The new Boks, ready to rumble

The Springboks will kick-off their end of year tour against Scotland next week hoping to emulate the Class of ’13.

Under the stewardship of Heyneke Meyer it was the last Springbok team to go unbeaten on an end of year odyssey north of the equator.

Tourists Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Willie le Roux are the only survivors from that tour, while Frans Malherbe would have had his name on that list had he not been forced out of this tour with an ankle injury.

The 2024 vintage will kick-off their tour at Edinburgh next Sunday and it is a match-up and venue that might well unleash a bout of nostalgia in Le Roux who delivered a virtuoso performance at a damp and cold Murrayfield 11 years ago.

The Boks at times played Champagne rugby in trying conditions as they racked up a 28-0 win and it is a result that may embolden the team Rassie Erasmus has assembled for the 2024 adventure.

At the end of the Rugby Championship, Erasmus intimated his team may have to yield to the conditions than their newly developed instincts on the end of year tour.

The Boks have perhaps reinvented themselves from purveyors of percentages and refuge seekers in tight, crowded spaces, to a team that has added dash and dare to their time-honoured physicality and uncompromising defence.

The penny dropped as far back as the 2019 Rugby World Cup that they need to explore a broader path to success.

For them it wasn’t so much about the capture of hearts and minds, but the need to stay ahead of the pack.

Though that process was hamstrung by the pandemic in 2020 and the need for pragmatism in the must-win series against the British & Irish Lions the following year, they have since gone on the offensive.

They have spread their attacking wings with alacrity. The Boks averaged 32.4 points per match in the 10 Tests leading up to last year’s RWC. In the 10 Tests preceding that they averaged 26.4.

In the 10 Tests they’ve played this year they’ve upped the stakes and scored at a rate of 34.4 points per game.

Changes in their coaching staff have accelerated that process with Jacques Nienaber departing the scene.

This year they have found different ways to unlock defences.

“We have evolved. We have adapted. It is good to have variety. It puts us in a different space to challenge the opposition,” said flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse.

With Brown part of the mix the Boks, now more than ever, are aware of space and how to exploit it most effectively. That sometimes means playing with width in early phase play.

Judging from assistant coach Mzwandile Stick’s comments earlier in the week, the Boks don’t anticipate the conditions being a handbrake.

“I don’t think it (the conditions) will be difficult, especially if one considers that the majority of the players have played in the URC here in the UK,” said Stick.

“That said, the nice thing is that it was a little wet at our first training session, and the chances are good that we might have one or two wet games in the series, so fortunately the players will be well conditioned to handle that.”