Boks should win as they reach edge of the precipice

“So do you think we are good enough to beat Italy?” There’s been an unusually upbeat outlook from Springbok rugby fans to two consecutive defeats, but that often-repeated question, laced with sarcasm, pretty much sums up the general mood.

While there is acknowledgement that the Boks played well even in losing to the top two ranked teams in the world in consecutive weekends, and they were unlucky in both, there’s also a feeling of frustration that they weren’t able to seal the deal. And in that sense the Boks, though on the evidence of what we have seen so far they should start as favourites, are on the edge of a precipice as they head into Saturday’s third tour match against Italy in Genoa.

We say third tour match, but some might say fifth, and that just adds to the need to put rugby and a positive result into the Bok related headlines. For the South African A side that lost a second game to the Bristol Bears, who are hardly flush on the English Premiership log right now, is being seen by some as part of the Boks, in essence a kind of midweek side.

That isn’t the reality. Some players who started at the Ashton Gate Stadium aren’t first choices at their Vodacom United Rugby Championship franchises. They were being tried out, which is what a South African A side is really all about. On a night where it is about individual players staking claims for higher honours, it shouldn’t really be surprising that a team ends up playing like individuals.

There really shouldn’t be any alarm, and the history of SA ‘A’ sides, or Bok midweek teams, failing extends back to 2009, when the side coached by Peter de Villiers crashed quite spectacularly in midweek games just months after the senior side had completed a dominant Tri-Nations campaign which followed a British and Irish Lions series triumph.

'A' TEAM CONTRIBUTE TO NEGATIVE MOOD

Nonetheless, the SA ‘A’ team's performances have added to the general cloud of gloom that not far away from beginning and advance on a South African rugby system that is actually in rude health. And the Boks could just push it over the precipice, and step with both feet into a proper crisis if, Heaven forbid, they lose to Italy.

They shouldn’t. Yes, Italy are playing at home and we saw last week what the passionate Latin temperament crowd can do to lift their team. The Azzurri had enough of the game in Padua to win by more than just one point and had the Wallabies succeeded with the conversion kick that would have won it for them, it would have been a travesty. Italy missed half their attempts at goal.

Arguably though the Boks need more than just a win, they need to do it in style, to sweep away the feeling of slapstick farce that appears to be the discourse around the team. Just why people should be as interested in who is sleeping with who, as some news outlets who keep pushing those stories seem to think, beats me. My line is that if it happens away from the sports field, which is the professional sportsman/woman’s office, then it really should have no relevance.

But that’s an individual view. Be that as it may, allegations that there are doppelgangers getting involved just adds to the feeling that we are watching a comedy unfold. And ditto when it comes to the Tweeting controversy that will now see SA’s national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus banned from two games, which means he won’t be at the Twickenham game for the second successive year.

BARNES DID HAVE A BRAIN-FART, BUT...

This time last year there was sympathy from this source, and there is certainly no argument from this pen against some of Erasmus’ contentions. English referee Wayne Barnes is one of the best and he was good for 70 minutes in Marseille, but in the last 10 minutes he most emphatically did have a brain fart and it cost the Boks the game.

But perhaps Erasmus would be wiser if he subtly found ways for the media to say it for him, like most other top coaches do, and do it through the official channels. We certainly can’t defend him this time, he should have seen the World Rugby action coming and he was asking for it.

There wouldn’t be any need though for any discourse about referees or 50/50 calls if the Boks converted their periods of dominance in games into points, and it was refreshing to hear Kwagga Smith talk about the Bok quest to evolve to the point where they remove that doubt by properly putting teams away.

The last time the Boks played Italy they won 49-3 at the 2019 World Cup. We shouldn’t expect a similar score, for Italy have grown immeasurably since then, and this isn’t exactly the first choice Bok team as it was that night in Shizouka. But regardless of how good Italy might be and how confident they might be, this is an opportunity for the Boks to make the emphatic statement that is needed in order to make, as Erasmus would himself put it, “rugby the main thing”.

Expect Italy to be competitive initially but the Boks to wear them down and win by more than a score. Perhaps they will be galvanised by Erasmus’ banning. Perhaps that was the whole point of it from Erasmus' viewpoint, for he knows the feeling of "everyone is against us" works for South Africans. Who knows. What is certain is that this is a game they have to win, no ‘ifs’ and no ‘buts’.

TEAMS

Italy: Ange Capuozzo, Pierre Bruno, Juan Ignacio Brex, Luca Morisi, Montanna Ioane, Tommaso Allan, Stephen Varney, Lorenzo Cannone, Michele Lamaro (captain), Sebastian Negri, Federico Ruzza, Niccolò Cannone, Pietro Ceccarelli, Giacomo Nicotera, Danilo Fischetti Replacements:Gianmarco Lucchesi, Ivan Nemer, Simone Ferrari, David Sisi, Manuel Zuliani, Alessandro Garbisi, Edoardo Padovani, Tommaso Menoncello.

South Africa: Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Damian Willemse, Faf de Klerk, Jasper Wiese, Franco Mostert, Siya Kolisi (captain), Marvin Orie, Salmaan Moerat, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Eben Etzebeth, Kwagga Smith, Evan Roos, Cobus Reinach, Manie Libbok.

Referee: Matthew Carley (England)

Kick-off: 15.00

Prediction: South Africa to win by 12