Confidence, belief and an acknowledgement of the now. This is why every South African rugby supporter should expect the best from the Springboks against Australia in a week’s time.
Forget the nonsense of arrogance or humility.
The Springboks are back-to-back World Cup champions, winners in 2019 and 2023. They are unbeaten in any series at home dating back decades. Australia are ranked sixth in the world.
If one can’t expect a Springboks win from the strongest Bok squad nurtured over the past eight years, then there is a serious insecurity in one’s mindset.
The Wallabies, in Australia, always command respect. Dave Rennie’s Australians bullied and embarrassed the bulk of these Springboks a few years ago, on the Queensland’s Gold Coast and at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
A year ago, the Boks returned the favour and won two-nil, on successive weekends, in Brisbane and Perth, making 10 changes to the starting XV in successive Saturdays.
Woeful Wallabies
The Wallabies were woeful in the opening hour of the first Test against the British & Irish Lions, and they were absent in the most important 30 minutes in the second half of the second Test.
The Lions, never among the best Lions in history, won the series before the third Test kicked off, even after trailing by 18 points in the second Test.
There is vulnerability with Erasmus in believing everything works by design, when a lot has worked by default, like Richie Mo’unga missing the conversion in the World Cup final and Jordie Barrett missing a penalty.
The third Test in Sydney was a dead rubber. Read into that what you want.
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, so different in character and personality from Eddie Jones, has improved the Wallabies — but he can only work with the cattle he has.
If you tell me this Wallabies team can beat the Springboks at Ellis Park in a week’s time, then the Boks don’t even need to get on a plane to Australia for the 2027 World Cup.
Rassie Erasmus and his co-pilot in those years, Jacques Nienaber, for all their acumen, have charmed the rugby gods. How else do you explain three one point wins in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final of the 2023 World Cup?
Master plan
Handre Pollard did not miss a kick at posts in those three matches, when the Boks had been kicking at 48% in the pool stages. Pollard was not in the original squad when Erasmus and Nienaber picked four scrumhalves as a master plan.
Only one of the four No 9s made it to the match 23 for the World Cup final, and the flyhalf who was left out of the original squad kicked four from four. So please, don’t tell me that was part of the master plan.
There is vulnerability with Erasmus in believing everything works by design, when a lot has worked by default, like Richie Mo’unga missing the conversion in the World Cup final and Jordie Barrett missing a penalty.
Even the famous 36-34 win in Wellington against the All Blacks in 2018 is by default because Beauden Barrett missed the match-equalising conversion, almost from in front.
The margins are so fine, as per the 2023 World Cup play-offs, so that is the humility that has to live with Rassie and the Boks.
I believe that humility is big in the current Bok set-up.
Potency of the Boks
Strongly saying the Boks beat the Wallabies is in no way disrespecting the Wallabies; but more complimenting the Boks on what they have achieved in the past years.
The Wallabies are confident, and they have just beaten the Lions, but they should not be within 15 points of the Boks next Saturday. Again, it talks to the potency of the Boks more than it does any inferiority of the Wallabies.
How can we all be so bullish that these Boks will win at Eden Park in Auckland for the first time since 1937, but you are on guard for the sixth-best team when playing at Ellis Park, at home?
Enjoy this cycle when these Boks are the favourites and expected to beat everyone and anyone in South Africa.
Enjoy this time in Springboks rugby because it is history making, but glance at history to know why no Bok team in the professional era has ever lost to the Wallabies, even when they were champions of the rugby world.
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