The Springboks have started their defence of the Rugby Championship, and for the first time they had no Super Rugby exposure as building block for the tournament.
Super Rugby as a fully-fledged international competition convulsed for the final time last year, when Covid-19 and all its debilitating restrictions expedited its demise.
In its pomp, the competition did prove the bedrock of SA, New Zealand and Australia's lofty status in the game. The quality of opposition, different playing conditions and punishing travel schedules helped separate the original Sanzar alliance from the rest of the rugby world’s would-be trendsetters.
Since 1996 when the game turned pro with the advent of Super Rugby, only England, in 2003, have won the RWC outside the original Sanzar alliance and much of that is due to the superior athletes the competition helped forge.
It is against that backdrop that questions are now being asked whether the Springboks can mitigate their lack of exposure against New Zealand and Australia’s finest.
The Springboks won the Rugby Championship in 2019 and one can reasonably argue it had little to do with foundations laid in Super Rugby that year.
Increasingly over the last decade of its existence Super Rugby was denuded of SA’s top talent as players migrated to the northern hemisphere.
In fact, it is a point Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber was keen to stress this week when he addressed the media from the team’s quarantine base in Queensland as they prepare for the remainder of their matches in the Rugby Championship.
Nienaber sagely pointed out that perennial champions the Crusaders and Argentina’s Jaguares contested the 2019 Super Rugby final, and that SA’s best performing team were the Bulls who fell well short in the quarterfinal.
The reasons for the Boks’ competitiveness are multilayered.
Increasingly over the last decade of its existence Super Rugby was denuded of SA’s top talent as players migrated to the northern hemisphere.
When Rassie Erasmus took over as Springbok coach in 2018, he brokered a deal with the higher ups at SA Rugby that gave him licence to select players who are based abroad. He had unfettered access which meant the strength of Springbok rugby could no longer be measured by our franchises’ performance in Super Rugby.
To be fair, Erasmus and co still had to build a team. Through transparency, consistency and continuity in selection, they were able to forge a competitive unit that didn’t just win the 2019 Rugby Championship, but went on to scale the game’s highest peak at the RWC later that year.
Clarity of thought and fastidious execution of their blueprint have stood the Springboks in good stead over the last few years. The single blemish in their last 12 internationals came in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions.
Thanks to Erasmus and co, as a collective, the Boks are greater than the sum of their parts. They are clearly a group of individuals who operate on a higher playing plane when they are in camp and seem impervious to outside influence.
The fact that their players did not get to measure themselves against New Zealand and Australia’s best in regional competition in the first half of the year will mean little in the Rugby Championship.
The Springboks, lest we forget, had precious little game time before they vanquished the British and Irish Lions in their three-Test series.
It would appear they only need each other’s company.
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