted more information on him. As the first black South African to lift the World Cup trophy, Siya Kolisi had been the rage of the moment in the days following the Yokohama triumph, but Am wasn’t far behind. David wanted to hear more about Am’s background.
It was all about that supposedly no-look pass - Am says he did look - that sent Makazole Mapimpi in for the first Bok try to be scored at a World Cup final. But for Walsh, there was more to it than just that. What was fascinating to him was that it was Am who called the move. It prompted him to seek out the Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick, who’d played a big role in Am’s early development as a senior play in his role as one of the coaches at the Southern Kings.
“There are certain things the coach can’t take credit for and that was one of them,” said Stick in reference to Am’s role in setting up the Mapimpi try.
“Lukhanyo sees things before other players. He is a very shy person and when I coached him during his on-loan year at the Kings, I wondered if he was too quiet. I played him out of position on the wing in his first game and immediately realised he was the complete rugby player. Playing 13, you need a proper brain and he has that.”
HE HAS A BIG FAN IN ‘BOD’
Am didn’t have just journalists and fans in awe of the sleight of hand and the ability he showed in that World Cup final. You know you have made it when an Irishman rates you, particularly when that Irishman is Brian O’Driscoll (known to some as BOD), who was close to the best midfielder there was in his stellar career.
“From an old 13, I would have loved the subtlety of those hands,” was O’Driscoll’s comment after watching Am play in that final.
O’Driscoll’s praise for Am wasn’t just limited to his performance in that final. Two years later, Am saved an almost certain try with a tackle in the second test of the British and Irish Lions series before setting up a crucial try that swung the game, and ultimately the series, South Africa’s way.
“The Am offload for that score - he knows exactly what he has to do. He’s a proper player,” was O’Driscoll’s comment on what was then known as Twitter after it happened.
O’Driscoll followed up a year later when, asked to select the best players on the planet for SportsJOE from those who were performing well for club and country, he included Am as the only South African in his group of nine.
STELLAR YEAR CUT SHORT BY INJURY
That was towards the end of 2022, a season which was cruelly cut short for Am by injury but in which he made enough of an impression to be included as one of the five finalists in the World Rugby Player of the Year Awards.
Am wasn’t on tour with the Boks when his selection among the nominees was announced, but South Africa’s national director Rassie Erasmus still heaped praise on him.
“He really is a special player and the first time coach Jacques and I saw him was at club trials and he stood out,” Erasmus said from Genoa, where the Boks were at the time preparing to face Italy.
“I think he was playing in a pair of tekkies. I don't think he had boots on, but from there, we phoned an agent and we felt he needed exposure. And moving to the Kings, he pushed right through, and now he is one of the Player of the Year nominees.
“It's a pity he couldn't come and showcase that talent here, but we're very proud of him. He had to fight hard to get into teams and structures. He's just an incredible player.”
GOBSMACKING PLAYS
He is indeed, and he’s shown that in more than just that World Cup final four years ago. Looking back at clips for the purpose of researching this story, it was quite gobsmacking to be reminded of some of his plays that may have been forgotten. Like the one where he was playing against Argentina and was played off the ball and went to ground but was still able to get up and chase down and dispossess a Pumas player as he was in the act of scoring on his line.
That’s the thing about Am, when you think of him you think of his stepping and ability to spin out of the tackle, but he brings so much more. Apart from his superb defensive play and his brain, he also has the ability to get in over the ball like a looseforward, which was perhaps the skill that first got me to notice him when he was still playing for the Kings.
So it wasn’t surprising that the evening after perhaps Am’s finest performance for the Boks, which was in an ultimately losing cause against the All Blacks in Johannesburg last year, former Bok attack coach Swys de Bruin pretty much described him as the perfect player.
“I must thank him as I use him when I coach coaches as an example of what you need as he just has the entire skill set that is needed,” said De Bruin on Supersport’s magazine programme Final Whistle 24 hours after a match where Am had grabbed the headlines even though his team lost the game.
“When you talk about a coaching manual player the example you use is that guy. He can offload, sense when it is on, he is so slippery in the tackle, he reads and creates gaps, which is a skill. He beats players and spins out of tackles. His skill level is out of this world.”
The Boks have evolved their game since that All Black game last August, but back then it was a time when everyone was calling out for the Boks to run the ball more, and you got the impression De Bruin shared in the general frustration. He used Am’s performance to make the point that “those guys must get the ball”. At the same time though, he didn’t forget Am’s other big strength.
“Defensively he is brilliant, don’t forget that read in the second test against the Lions. He also has a hard edge and is good over the ball too,” said the former Emirates Lions coach.
