Hearing a Springbok talking about making running rugby and exploiting an opponent out wide would make some people fall over in surprise, but then coach Jacques Nienaber has always said his team’s playing style is dictated by the opponent.
Nienaber made it clear with what he said in the team announcement press conference on Tuesday that he sees the French as a very different challenge to most of what his team has encountered in the four years since he and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus took over in 2018. In fact, you could go further, he thinks the French are unique, for that is the word he used.
And he also made no secret of the fact that it is the French kicking game that the Boks will have to be most attentive to on Saturday night in Marseille, with there being something between 70 to 80 kicks in last week’s narrow France win over Australia in Paris.
That close game at Stade de France deserves some focus - the Wallabies did appear to expose the French out wide on a few occasions. And although no player ever gives away his team’s strategy, wing Kurt-Lee Arendse, who is part of a back three clearly selected to both blunt and capitalise on the French kicking game, said in an online press conference from Marseille that the Boks will be looking to exploit opportunities out wide.
“We know that they don’t want to tire their heavy forwards,” he said. “So, we will try to look for the running option and look to exploit them on the outside.”
Note he mentions running the ball, not the kick and chase tactic that is the staple of the Boks. Although that will obviously feature too, for it does depend on where the space and how that space can best be exploited. In a nutshell, the Boks are going into this game with a lot of flexibility when it comes to their approach and this is definitely a game where the Boks, with direction from the coaching dug-out, will be thinking on the hoof.
READY TO HANDLE ANY EVENTUALITY
The good news for the Boks is that the two ace French halfbacks Antoine du Pont and Emile Ntamack don’t appear to be in their very best form at present, but everyone knows their ability. It is one of the reasons the French are currently on a hot 11 game winning streak.
“We will handle whatever they throw at us. And with the ball in hand, we also have a good kicking game plan that has served us well this year,” stressed Arendse.
“Things might change on the day. We must be up for whatever France decides to bring. We have to be ready to adapt and handle it. We have been preparing well for France. We know they are going to kick a lot. We have been focusing on receiving plenty of kicks.”
What might have been left unsaid there were the words “and run them back”, which is what makes this game particularly interesting. It’s certainly going to bring extra focus on Arendse, perhaps more than he has had on him in the test matches he has played so far in this breakthrough season for him.
“Willie and Cheslin, with their experience, they have been helping me so much. We are prepared so we must just take it to France,” he said.
That fighting talk and statement of intent is what makes the Marseille game such an appetising contest, with the French in many ways the most similar team to the Boks, and one that also places a high premium on physicality. To the point that the South Africans are unlikely to make the mistake they maybe did against Ireland by holding onto the ball one pass too long in a quest to run over and obliterate their opponent.
“France are on a hot streak, they have won 11 games and they have the heaviest forward pack in world rugby, so we can’t rely on brute strength because they will match us,” said 2019 World Rugby Player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit.
“So we have a few different plans that will hopefully work for us. We need to surprise them with a few things.”
What Du Toit does know for certain is that the pack will have to be a lot better than it was in Dublin last week, where they did get the better of the encounter against opponents who in some phases were possibly helped by the referee’s interpretations but allowed the Irish to hang on and blunt some of their renowned strengths.
“We were disappointed with how the pack went in Dublin, we did not do what we said we were going to do,” said the flanker. “But we have a good vibe for this weekend and are excited about doing things a little differently. We feel we have a big performance in us this week, it has to be a big one if we hope to stop their streak.”
There’s been a lot of sameness about the Boks for a long time and it has been a while since a proper preview hasn’t focused at least in part on the importance of the Bok scrum and maul. Those phases will remain important, but there does appear something new under the sun, which is why this game played under the Mediterranean night sky could just be a stand-out from the sameness the international game has tended to dish up in recent times.