Fortunately the Springboks have become as adept at dealing with and cutting out the noise off the field as they have at dealing with the adversity they have had to deal with lately during games, for there should be plenty of it in the buildup to Saturday’s game against Ireland in Dublin.
The Irish mood would have been considerably lifted by their team’s good 46-19 win over Australia at the AVIVA Stadium at the weekend and when the Irish are confident they tend to be talkative. They also aren’t averse to trying to put extra obstacles in the way, as their media did quite unsuccessfully when the Boks were in Tokyo Bay building up to the 2019 World Cup opener against New Zealand.
The game had nothing to do with Ireland but the press conferences were peppered with questions from Irish journalists about drugs in rugby, something which again had nothing to do with the issue at hand. Aphiwe Dyantyi, the Bok who was the focus, had already been banned by then and hadn’t been with the team all year.
Who knows what will be dredged up this time in an attempt to deflect or undermine, but by now Rassie Erasmus and his men have become adept at dealing with media noise, as they did with the Bongi Mbonambi/Tom Curry saga over a sledge apparently directed at the England flanker in the buildup to the 2023 World Cup final.
MOSTERT’S CARD WAS FARCICAL
But there is something that will happen in the buildup week to this game that the Boks probably won’t be able to ignore, as it should impact on their planning for the Ireland game - the hearing into the farcical red card that lock Franco Mostert was shown during the 32-14 win over Italy in Turin.
Social media has been flooded with some seriously good humour around that, with teams featuring the No 5 blocked out in red on the Bok team sheet being circulated, and the chirp on the Egg Chasers podcast, suggesting that Bok coach Erasmus cock a snoot at World Rugby by selecting a 14-man team for the game against Wales, was excellent too.
But the issue of whether Mostert could be available on Saturday is a serious one given that Lood de Jager is already out due to his four match ban for the red card he incurred in the previous game in Paris. There’s a lot of depth at No 5 lock in South Africa, and Ruan Nortje has been outstanding as a replacement in both of the last two games, but the Bok ‘Bomb Squad’ approach often requires two No 5 locks to be in the match day 23.
The Boks called up the now DHL Stormers loosehead Ntuthuko Mchunu over the weekend to cover for what is now a thinning resource base in the front row and the Hollywoodbets Sharks hooker Bongi Mbonambi has also been called up.
“This is a longer tour than usual, and we have two big matches lined up against Ireland and Wales, which prompted the decision to call up Bongi and Ntuthuko,” explained Erasmus.
“Both players have done the job for us on the international stage, so we are excited to have them in the group. Several players will not be eligible for selection for the final test on tour against Wales, as the match falls outside of the international window, so it makes sense to call up the players now to get back into the swing of things with us at training this week, while at the same time increasing the depth we have within the squad for our next challenge against Ireland.”
NO LOCK REPLACEMENT CALLED
However, there was no mention of any No 5 reinforcement from back home, whoever that might have been given that outside of Marvin Orie, who is now playing for the Sharks, there are no lineout leaders back home who have much if any Bok experience. There are two Stormers in JD Schickerling and Ruben van Heerden who could conceivably do the job if needed going forward but neither of them have played for the Boks. Orie was part of the Bok squad in the last World Cup cycle.
There should be a lot of confidence though that Mostert’s card will be rescinded and he will be available for selection for the view of the on-field referee James Doleman and the TMO that there was contact from Mostert’s shoulder with the Italian player’s head was the most confounding bit of fiction imaginable. It was just plainly wrong, and this time both the Boks and their supporters were right to be incensed.
Sensible people don't buy into conspiracy theories easily but questions do need to be asked why in the last two Bok games the protocol of sending tackle incidents to the bunker for review before upgrading to a red were abandoned while they remain in place elsewhere.
The red card shown to Ireland forward Tadgh Beirne in the game against the All Blacks in Chicago was later rescinded, and the red card was patently wrong, but at least in that case it was sent to the bunker and was only a 20 minute red card and therefore never had the bearing on the game that the two permanent reds copped by the Boks did.
IT WOULD HAVE COST A LESSER TEAM
Not that it cost the Boks like it might have a lesser team and once again in Turin they rose above the refereeing incompetence. Unlike Angus Gardner the week before who was browbeaten by his assistants into calling the red but was good in his refereeing of the Paris game generally, Doleman was Bryce Lawrence like with the way he lost control of the game.
To get through that with an 18-point win against an Italy team that played well but were just not good enough for the 14-man world champions was a big statement by the Boks, almost on a par with what they did against France the week before.
But against an Ireland team that has its attacking shape back and was allowed to build momentum against a Wallaby team that is clearly out on its feet after a season that started with a British and Irish Lions series, the Boks will need to have 15 players on the field and they may also need Mostert to be part of the 23.
The Bok team for the Ireland game is to be named on Thursday this week.