Sometimes a player arrives on the Test scene and he immediately just offers another dimension. Kurt-Lee Arendse — schooled in the Western Cape but given a professional lifeline by Jake White’s Bulls — is that kind of player.
Arendse scored in the second minute for the Springboks win against Italy in Genoa. He showed every quality of a great finisher. He had so much work to do but he did it as if he had a five-metre run-in.
Instead, he had to gather on the touchline, 30m out, and he beat two defenders to set the tone of a Test match the world champion Springboks were never going to lose.
Italy, at home and on a high after their historic win against the Wallabies a week ago, were passionate and full of vigour.
But they were always going to lack the class and depth in their match-day 23 to compete with the super bench of finishers the Boks introduced in the second half.
Passion alone can take a limited team only so far, and for the Italians it kept them in the contest for 30 minutes.
Italy led 13-8 against the flow after 20 minutes but the score line was never a reflection of the state of play. The Springboks, stung by successive defeats to Ireland and France, were never going to underestimate the Italians, despite only ever losing to the hosts once in their history.
That Italian win was in 2016 and despite a tumultuous week of build-up in which the national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was again banned from the stadium on match days for his public criticism of match officials, the class of the 2019 World Cup winners was always going to triumph.
The Boks, on a good day, are 30 points better than Italy. On an indifferent day, they’d be 15 points too good, no matter where the match was being played. Yesterday, it was a combination of both.
In Genoa, it took the Boks 30 minutes to subdue the Italian’s adrenaline and a difficult wind. Thereafter, rugby order was restored, and it was a cruise for the Boks.
It is the way it should be when the Boks play Italy — and that is a compliment to the strength of SA rugby more than it is an insult to the Italians.
Passion alone can take a limited team only so far, and for the Italians it kept them in the contest for 30 minutes
There were many good individual Bok performances, with Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe and Arendse particularly impressive as a back-three unit. In this trio, one has players who all started their careers at fullback and offer so much more than a specialist finisher on the wing.
For some, it may seem madness to suggest that when the mentioned back three trio are available, there isn’t a place in the starting line-up for 2019 World Cup-winning star Makazole Mapimpi.
But in the context of the potency and balance of the back three, a rejuvenated Le Roux, an incomparable Kolbe and Arendse, give the Boks so much more.
Mapimpi is one of the great try-scoring finishers in Test rugby and he averages nearly a try a Test, but such has been the emergence of Arendse in the past year that he has leapfrogged Mapimpi in my book when it comes to the national pecking order.
Mapimpi will probably play against England at Twickenham next Saturday because of Kolbe’s French club commitments and, if not for that, because of injury. He left the field with a hamstring problem after a spectacular solo try.
Arendse will most definitely play. His impact reminds me of the influence of Nehe Rihara Milner-Skudder for the 2015 World Cup winners New Zealand.
Milner-Skudder added a dimension to the All Blacks back play and Arendse is doing the same thing for the Springboks, as a try-scorer, a creator, a defender and an attacking menace.
• Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane
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