APOLOGIES TO KOBUS
It’s hard to imagine that big Kobus Wiese, he of the Springbok World Cup winning class of 1995 and Supersport commentary and presenter fame, could be offended easily. But just in case, maybe an apology is due to him.
Arriving at the DHL Stadium media area about two hours before the second Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash between the Springboks and Wallabies, it was Kobus I first bumped into.
“You know that Jean-Luc du Preez is out of the game?”
“No I didn’t, who is replacing him?”
Kobus proceeded to tell me that Kwagga Smith was in, and that the loose-forward backup on the bench was Andre Esterhuizen.
The look on my face or whatever I said in response to the news he gave me must have been akin to how you’d expect someone to react to the news of a death in the family, or maybe I was just too honest in expressing what I thought of that. Whatever the case, Kobus said something to the effect that it was the last time he’d tell me something if I was going to react like that.
“Sorry for ruining your day,” he muttered.
Truth is, that news, after being so bullish about the Bok chances of producing an emphatic rebound performance and putting away the Australians by a comprehensive margin, was a game changer.
The whole “Gees will prevail” line from my last Striking it Rich column disappeared in that instant, and the remaining time before kick-off had me mulling over how the Boks were going to win as comfortably as I had expected them to with only one player in the back row playing in his specialist position, Marco van Staden, and the other two, Franco Mostert, normally a lock, and Smith as essentially hybrid players, and with a centre backing up.
Or more pertinently, how they’d win at all. I wasn’t the only person who suddenly became very nervous about the Bok chances. Another rugby writer close to the camp compounded matters by telling me that he had it on good authority that two key players were carrying injuries.
And in one case, considering the player didn’t appear to be at his usual full gallop, he may have been right.
NOT A LIKE-FOR-LIKE REPLACEMENT
Some people gave me flak for underestimating Kwagga but that is from a lack of understanding of the reason for those reservations. Smith did play well in the game, but would probably be the first to admit, as he kind of did at the post-match presser, that he is comfortable and happy being a “finisher”. Which is something the Boks lacked later in the game.
The reserves didn’t quite have the Bomb Squad Deluxe impact that was anticipated and it was largely because of the late withdrawal of Du Preez.
My fear before the game, after learning of the change, was that Smith wasn’t a like-for-like replacement for Du Preez. Which he isn’t. And the knowledge that some plans might have to to change gave rise to a feeling that this would be the day that coach Rassie Erasmus might end up paying for his weird decision, for in my view it is weird, lack of faith in Evan Roos.
The ignored Stormers No 8 would have been a like-for-like replacement, or at least a lot more so, and his last performance for the Boks, which was a second half cameo against Italy in Gqeberha, was a good one.
𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Rassie Erasmus names his Springbok squad that will travel to New Zealand for the two upcoming #TheRugbyChampionship matches against the All Blacks 🚨#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/As1H66Ibwa
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 25, 2025
Anyway, fortunately for Erasmus and the Boks, he got away with it and the world champions prevailed. But it was a nervy and often disjointed performance, and for long periods of the game it was the visiting Wallabies who had more composure. As Erasmus was the first to admit afterwards, had James O’Connor had his place-kicking boots properly laced on, it might have been a different result.
Jasper Wiese will be back for the second game in New Zealand in Wellington and of course skipper Siya Kolisi, who is also back in the squad for the trip to “the land of the long white cloud” played off the back of the scrum in Johannesburg.
But if you were to ask me my opinion, and there’s no point in writing a column if you don’t have an opinion, Roos should be in New Zealand.
And should have been in the squad for Cape Town so he could have been called on to replace Du Preez when the unfortunate former Shark had to pull out because of gastro. Then Kwagga could have remained in place for his super-sub role. And the Boks might have won with a greater degree of comfort.
SCHMIDT ECHOED MY SENTIMENTS
When the Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt was asked at the post-match press conference if the Boks had been improved in Cape Town on what they’d done in Johannesburg the previous week, when they were beaten 38-22, he appeared to fudge the answer a bit. In the sense that his answer focused mainly on how good the Boks had been in the first 20 minutes at Emirates Airlines Park, when they led 22-0.
“That was the best window of rugby I have ever seen from a Springbok team, they didn’t let us breathe,” said the Wallaby coach, who nine years ago coached Ireland to their first ever victory on South African soil in Cape Town.
If that betrayed a feeling from Schmidt that the Cape Town performance, even though this time it led to a positive end result, in its totality wasn’t equal to that imperious opening to the series from the South Africans I’d be in complete agreement.
