Boks have changed perceptions and confounded expectations

So much for the French fairytale, so much for northern hemisphere domination of the semifinal stages of the World Cup. Instead, the final fortnight of the competition is the Rugby Championship, just with England in place of Australia.

Goodbye too to the old perceptions of the Springboks. If there are people who still see them as grinders, a team that relies above all on physicality, then they are either blind or just lack the ability to see change when it happens.

The Bok team and the Bok coaches are exactly what those people who stick rigidly to those perceptions are not - they are adaptable.

They did it during a tumultuous and spell-binding semifinal against France last night at Stade de France, with northern hemisphere critics quite predictably blaming New Zealand referee Ben O’Keefe - towards the end he made a few odd calls against the Boks - and failing to spot and the tactical accuracy and fluidity of the 29-28 victors. 

France was immense in the first half. There were warning lights flickering all over South Africa when the favourites got the capacity stadium roaring with the kind of forward drive you normally expect from the Boks.

With the first French try coming all too easily, there was a danger the Boks wouldn’t just lose, but lose convincingly.

But Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber had a plan and the non-appearance of the usual superiority in the physicality stakes, with the boot seeming to be on the other foot for once, didn’t matter.

Their hunch that the French might struggle with the ball kicked onto them was proved correct. It led to the first Bok try and the second to Damian de Allende.

The Bok selection, with Cobus Reinach and Manie Libbok starting, was geared towards devastating transition and making the most of the scraps that came their way in a first half played at a furious tempo and which France dominated in terms of possession and territory.

The three tries the Boks scored may have looked soft to French eyes and to neutrals and they were against the run of play.

But they came about because the South Africans were geared for the counterattack, when they had the ball they moved it through the hands quickly and made quick decisions that had the French floundering.

It was those first half tries that kept the Boks in the game, with just three points separating the teams at the break when it could have been 15.

Kurt-Lee Arendse with the pace#RWC2023 | #FRAvRSA pic.twitter.com/0IyAJDMAZr
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 15, 2023

Cheslin Kolbe is just rapid ⚡️#RWC2023 | #FRAvRSA pic.twitter.com/mMIy85MyOC
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 15, 2023

SUPERBLY TIMED SUBSTITUTIONS

The Bok substitutions were superbly timed. It did look like an odd decision to substitute Libbok with Pollard so early in the second half, and ditto Faf de Klerk with Reinach, and Pollard did make a mess of his defensive role.

The Bok scrambling was up to the challenge, so Pollard got away with it though and then kicked a magnificent long range clutch penalty that ultimately made all the difference to the result.

Handre Pollard take a bow 🔥#RWC2023 | #FRAvRSA pic.twitter.com/WdQtFLjTKR
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 15, 2023

So probably did the experience and steadiness that the winners had through those substitutions in the second half.

The big boosts though were the changes at loose forward and, later in the piece, in the front row.

Ox Nche and Vincent Koch brought scrum dominance with them when they came on and were clearly better than the French replacements.

Deon Fourie, initially on as a flank and not a hooker, was joined by Kwagga Smith in bringing energy at the breakdown and much like that was an area where the Boks lost their big Pool game against Ireland, this time it was where they turned the tide in their favour.

FRANCE LOOKED LIKE THEY RAN OUT OF PUFF

The way the Boks played the game it appeared that the coaches were expecting France to tire, and they did.

Although the French did have one final fling at it off the last move of the game, it always looked like it was the Boks who had the superior fitness and were systematically taking control of a game that for much of the first hour they looked likely to lose.

A key period for the Boks was the third quarter, where although they played the first 10 minutes of that period without the yellow carded Eben Etzebeth, they somehow managed to concede just three points.

It wasn’t the Boks’ best night defensively, at least not in the first half, for if you want to call the Bok tries soft, then at least two of the French tries were soft too.

The Boks did appear to grind the French down in that second half, but this wasn’t a game that was won on testosterone, but on innovation and tactical acumen.

An example was Etzebeth’s try, the only one in the second half and the one that effectively won the game. Many would have thought the Boks were daft when they opted to set up an old-fashioned tap penalty when they had an attacking penalty.

They didn’t execute it conventionally though, with some of the Bok forwards setting off as decoy runners which brought the space RG Snyman needed to thunder the ball forward and spark the momentum that led to his lock partner forcing his way over. Etzebeth epitomised the Bok spirit - he just refused to let the French players in his way impede his resolve to get the ball over the line.

Unbelievable strength from Eben Etzebeth 💪#RWC2023 | #FRAvRSA pic.twitter.com/3bpT3NCx30
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 15, 2023

GOOD THAT EBEN’S CARD NEVER HAD THE ULTIMATE SAY

Etzebeth was immense and can’t be blamed for the yellow card either. Yes, maybe it was the correct call from the match officials according to the letter of the law, but there was nothing intentional or malicious about it and was effectively yet another of those cards that came about by accident.

Thank goodness for the Boks, and for rugby’s standing as a sport, something that was certainly advanced by the two semifinals that featured top four teams, that the card didn’t impact on the result.

Etzebeth though wasn’t alone, and Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Frans Malherbe all put in huge performances, though it is almost unfair to mention them by name as the entire 23 did their jobs.

And that was effectively what saw the Boks home - their commitment, organisation, and adherence to the plan.

It is a very different plan, the whole Bok approach to the tournament itself and in microcosm form during a match itself is so fluid and changeable seemingly on the hoof, to what got them over the line in Japan four years ago.

This was a game in some ways like the one that really announced this group as contenders five years ago, the one in Wellington against the All Blacks when they scored six tries while having so little possession.

Then, as now, it was a superbly worked plan. In most of the stats that should matter the Boks came second, but they found a way to win against a team playing at home in front of a loud and fiercely partisan crowd.

That’s what makes champion teams, and the Boks are a champion team and are still reigning champions.

England might be more difficult semifinal opponents than many expect but the smart money should be on them getting through to the final and carrying their status into the last game of the tournament.

Regardless of what happens from here, they’ve made a great fist of their title defence. And the two teams favoured by northern critics are out of the tournament.