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This time there is no disputing Boks are the best

rugby04 November 2019 06:03| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Pieter-Steph du Toit © Getty Images

The coach of the year in Rassie Erasmus, the player of the year in Pieter-Steph du Toit and the team of the year - and no-one anywhere would quibble that the Springboks didn’t deserve all the accolades and confirmations that came their way at the World Rugby Awards ceremony.

This time last week there were many who thought England would be the team that would steal all the limelight once a memorable and unforgettable Rugby World Cup 2019 gets consigned to history.

But no, thanks to their emphatic 32-12 win in the final at Yokohama International Stadium, the Boks left no-one in any doubt who was the best team at this tournament. And even though they did lose one game, thus forcing them to make history by becoming the first team to recover from a pool defeat to win the grand prize, they were the best team.

Yes, they did lose to the All Blacks, but they dominated that game for long periods and it was really only some dubious refereeing and a two-try burst in the space of very few minutes that condemned them to their only defeat of the year. There was always enough there to suggest that the tables could be turned if the teams were to meet again in the decider.

CALAMITOUS NO-SHOW FOR ALL BLACKS

The All Blacks knew that too, and perhaps that set them on the path to their calamitous semifinal no-show against England. Their coach Steve Hansen had said during the week that the All Blacks’ main threat was the Boks. It was the line being peddled by the Kiwi media. It was the wrong thing to say and the wrong thing to think.

There were always going to be three teams that could win this World Cup. New Zealand and South Africa, and the other was England. The All Blacks were caught off guard and perhaps when Eddie Jones kept responding to the persistent questioning of the English media after the final defeat on what went wrong by saying “I don’t know mate, it happens”, he should have added, when he pointed out that teams are sometimes off their game, that it happened to England’s opponents the week before.

England were as good as they were against New Zealand because they were allowed to be. The All Black inability to adjust their game and respond to the pressure when they were hit by an early tidal wave was confounding. The Boks simply didn’t allow England to repeat what they did in the semifinal. They were never going to be bossed.

In the end, both England and the All Blacks were comprehensively outplayed at some point of the World Cup. So were the other pre-tournament pretenders. Well, if you go back to a year ago they were. Meaning Ireland.

THE HYPE AROUND ENGLAND WAS ACTUALLY FUNNY

The Boks, with that magnificent pack, never looked like being outplayed, and if there was something that was really humorous about the build-up to the final, it was the way England were written up. There was talk of how the Boks were going to fare against England’s “monster pack”. If there was a monster pack involved in the final, it was always going to be South Africa’s.

What was also off beam was the expectation that the Boks would just grind it out in the final and if they were to win it would be a poor advertisement for rugby. But the Boks employed the strategy that they did for the playoff games against Japan and Wales because it suited them to do so against those specific opponents.

Not that it didn’t suit Bok coach Erasmus for everyone to think that. England did look surprised in the final when the Boks injected more into their game than they anticipated. The Bok skill levels are a work in progress, and if you speak to Erasmus he will tell you that South Africans aren’t ready quite yet to play the type of game that New Zealand do.

PLENTY OF ATTACKING SKILL AT THE BACK

But the Bok backs, and Lukhanyo Am in particular, showed that there is individual attacking skill at the back that can trouble the best defences. In Handre Pollard the Boks have a world-class flyhalf, Faf de Klerk was on his game in the final, and Willie le Roux, as Erasmus anticipated he would be, was far more comfortable playing against players he knows so well from playing in the Premiership.

Then, of course, there is the pace of Makazole Mapimpi, and what an advertisement he is for the benefit of just being coached. When Erasmus first took charge Mapimpi was known as a great finisher but his all-round attributes were well below par. Another coach would quite possibly have thrown him away, but Erasmus didn’t. Instead, he did what all coaches should do - he coached him. Or delegated coaches in his group to coach him.

The end product is something to behold, and Mapimpi was a big part of the reason why the Boks won the battle in the air against England, with Cheslin Kolbe being the other. There were some raised eyebrows when Erasmus selected Kolbe out of the French league. He’s a diminutive player, at least in physical stature, and Sbu Nkosi is a strong, powerful winger in the Kiwi mould.

But again, Erasmus hit the bull's eye with that selection. Kolbe’s X-factor came close to digging the Boks out of the hole they found themselves in the first half against the All Blacks in Yokohama, and fittingly it finished off the World Cup for the Boks - and also finished off England.

UNCONVENTIONAL SELECTION AT HEART OF FORWARD DOMINANCE

The forward effort was helped by Erasmus’ unconventional selection policy. The six/two split was questioned, and it was always going to be risky. Fortunately though, a back was never injured early in any game, at least not badly enough to have to leave the field. So it worked, and it was a strong contributing factor to the dominant scrum that set up the victory in the final.

As Erasmus said, the South African tight five, having played no more than between 40 and 50 minutes each, were fresh. They were always fresh. Their opponents, who had played more like 60 to 70 minutes each week weren’t as fresh. So that was another masterstroke from the coach.

It was written in the English media last week by some that not one Bok player would make the England team if they were English. Well, after the final you’d wonder if the highly-rated England second-row duo would find place in the Bok matchday 23 - and the South Africans have four locks!

THE MATERIAL IS THERE TO REMAIN TOP

Significantly, all the Bok locks could be back for another World Cup. Francois Louw is retiring, Beast Mtawarira, if he doesn’t retire now, will do so before long. Otherwise, the basic outline of the pack should be available again in 2023, when the next edition of the global showpiece tournament is played in France.

The building blocks are in place after just 18 months under Erasmus’ coaching for the Boks to be a formidable unit by then. Well, of course, they already are a formidable unit. With respect to the previous South African World Cup winners, deserved though their triumphs were, there was room to argue after both 1995 and 2007 that perhaps, while they were rightful World Cup champions, it wasn’t clear whether they were the world’s No 1 team at that point.

New Zealand were the team of the tournament in 1995 and in 2007 the Boks were never really tested due to a bizarre sequence of results on the other side of the draw. The players who played in that era had beaten New Zealand before and were equipped to do so, but we’ll never know what would have happened had the two teams met.

With this current Bok team there is no quibbling, no speculation necessary. Yes, if they play New Zealand tomorrow either team could win it, but you fancy that the Boks have gone ahead now of their long-standing rivals.

MUSIC TO THE EARS

It was music to the ears to hear Erasmus speaking of how determined he is to avoid the slump that has followed previous World Cup triumphs. If he has his way, the planning meetings for the next challenge, which is the retention of the Rugby Championship trophy the Boks annexed a few months ago, and then the British and Irish Lions tour the following year, will start on Thursday.

But there is a ticker-tape parade planned, so that will likely have to be delayed. And Siya Kolisi’s men deserve to be feted and applauded, they deserve everything that comes their way. Erasmus is right to think he can’t rest on his laurels, but he can allow himself and his players just a bit of leeway.

For the mission has been accomplished, and who would have believed that all they have achieved would be possible when they took 57 points in consecutive games against the All Blacks in 2016 and 2017. It all feels a bit like a dream, that if you pinch yourself you will return to reality. It isn’t though - the Boks are World Cup champions and this time they are the undisputed No 1 team on the planet.

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