STATISTICS THAT SHOW HOW SPECIAL HE IS
With Am now having recovered from the injury that initially kept him out of this World Cup sufficiently enough to join the squad as a replacement for his good mate and fellow 2019 hero Mapimpi - ironically Malcolm Marx, who also featured in that first try in Yokohama, is also no longer with the team because of injury - it is useful to look at Am’s stats from that All Black game as they show what a special player he is. Although forced relatively early on to play out of position on the right wing after an injury to Jesse Kriel, Am terrorised the All Blacks’ defence with every chance he got and scored a sensational try in the first half, which sparked the Boks into life after going down 0-15.
And the result might have turned out differently had what looked like a perfectly good Mapimpi try, created by a breathless break out from Am that split the New Zealand defence apart, not been disallowed because of an obstruction only the refereeing team seemed certain about. Had it been allowed, it would surely have ranked as the try of the season, if not the decade.
Am notched up a phenomenal 137 metres with his carries, the most in the game, and with those carries he also made four line breaks and beat five defenders. Those four linebreaks were the most by any Springbok player in a game since 2019, which was Damian Willemse’s four against Canada in a World Cup pool game. The previous time that number was surpassed in any Castle Lager Rugby Championship match was the Wallaby Sami Kerevi’s six against Argentina in 2016.
BRILLIANCE NOT REPLICATED THOUGH WHEN ON ONE LEG
Mention of Willemse though cues the debate over whether Am should be brought straight back into the Bok team for the quarterfinal stage. Certainly if you think back to some of Am’s sublime moments, and let’s not forget the “razzle and dazzle”, as it was described by Aussie commentators, that he injected when he challenged an All Black runner, then collected the ball and flipped it behind his back to Sbu Nkosi, who in turn put away Damian de Allende, in the first half of a Championship test at the Gold Coast in 2021, you’d think he should walk in.
Jesse Kriel has been sublime as his replacement over the past two months, and you would feel for the hard-working centre if he missed out on being part of a key playoff game. But like Willemse, there’s a point of difference with Am, an X-factor that just elevates him above other players.
Why we mention him in the same breath as Willemse though is because of his stepping ability. They both have it. But does Am have that stepping ability right now post his injury? That’s the million-dollar question and what only the player himself and those who have trained around him and have watched him train since he’s been in France will know.
There was a report in the Australian media last year, just after it was confirmed that Am had been ruled out with a knee injury, that Bok coach Jacques Nienaber was wanting to pick Am to play even though he was injured.
“Lukhanyo Am on one leg is better than most of the Wallabies backline,” was a quote that appeared in the media though it was of questionable veracity.
Whether Nienaber said it or not is not the point. It does underline the thinking at the time - Am appeared to be indispensable, which he is when he is fully fit and has that stepping ability. However, that Am can’t perform on one leg after all was perhaps demonstrated in the games he played for the Boks before the injury sustained in Argentina that initially ruled him out of the World Cup.
HE MUST PLAY - IF THAT KNEE FACILITATES HIS STRENGTH
By his standards, Am was quiet and pretty anonymous in the games he played for the Boks before this in 2023, and he wasn’t that flush playing for the Sharks when he did get to play for them either.
Someone connected to the Sharks explained it - Am was apparently playing through his knee injury, but the injury was constraining him and robbing him of his main strength, being that ability to step.
There are many players through rugby history who have been impeded by an injury that has robbed them of a strength. Bob Skinstad had a good career with the Boks but it was nowhere near as stellar as it would have been were it not for the injury sustained in a car accident in 1997 that robbed him of his explosiveness. The late Chester Williams finished his career after injury relying on his positional sense rather than his pace, and Jaco Taute, so quick as a young fullback, had to retread into a creative inside centre after the same thing happened to him.
Hopefully Am won’t be one of those players and whatever has been done to get him fit again will bring back the stepping wizardry that makes him such a threat on attack and which, if Manie Libbok continues in the No 10 jersey, could become even more devastating to the opposition hopes.
Thinking back to that 2019 final, and it wasn’t just his role in the try he created that stood out that day, he was a constant thorn to the England defence and gave the Boks go-forward from his position in the midfield, Am has to play should the Boks get that far. He’s got skills that could be the point of difference between the South Africans and whoever they play against.
But there is an important caveat - it has to be Lukhanyo Am circa 2019 and August 2022, meaning his rehabilitation from injury has to have facilitated the return of the stepping, explosiveness and ability, as De Bruin said, to spin through the tackle. If not, then Kriel must continue in the No 13 jersey he’s done the Boks proud in during Am’s absence.
One thing is for certain though. When Am is in full cry, he is not just the best player in his position in the world, he may just be the best player on the planet per se. And if he’s in that space, his arrival in France could just be the most important thing to happen to the Boks since the departure of Malcolm Marx, surpassing even the return to the fray of Handre Pollard.