South African fans love it when their team wins big and scores an avalanche of tries in the process but the debate in the SuperSport studio after the 76-0 win over Romania introduced the theme for the coming week.
With the potential banana peel of the opening match against Scotland having been dealt with efficiently enough, the big test or moment of truth, to mix old sports writing cliches, was always going to be Saturday’s probable Pool B decider against Ireland in Paris. The clash between the world’s top ranked teams, with the Springboks inhabiting second spot and Ireland still top, was always going to be one of the games of the initial phase of this World Cup, and Nick Mallett was right when he suggested that it is a potential final.
He was also right though to ask a few questions about the South African approach as they head to Paris. The impact of the loss of Malcolm Marx to the Bok defence of the title they won in Japan in 2019 cannot be underplayed and it cannot be sugar-coated. Not only have the Boks lost one of their key ball carriers and also arguably their talisman, they’ve also been left with only one specialist hooker.
While it is true that Deon Fourie played more than 150 games in the position in the first half of his career, it is a long time since he last played there in a really big game. Stormers coach John Dobson once said that he’d only use Fourie as a hooker in a dire emergency, and Fourie himself, back in the first Vodacom United Rugby Championship season, said he’d play there if needed but would prefer not to have to do so.
FOURIE DOES HAVE WARRIOR SPIRIT
Of course, as both Mallett’s studio guests, John Smit and Victor Matfield contended, Fourie is embodied with the warrior spirit so valued by Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, who are the Boks brains-trust at this tournament in their roles as director of rugby and Bok coach respectively. He is the kind of player who will play fullback if the team need demands it, and he would do it bravely and with massive commitment.
But what will happen if Bongi Mbonambi is injured early in a key knock-out game, as he was in the 2019 World Cup final? We won’t know until it happens, but may will partly get that answer on Saturday against Ireland, as they are a good contesting team at the lineout, and will surely put pressure on Fourie’s throwing should he come on.
Marco van Staden is also a warrior and was tried out at hooker late in the game against Romania but he is even less a specialist hooker than Fourie is. Whichever way you look at it, going into the clutch games without specialist backup for Mbonambi is high risk, and there wasn’t enough pressure in the Romania game to ease concerns.
FLYHALF REPLACING A HOOKER INTRODUCES MORE COMPLEXITY
That old saying of the proof of the pudding being in the eating comes to mind when thinking of a complex issue that was made even more complex when it was confirmed that Marx is to be replaced in the squad not by a hooker, but by a flyhalf. The 2019 World Cup winning pivot Handre Pollard was confirmed as the replacement after the Bordeaux rout of Romania.
🚨 Breaking: South Africa has confirmed that Handrè Pollard will join the squad in Paris 🏆#RWC2023 | #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/zdzrhxJoD4
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) September 17, 2023
Of course with the goalkicking inconsistency continuing, that is a call that will be welcomed by many. But it does fly in the face of what Nienaber said at the Bok exit press conference last month: he said then he won’t bring in a back for a tight forward. That there has been an about face might be an indication that Fourie or Van Staden have impressed Nienaber enough in training to be backed ahead of, for instance, Joseph Dweba, who has some of the characteristics of Marx and would be a more like for like replacement.
FLYHALF/BACKLINE POSER
Pollard’s arrival in France will pose another set of questions. Manie Libbok has been wayward with his place-kicking, but he has grown immeasurably as an international flyhalf and brings a different dynamic to the Bok attacking game with his ambidextrousness of both hand and foot.
Pollard was training at inside centre during the training camp in Pretoria before departure so perhaps Damian de Allende might find his place under as much pressure as Libbok, although the smart money should perhaps be on Pollard coming on in the midfield only later in a game to fulfil the role Morne Steyn played in the series against the British and Irish Lions. In other words to slot the pressure kicks of the type he kicked to win the 2019 semifinal against Wales.
Damian Willemse did well at flyhalf in Libbok’s absence against Romania, although the same caveat rides there as it does for the hooker conundrum - there wasn’t the pressure that can be anticipated in a play-off game or for that matter in Saturday’s titanic showdown at the Stade de France.
For the rest the Romania game will have been useful for the purpose of building confidence, with the performance of some individuals confirming the depth there is in the squad. There will be much tougher opponents who could expose this statement should he find himself playing there, but Grant Williams did look the part at wing and scored a brace of tries.
Pollard won’t be playing against Ireland and will be introduced later in the tournament so the man that South Africans will be holding thumbs over ahead of Tuesday’s team announcement is Eben Etzebeth. The lock enforcer watched from the stands in Bordeaux but with Marx absent he will need to be on the field in Paris if the Boks are to start that game confident of victory.