Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus confirmed that his team were looking for a bonus-point try when Cheslin Kolbe surprised him by trying to slot a drop-goal less than three minutes from the end of Saturday’s fourth round Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash with the All Blacks.
“When Cheslin (unsuccessfully) tried that drop-goal, we were going for the bonus-point try as it would have meant we might be able to clinch the Championship now, so it was a bit surprising,” said Erasmus.
The Boks were metres from the line at the time and had the wind in their sails. A phase or two more and they could easily have scored their third try and made it 3-0 in five-pointers. In the Rugby Championship, a try-scoring bonus point comes about if you get three more than your opponents, not by scoring four, as is the case in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and other competitions.
As it turned out, that extra try would not have wrapped up the Championship, as Argentina kept the competition alive with a resounding record win over the hapless Wallabies later in the evening. The Boks have an eight-point lead with two games to go, meaning that with four points up for grabs for a win and five if you manage a try-scoring bonus point, Argentina can still overtake them.
Make no mistake, the Boks have a hand and several fingers firmly clasping another trophy to go with the Freedom Cup they won on Saturday and the Webb Ellis trophy that has been residing in the SA Rugby cabinet for five years.
It would take a freaky series of events to stop the Boks now, but the remaining games against the Pumas are not dead rubber matches. Well, at least the next one, in Santiago on 21 September, isn’t - the Boks will be wanting to win there so that the last one in Nelspruit a week later is officially a dead rubber. The Boks just need to win to turn the Mbombela Stadium game into a certain inauguration.
MUST AVOID REPEAT OF 2009 ERROR
But the Boks can take a cue from the last time the South Africans dominated the southern hemisphere competition like they are now. In 2009 it was the Tri-Nations. The Boks got to Brisbane to play the Wallabies having won four games in a row, like they have now, and went in off the back of an excellent bonus-point win over the Aussies in Perth.
They went into the fifth game of the competition as overwhelming favourites and no doubt a bit complacent, and ended up tripping up quite spectacularly as the Wallabies played them at their own game and scored a resounding win. The Boks duly wrapped up the Tri-Nations a week later at Hamilton, but the game was turned into a decider when it should have been a dead rubber.
Regardless of the tournament situation, Erasmus, as he does, will have already planned for the remaining two matches, and his plans won’t be changed by what happened when the Pumas avenged the wet weather defeat in their first game by running up a record win in the dry afternoon heat in the most recent clash with the Wallabies. He told media after the win over the All Blacks that he will be working with two separate squads when they return from a three-day break to begin preparations for the Pumas matches in Stellenbosch - one to go overseas for the Santiago game and the other to prepare for Nelspruit.
With skipper Siya Kolisi likely to be away to have the injury to his face that for a brief time looked to threaten his participation in the test that clinched the Freedom Cup attended to, and Eben Etzebeth deserving a rest, we could well see Salmaan Moerat given the opportunity to lead the side in both the remaining Championship games.
EVERY BOK TEAM IS A STRONG ONE NOW
However, one thing that is certain is that such a change will not mean the Boks are underestimating the Pumas, just as changed-up selections in Australia didn’t mean they were underestimating the Wallabies. The world champions are working to a point where they can have at least two world-class players in each position, and preferably three. While Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit are arguably the two indispensable frontline players in the current Bok squad, they are evolving to a point where there isn’t much distinction between the first and second choice team. Every Bok team is a strong one now.
They will need to be wary though because Argentina, like they did in Wellington a month ago, confirmed that they are becoming like the French used to be. In other words, unpredictable and capable of beating anyone on their day.
They can be brilliant at times, as they were in the last 50 minutes against the Wallabies and at points of the win over the All Blacks, and woeful, like they were for much of the first half hour of that game and in the first 50 minutes of the big defeat to the Kiwis at Eden Park.
The Pumas were beaten by a penalty from the final play in their first game against the Australians, but that was a game played in wet, inclement conditions. Weather like that is always a leveller, and the Aussies, who are the inferior team in this year’s Championship by some distance, were given a chance.
For a while on Saturday, it looked like that win had given them momentum. They led 20-3 at a point in the first half. But then the passes started to stick for Argentina, and in no time at all the game had been turned on its head. It was a record defeat for the Wallabies, eclipsing the 61-22 loss to the Boks in Pretoria in 1997 and the 53-8 defeat to the same nation in Johannesburg in 2008.
RASSIE ENJOYS HIS PLAYERS BEING UNDER PRESSURE
While the result means the Pumas are alive and the Boks have to delay their celebrations, it might well please Erasmus - he likes his players to feel the pressure, as it is a good preparation for what is to come when they play for the three-peat at the 2027 World Cup. And those players who were part of the 2019 World Cup triumph will have had the experience of a game in Argentina being a dry run for a World Cup final moment, as that was the scenario that Erasmus set up for the team when they clinched their first Championship title earlier that season.
The Boks won convincingly then and they will be aiming to do so again, but the Pumas will feel confident after what they did to Australia.
Not that there is any comparison currently between the Boks and the Wallabies, and even though the All Blacks are third on the Championship table and will be playing to avoid the wooden spoon when the Bledisloe Cup games start in a fortnight, there does appear to be a chasm between the two sides that clashed in South Africa and the other two.
The form of Australia is particularly concerning, not least for the organisers of next year’s British and Irish Lions series in Australia. Rugby union ranks lowly among the codes in that country and is sliding downhill fast, with many commentators believing this past weekend’s result could be the one that pushes the sport over the cliff Down Under.
It is a sad place for a country that was the first to two World Cup titles when they won in Wales in 1999 to find itself in and it is not good for the global game. There are arguably not enough competitive nations in rugby union.
With the next World Cup set to be played in Australia, it won’t just be Wallaby fans who will be hoping that there can be some kind of redemption when they play the All Blacks home and away in the final fortnight of the competition. But given that the Kiwis weren’t that far away from the world’s best team away from home over the last two weekends, and the Boks were miles ahead of the Wallabies in both Brisbane and Perth, no one will be betting on former All Black assistant Joe Schmidt being able to script a statement win against his home nation.
Weekend Castle Lager Rugby Championship results
South Africa 18 New Zealand 12
Argentina 67 Australia 27