The Boks, mainly because of the conditions but also probably because of a more nervous and less confident mindset, went back to the safety net of their kicking game at the DHL Stadium.
It won them the game on the day but hopefully it won’t become the staple again for that opening quarter in Johannesburg showed how good they could be when they execute with the right balance. That balance was eschewed because, as Schmidt said after that game, it became too easy for them and the Boks started to run everything in the assumption that was the way to play the space they felt they saw opening in front of them.
Unfortunately for the Boks, that space, as former Wallaby and now Japanese coach Eddie Jones might have said, was “fools gold”. Putting away their aerial attack so completely meant the Boks had no variation. The Wallabies defended like Trojans and prevailed by striking with telling effect of turnover ball and the rest is history.
Had the Boks retained their balance beyond that first 20 minutes though they would probably have put 50 or even 60 points on the board and we’d be having a very different conversation now. The Cape Town game would probably have played out quite differently too as for the first time in a long time the Boks appeared to be more afraid of losing than hungry to win. By contrast the Wallabies were emboldened.
It’s understandable if you think about it - the week before they had conceded 38 unanswered points in the last hour of the game. That must be a huge setback in the psychological sense for a team that before that had developed a winning habit, with eight successive wins and only two narrow defeats subsequent to winning the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
REVERSALS IN CAPE TOWN AND BUENOS AIRES NOT UNEXPECTED
In the end though the Boks did win, and so did Argentina in Buenos Aires later in the evening. That Los Pumas win over the All Blacks wasn’t as much of a shock to me as it appeared to be to others, for I expected the hosts to improve significantly on their first game against the Kiwis given that game was their first together since, well, they beat the British and Irish Lions in Dublin.
From one legend to another 🏏🏉
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 26, 2025
Jacques Kallis told Rudy that lightning doesn't strike twice and predicted that Handre Pollard would be Player of the Match 🧠🔮#SSRugby | #TheRugbyChampionship pic.twitter.com/jECGFprY9X
The Argentina side that lost to an England team without its Lions players in Argentina in July was nowhere near full strength. So their first game against the All Blacks was always going to be a feeling in experience and the smart money should always have been on them getting incrementally better once they were more battle hardened.
And while the Boks certainly didn’t look like the team that had experienced a lighter buildup in those first 20 minutes at Ellis Park, the rust did eventually get exposed when the Wallabies, who’d played in such a tightly fought series against the Lions, came back at them over the full 80 minutes.
So they were going to be better in Cape Town too, and we should expect them to get incrementally better and sharper from here on. Italy and Georgia did give them a good physical workout in July, but there is no comparison between those teams and what the Boks faced in the form of the Wallabies. You have a margin for error against Georgia and Italy you don’t have against Australia.
And while New Zealand faced an under-strength French team in the series they played in July, that France side was still stronger than anything the Boks faced.
MOMENTUM COMES FROM PLAYING TOGETHER
The Boks of course also rotate their selections, and in that sense you also can’t compare them to a more battle hardened Australian team that despite their injuries retained mostly the core of the same team through the Lions series and into the Bok games.
Leaving the media area after this past weekend’s game I bumped into the same aforementioned Kobus Wiese. I can’t remember if he asked me what I thought or I asked him what he thought, but what came out of my mouth was the line “To me the Boks look like a team that either has too many players who are starting to get a bit long in the tooth or they just aren’t playing together enough.”
That latter thought was inspired by seeing Damian de Allende struggle a bit at some stages. His knock-on was uncharacteristic. When did he last play before the Cape Town game? Ditto the man next to him, Handre Pollard. It was only the second test match Pollard has started this season, and the gap back to the Pretoria test against Italy was eight weeks.
The same can be said for many of the other players. When last, before Cape Town, did Franco Mostert play anything close to a full game for the Boks? He wouldn’t have played in Cape Town either had it not been for the unavailability of Pieter-Steph du Toit.
Which cues a dilemma, or a catch-22 if you like, that is faced now by Rassie. It was many of the bankers in the Bok team that got them home to their latest win. Meaning double World Cup winners. But how many of them will still be playing well enough to front the challenge in Australia in 2027? Bankers they may be for now, but not necessarily in the long term.
Not unless you believe that South African rugby players are somehow immune to the march of Father Time. A march which might become more inexorable in some cases if South Africa continues to play over a 12 month of the year season, which might be another reason the Boks sometimes look a little flat - meaning as examples much of the game in Cape Town, half the game in Johannesburg and the second half in Pretoria.
