Ken Borland

South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus posted a classic put-down on social media before the series against the British and Irish Lions about a lion not concerning himself when a sheep offers an opinion. Despite the Springboks proving those naysayers wrong with their brilliant effort to win the series, the critics somehow remain.

The bitter losers up north have been complaining non-stop about the ‘boring’ style of play of the Springboks, forgetting that it was the Lions who set the tone for the series when they dominated the second half of the first Test through their kicking game and driving maul.  Australasian critics have deliberately ignored the massive intensity and physicality of the series by saying the rugby was boring; maybe for the neutral, but certainly not for the supporters of the two teams.

Erasmus himself has been roundly criticised, and charged with misconduct by WorldRugby, for his video expose’ of refereeing mistakes in the first Test. Again, it has been forgotten that Lions coach Warren Gatland started that war by disgracefully questioning the integrity of a South African TMO who had to fill in at late notice due to Covid travel restrictions. Gatland denies doing this, but how did multiple British journalists have the same story? There is no doubt it was a calculated strategy to put pressure on the TMO, and Erasmus responded in kind a week later.

Rugby at that level is often brutal and the mind-games and off-the-field tactics are not for the fainthearted either. It is just a game, but we are not talking about hugging fluffy bunnies here – the Lions brought a manic determination to win at all costs and the Springboks were also extremely fired up to prove themselves and also bring some happiness to a society that was fraying around more than just the edges.

It was all very reminiscent of the 2009 Lions series. The tourists brought the same streetfighting attitude and had the same backing from their embedded one-eyed media. It brought out the best in the South African management, although Rassie’s video was probably not his finest moment.

But what Erasmus achieved was the same as what 2009 Springbok coach Peter de Villiers ensured. Following a predictable outcry from the touring media about dirty play by the Springboks, De Villiers took all the pressure off the players by making himself the lightning rod for all the attention with his comments about putting on tutus and doing ballet.

The players loved Snor for that and it was one of the prime examples of what a good man-manager he was. Erasmus did the same ahead of the crucial second Test, allowing the Springboks to produce one of their greatest second-half displays.

From the high point of 2009, when the Springboks also won the Tri-Nations Championship, their fortunes began to drop off, culminating in their nightmare years of 2016 and 2017. And then Erasmus arrived to give the Springboks their meds … turns out there was nothing wrong with their bodies, it was all in their heads.

Following the triumphs of 2007 and 2009, the same old chorus of boring Springboks echoed around the rugby landscape and, unfortunately, we listened. The Springboks must play more like the All Blacks, was the consensus. And we believed the narrative, which was always meant to take the Springboks away from their strengths. No-one can copy the All Blacks, that is their own, brilliant style, forged in their rugby-DNA.

The All Blacks now loom large in the Rugby Championship and I am sure the Springboks, rapidly regaining their confidence and peak conditioning, are not going to be distracted by the many words being published which are somehow trying to belittle their remarkable achievements.

By many accounts, the All Blacks were fortunate to win their last meeting, in the opening game of the 2019 World Cup, and since then they have lost record-breaking coach Steve Hansen and great players such as Ryan Crotty, Sonny Bill Williams, Ben Smith and Kieran Read.

This is not the same imperious New Zealand team and, although they are trying to rediscover the same high-intensity, high-tempo game as before, they have been spluttering over the last couple of years. And the ferocious Springbok defence, set-piece excellence and strong kicking game is a rather large obstacle for them to overcome.

No wonder they want the Springboks to change the way they play.

There was bad news on Tuesday for those critics who are for some reason disappointed in the spectacle provided by the series between South Africa and the British and Irish Lions because Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber said their next opponents – Argentina – are a side that is very adept at closing down the game as well.

The magnitude of the occasion typically led to three arm-wrestles, beautifully intense and gripping in their own way, between the Springboks and the Lions, who both favoured fairly conservative game-plans. Nienaber warned that playing against Argentina is going to be far from a free-for-all with the shackles released.

“Argentina are a tough team to play against, they have the ability to disrupt your flow as a team, they are really good at that. They have good plans that can really upset you. They are tactically astute and smart, they have a phenomenal defence and a great kicking game. They can also attack and score from turnovers, they have very quick wings and can create some magic.

