The Springboks are out in front on the southern hemisphere section of the inaugural Nations Championship log but that is in an important aspect of the buildup to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia that Rassie Erasmus’ team are way ahead of the rest of the teams.
The Bok coach said after the 42-28 win over Scotland that was achieved with a much changed team that included several second and third choice players that he feels South Africans are starting to understand his method. He was in agreement with the line that while his countrymen would not have been happy to see the Boks lose against Scotland, they would have seen the bigger picture.
And that bigger picture is not just the increase of depth and the building of the international experience and capacity of new players, but also the better player management that comes out his team rotations. He made 10 changes to his starting team for a match against a Scotland team that is ranked fifth in the world, has comprehensively beaten England, France and Argentina in recent times, and yet they won by 14 points.
More than that, they achieved that win with a configuration that was much reshuffled in a second half where the Boks were coming under serious threat but where Erasmus stuck to his experimental approach. He could easily have brought Quan Horn on in his regular position, but wanted to see what he could do at flyhalf and Handre Pollard at centre.
France, because they didn’t include players who had participated in the Top 14 final in their opening Championship match against New Zealand, are the other top team to have rotated. They did lose their opening game against the All Blacks, but after the rousing second half performance against Australia in Brisbane their coach Fabien Galthie should feel content.
BIG WIN BUT ENGLAND SHOULDN’T FEEL CONTENT
England shouldn’t feel content as they head now to Argentina for a tough final game of this phase of the Championship against Los Pumas. They were comprehensively beaten in Johannesburg by a Bok team that featured late changes and didn’t completely hit its straps. They won convincingly against Fiji, but Fiji were playing their home game in Liverpool, which is a real blight on the competition to be honest, and played like they were uninterested.
Where England should be concerned and badly lag the Boks is in player usage. Because he is under intense pressure, their coach Steve Borthwick lacked the intestinal fortitude of his Bok counterpart Erasmus in his selection for a game where he should really have been looking to expand his depth.
He went in with pretty much the same team that lost to the Boks, with a positional switch for Tommy Freeman meaning there were really only two newcomers to the starting team in the game played at the Everton football team’s home ground, Hill Dickinson Stadium. While the Boks played 25 different starters across their two tests, England played 17. While Erasmus has used 39 different players in his two match day squads, Borthwick has used 26.
AS A NEWCOMER RENNIE CAN’T APE RASSIE
The All Blacks are better off than England when it comes to player renewal and experimentation, but they too are way behind the Boks - possibly understandable given that Dave Rennie has only just taken over as coach and the players need to get used to a new system. They’ve used 31 players in all across the two games, eight less than the Boks, and have had 19 starters, six less than the Boks.
That is a considerable difference though, and the Boks, in beating a nation that always thinks it should be the best and is usually in the mix at the World Cup even though they’ve won it only once and a Scotland side that is definitely on the rise while in experimentation mode have made a significant stride towards defending their World Cup title in Australia.
Right now France look like their most likely challengers, both for the RWC in 15 months time and for the Nations Championship. Ireland lead the way on the northern hemisphere log with two bonus point wins but haven’t looked overly convincing in either of their games, while France started to properly hit the straps after the Wallabies failed to build on an impressive first half.
Second round Nations Championship results
New Zealand 47 Italy 17
Japan 20 Ireland 36 (Japan’s home game but played at neutral venue)
Australia 26 France 42
South Africa 42 Scotland 28
England 73 Fiji 8
Argentina 35 Wales 21