But playing together frequently is surely the way to get a team to gel, the mantra of continuity in selection is so time-worn that it has become a headline cliche, and the Boks aren’t doing that.
There’s a perception that there are maybe two or three Bok teams that would be competitive on the international circuit, or at least there were before the injuries started to bite, and there is an attitude not unlike that pertained to Leinster for many years - meaning their second string team would beat most opponents.
Yet here is the thing - the Leinster second string team probably plays together a lot more than the Boks do. For there are many games in a United Rugby Championship season that the Ireland internationals, who dominate the Leinster team, don’t play.
At Leinster there are two distinct, interchangeable teams. I’m not sure that is the case at the Boks, where it sometimes appears to be the norm that there are 8 to 10 changes from one game to another.
Again though, remember the earlier point - if the rotation policy is abandoned and the older players stuck with for the short-term gain of winning now, it could cost the Boks when they get to Australia in 2027. It’s a dilemma that should be keeping Rassie awake at night. Not that I think he ever sleeps…
STORMERS’ NEW JERSEY IS A GOODIE
The many jersey changes that are often directed by the economic imperative, meaning the fan shops need new, fresh stock to sell, is tiresome, but the new Stormers jersey that was unveiled at a function I attended this week is an exception.
It makes a lot of sense, with the Stormers moving much closer to the blue and white hoops of Western Province, with black shorts too. This link with the past and the Cape rugby tradition is something that director of rugby John Dobson first started speaking about way back in 2019 and has now reached fruition.
What do we think of the new DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls jerseys? 💭#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/K3UdjhQfWS
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 26, 2025
Stormers leadership figures Salmaan Moerat and Deon Fourie spoke at the launch about how the jersey connects the circle for them. In Moerat’s case he wore blue and white hoops as a schoolboy player - I watched him lead WP Schools at the 2016 Craven Week at Kearsney College - and then as an age-group player. Fourie wasn’t at school in the region, but he captained the WP team that won the Currie Cup with a shock win in the 2012 Durban final.
The alternative jersey, meaning the away strip, is green, which links in with the colours of the Bo-Kaap community in Cape Town. It all makes a lot of sense, and as someone who doesn’t particularly take Currie Cup rugby seriously anymore but has an affinity with the jersey the Sharks XV wears in that competition, meaning black and white and not just black like the Super Rugby team, I can understand it.
For me, the black and white attire of the Sharks in the Currie Cup is more of a link to what the old Banana Boys, and the history making 1990 team captained by Craig Jamieson, wore. So Fourie was probably right when he spoke about the connection the new jersey has with the dream era of WP rugby when they won five Currie Cups in a row between 1982 and 1985.
IF JOSH CAN DO IT SO CAN DUANE
Josh Strauss, the former Golden Lions and Scotland captain, is now well into his new life as a coach, but came off the bench for the Bulls in their Currie Cup game against Griquas this past Sunday.
It was a move that was forced by what I believe is a change of attitude from the Bulls now that Johan Ackermann is in charge - everything needs to be put into attaining success in the international competitions, the URC and the Champions Cup.
The organisers seem to insist on playing the Currie Cup during what should be the South African off-season, so it has left the bigger provinces, those who play as franchises in the URC, with little choice. Players do need a proper offseason.
I learned at the Stormers jersey launch function that the Stormers URC players were given eight full weeks off. Meaning eight weeks before they even started pre-season training. And that is how it should be. The same was the case at the Sharks.
The Lions I am not so sure about as they do appear to use URC players, which many explain why they are the odd ones out among the URC unions - the other three currently foot the log.
Which is okay, because it is the URC, and not the domestic competition, that has to take priority. WP have had to use Sevens internationals and club players to bolster their ranks, and the Bulls have now had to use one of their coaches.
Learning about Strauss’ call up just a few minutes before the kick-off in the Cape Town international did get me thinking because at the time I just happened to be looking at Duane Vermeulen. Duane, now a Bok assistant, still looks the formidable figure now that he was when he was known as ‘Thor’ as a player.
If ever the Boks are away somewhere and experience a similar No 8 crisis to the one they experienced on the morning of DHL Stadium game, I wonder how close Rassie might come to reprising what Strauss did for the Bulls by pressing him into a bench role. Said tongue in cheek of course, but Duane did play his last serious game of rugby more recently than Strauss did.