The strangest week - how the Boks prepared for the first Lions' test

To say the Springboks’ preparation for the first test against the British and Irish Lions was nowhere near what they were used to, and woefully short of the norm in international rugby, must be one of the biggest understatements in the modern game.

After 20 months without international rugby because of the pandemic, a Covid outbreak that took 26 players and management into isolation and a disjointed approach to the SA A game to give themselves some much-needed preparation, the team went into the week of the first test without the normal confidence they had needed for any test, let alone one of this nature.

While normal Bok protocols see the team announced on a Wednesday or Thursday, the team are normally informed first thing on a Monday morning so they can maximise their preparation for a test match.

But this was no normal week and this was no normal test series and it became clear very quickly the Boks were not going to be at their best going into the first test match.

NERVOUS

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber was nervous - not just because of the massive nature of a Lions’ tour, but because Covid had wrecked their plans so badly it was nowhere near the normal nature of a test build-up.

“Because I focus on the stuff I’m used to - the onfield stuff - that was familiar to me in the past. Obviously it was a massive series. The thing that made me nervous was the fact that a big per centage of our squad only came out of isolation on that Monday, so I guess the build-up going into the first test - we didn’t know who was going to be available,” Nienaber - speaking for the first time on the test - revealed to Supersport.com

“You selected a team but they still had to go through EKG tests and they had to get final approval on the Monday. With team selection you had a team and you told the team this is who will play the first test match, but these guys still need to get signed off medically.

“If they are not going to be signed off medically, you are going to start and you are going to be on the bench. So, that was a little indifferent.”

LACK OF CLARITY

Nienaber was right to say the equilibrium of the team was off kilter. It was a whirlwind in trying to get players ready and fit for selection, to pass the return to play protocols that the rugby aspect almost took an immediate back seat.

“We don’t normally like to operate like that. We like to let the team know who is playing on the Saturday by the Monday, even though we announce it later. The players know who is playing and that helps us preparing. And the guys not selected have certain roles and responsibilities.

“The tough thing in that first test match was creating those roles and clarity - because there wasn’t clarity on team selection. The players only got out of their return to play protocol on the Monday.

“That was a tough one because there wasn’t clarity in terms of who was going to start and being on the bench. There was a lot of slashes - this guy will start, but if he isn’t then this guy will start. And then the bench as well.”

BOKS FADED IN FIRST TEST

But it quickly became clear after a first half where the Boks played exceptionally well and strategically clever, that they were going to fade in the second half. And that came down to the preparation.

“We were in control in the first half, we were leading 12-3 going into halftime. From our perspective we actually thought we played a very good first half but we also knew a big per centage of our team actually came out of Covid protocol on that Monday. And think now what 14 days prior to that looked like,” Nienaber explained.

“It’s isolation in a room, you are only allowed with return to play - I don’t want to go into too much detail but for the first couple of days you are just confined to your room until you don’t have any symptoms - even if you test positive and don’t have any symptoms there is a period where you are not allowed to do anything, you just have to sit in your room.

“Then you can go out and maybe cycle for 15 minutes. They look at your heartrate etc and look at your symptoms. You only get exposure to rugby in the last three to four days - and when I mean exposure, it is literally running and passing a ball.

“Contact exposure is only in the last day of those 14 days.”

FORCED CHANGES

With the Boks normally employing the “bomb squad” tactics of a 6-2 split on the bench, the Covid issues had meant they could only field a traditional 5-3 split because of all the uncertainties.

“If you look at our team selection we went for a conventional 5-3 split, because we had so many guys who we weren’t sure are going to last the full 80, because they were just lying in a room for 10 days,” said Nienaber

“We knew - and Rassie (Erasmus) mentioned - they will get a spark in the second half - their preparation was good and they had good exposure to rugby and rugby conditioning and we didn’t.

“We knew they were probably going to get a spark in that second half and we should react to that.

“The disappointing side is that we knew it was going to come but we couldn’t handle it when it came - we didn’t have answers for that. The disappointing part is we knew it was going to happen, but we had certain things in place to combat that, but when it happened we couldn’t click to combat that.

“We knew something was going to happen in the second half, and we had plans in place to combat that, but we couldn’t click it.”

The rest, as they say, is history, and the Lions claimed the first test match.

But given the Covid hell the Boks had gone through they had a right to feel disappointment. This was far from the perfect tour, the anticipated matches that come around every 12 years.

And it had placed the pressure firmly on them going into the second test.