“They are physical, defensively well-organised and willing to put their heads in dark places. They are well-balanced across the board, quality players playing for each other. Since the Rugby World Cup they have played seven Tests, six of them against big countries like New Zealand, Wales and Australia, and their only loss was to the All Blacks. Their world ranking [7^th] does not reflect how good they are,” Nienaber said on Tuesday.

While those who are bitter over the Springboks’ success have decried the quality of rugby played in the Lions series, Nienaber, enjoying the sweet taste of victory, said rugby had been the winner.

“It was tight! We’re very grateful for the series victory, the tour is such a special thing, happening only once over 12 years, and it could have gone both ways. It was a grind, but it’s the second biggest event in rugby after the World Cup. It was a humdinger of a series, which is what you want. In my opinion, rugby was the winner and there was only three points separating the teams at the end.

“The beauty of rugby is that there are different styles of playing, it would be unbelievably boring if we all played the same way. That means there are different tactics, like we had to employ at the World Cup going from Japan to Wales to England as opponents in the knockouts. The style teams play is determined by the athletic attributes of their players, you create a game-plan to amplify those characteristics,” Nienaber pointed out.

Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said although his team are only 75-80% of where they need to be for the T20 World Cup, it is a positive that they are still winning series as they look to sort out their best squad for the showpiece event in the United Arab Emirates in October.

South Africa have now won back-to-back T20 series in the West Indies and Ireland and they used 18 different players in doing that.

“It’s a good sign for us a team that we have not played our best cricket but we have still managed to win. Winning becomes a habit and we can take a lot of confidence after being battered a bit by being on the losing side for a while. We must not downplay the magnitude of the number of steps we have taken.

“And we have a clearer understanding of the guys to take forward and their roles. We have 70-80% of our World Cup squad and we still have to go to Sri Lanka and see who can dominate in spin-friendly conditions. We’re definitely not the finished product, we’re playing at 75-80% and there are areas to iron out, especially in the batting,” Bavuma said.

Playing Sri Lanka on the subcontinent will be good preparation for the World Cup, with conditions expected to be similar. It is obviously going to be difficult at this late stage, in the South African off-season, for new players to be introduced to the Proteas squad, but coach Mark Boucher hinted that all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius could return.

The 32-year-old missed the home T20s against Pakistan due to injury and then tested positive for Covid before the West Indies tour, from which the Proteas flew directly to Ireland to quarantine.

“There are still one or two positions we need to look at before the World Cup. We wanted to give Janneman Malan a go in the top-order because he was in such good form in the ODIs, but it didn’t quite work out. We also have Dwaine Pretorius to come back. We haven’t really played an all-rounder as the sixth bowling option, but I think we will have that covered.

“We need to look at the conditions and what we need bowling-wise at the World Cup. George Linde bowled well, but unfortunately he was a bit short of runs. Bjorn Fortuin has not had a lot of cricket, so I was very happy with the way he performed. He’s a tough character, he wants the ball. We tried to mix up selection a bit to give guys opportunity,” Boucher said.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher praised Temba Bavuma as an exemplar of good leadership at the weekend, following the captain’s man-of-the-match performance in South Africa’s 49-run win in the final T20 against Ireland in Belfast that secured a 3-0 series sweep.

Bavuma set up the winning total of 189/2 with his polished 72 off 51 balls, and Boucher expressed his delight at his skipper being back in the runs. Bavuma’s first half-century for the Proteas in 10 innings ticks another box for South Africa as they prepare for the T20 World Cup in October/November.

“I was very happy for Temba to get some runs at the end of the tour because he’s been putting in the hard work, he’s a tough character and he takes it personally if he doesn’t score runs. Those runs have come at the perfect time now and he will definitely take that confidence forward to Sri Lanka. It was really just a matter of time before he made runs.

“It’s always nice when your captain can lead with confidence because he has runs under his belt and I have to say Temba has been leading very well on and off the field. It’s very nice now that he has also ticked the scoring runs box,” Boucher said.

While Bavuma said he was aware of his shortage of runs, his focus had very much been on driving the Proteas chariot and ensuring the team came first.

“I have been a bit lean on runs, but I just put aside my personal ambitions and tried to execute for the team. From a batting point of view, our approach was a bit different in this match and we really wanted to lay a foundation up front. We haven’t been good in the powerplay in the previous games, we’ve been too aggressive and lost too many wickets,” Bavuma said.