The Springboks got what they wanted from their Qatar Cup clash with the Barbarians as a thumping 54-7 win at a wet DHL Stadium got the international season off to a strong start.
The Boks scored eight tries to one and could not have asked for a better start to their 2025 campaign as they now look ahead to the two-game series against Italy. The South Africans led 19-0 at halftime and any nerves would have been calmed when they raced into a 12-0 lead in the opening minutes.
It wasn’t the most memorable of Barbarians games, but then it was probably never going to be given the inclement weather that had enveloped the Mother City for much of the buildup week and which continued into the game. There was no downpour like the one the Boks trained in on Wednesday, but it was wet enough to demand wet-weather tactics.
Of course, the Barbarians exist to entertain and play attacking rugby, also to some extent to introduce new potential stars to this level of the game, and it was partly for those reasons that after just 10 minutes, if indeed there were any people out there who doubted the Boks would win this game, those doubts had already been extinguished.
The Barbarians had started by nearly scoring a try from the start as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s first kick was charged down as the visitors applied initial pressure, but after that, it was the Barbarians who made the mistakes when the Boks kicked the ball.
The Kiwi flyhalf Jacob Jacomb, a 23-year-old who Barbarians coach Robbie Deans predicts a bright future for, was unfortunately involved in both the incidents that led to the Boks’ first two tries. In the first, he was the recipient of a pass from the wing dropping back to field a ball rolling towards the corner flag, and he dropped it behind the tryline.
In another game for another team placing less of an emphasis on needing to try things, Jacomb might not have received the ball in what looked like an attempt to set up a counter-attack. The knock-on led to the strong attacking position from which the Boks launched the driving maul that sent Malcolm Marx in for the first try after six minutes.
Three minutes later, it was Jacomb who dropped a ball kicked onto him, under much less pressure this time. The scrum was set in an attacking position, and in no time at all, Cheslin Kolbe had run onto a kick to dot down the second try and propel his team into a 12-0 lead. The home team was never going to be caught after that, not in the prevailing conditions, although the Barbarians, as is their wont, deserve credit for not throwing in the towel against a Bok team that played perfect wet-weather rugby.
It was a day when several players would have considered themselves to be on trial for the Boks and others were making welcome returns after time away. Jean-Luc du Preez fits into both categories and can consider himself to have done well in his time on the field, carrying the ball strongly while also putting in a few good tackles.
Unfortunately for him, the time on the field didn’t last long enough, for he left it injured just before halftime. Lood de Jager, like Du Preez, playing his first game for the Boks in quite a while because of injury, was perhaps the most impressive of the Bok forwards and he capped his strong return performance by scoring the fifth try.
TSHITUKA THE BEST OF THE NEWCOMERS
Flanker Vincent Tshituka was arguably the best of the players playing their first game in the green and gold and crossed for two tries in the game, with his drive over the line from close range being the third try as the Boks took a 19-0 lead after 23 minutes. There wasn’t too much flash from the Boks, which was predictable, but both wings had their moments. Skipper for the day Jesse Kriel put in one typical weaving run and Kriel’s centre partner Damian de Allende slid over for the Boks’ final try.
The winning margin of 47 points was the biggest by a Bok team against the Barbarians, not that that should matter so much in a game of this nature. The Barbarians’ only points came via France fullback Melvyn Jaminet, who slid over late in the game, with the Boks already 40-0 ahead at that point.
If there was an area of concern for the Boks, it might have been the scrum, which started out well but then battled on the way to the South Africans establishing their 19-point halftime bridgehead.
It was the final game for Barbarians skipper Peter O'Mahony and the Irishman received a standing ovation from large sections of the Cape Town crowd. His countryman Cian Healy contributed to some strong scrums earlier in the piece. But the Barbarians were always going to be under the kosh against a team that was set up on a test match footing and given the conditions that were the opposite of what the Barbarians would want.
Scores
Springboks 54 - Tries: Malcolm Marx, Cheslin Kolbe, Vincent Tshituka 2, Lood de Jager, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Damian de Allende; Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2 and Manie Libbok 5. Barbarians 7 - Try: Melvyn Jaminet; Conversion: Melvyn Jaminet.