The Springboks’ coaching leadership will be loving the ease at which so many are writing off South Africa’s World Cup title chances. It is the script the players will also enjoy because the Boks are at their best when labelled pretenders and not contenders.
In my experience of South African players and coaches, they love to be the underdogs because they can only triumph.
If they lose, the response is that they were never expected to win, and if they win the response is more a retort of “and you never gave us a chance”.
When there is massive expectation on them to deliver they often stumble. The most recent example was last year’s home defeat against the All Blacks in front of 62,000 supporters at the famed Bok fortress globally known as Ellis Park.
The All Blacks were battered, bruised and ready to be buried after losing a first ever home series to Ireland and then getting pulverised by the Boks in Nelspruit.
Instead, they buried the Boks with a spectacular start and fantastic last five-minute finish.
Later in the year, there were narrow Bok defeats to Ireland in Dublin (19-16) and an equally close call against France (in Marseilles). Ireland and France, for the past two seasons, have been the form international teams and are ranked one and two respectively. Yet neither has ever won a World Cup and Ireland has never made it past the quarterfinals.
Some suggest that history counts for nothing, but I believe history shouldn’t be that easily dismissed.
German philosopher Georg Hegel famously said: “The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”
All Blacks icon Richie McCaw, who led his team to successive World Cup titles in 2011 and 2015, hardly gave the Boks a mention in an interview in which he singled out Ireland and France as New Zealand’s biggest threat to a fourth World Cup title.
Hegel’s words can be interpreted in various ways, but when it comes to Rugby World Cups the narrative pre-tournament invariably is predictable in that France and Ireland are always written up and the Springboks are written off.
Eish, when will the anti-Bok brigade learn from World Cup history?
All Blacks icon Richie McCaw, who led his team to successive World Cup titles in 2011 and 2015, hardly gave the Boks a mention in an interview in which he singled out Ireland and France as New Zealand’s biggest threat to a fourth World Cup title.
Other media commentators, ex-players and social media influencers have been as dismissive of the Boks’ prospects.
Yet here is the thing, if the Boks lack the year-to-year winning consistency of the All Blacks, they certainly don’t lack success at World Cups. They are statistically the greatest World Cup team because their three titles have come in seven tournaments, while New Zealand’s three titles have come in nine tournaments.
The Boks’ mentality and, especially, the mentality of the current group of players and coaches is that they are a World Cup team. They love play-off matches. They lift for the biggest occasions and except for 2003 in Australia, they’ve either won it or come bloody close to winning the title.
The three title wins aside, Nick Mallett’s 1999 squad lost to the Wallabies in extra time in one of the greatest tryless semifinals. I was privileged to be at Twickenham on that Saturday. The Boks would win the play-off for third place against the All Blacks a few days later.
Heyneke Meyer’s 2015 Boks also lost in a semifinal at Twickenham to the greatest team in All Blacks history — and the final score was 20-18. They would beat Argentina in the third-place play-off.
The Boks 2011 quarterfinal defeat to Australia in Wellington, New Zealand, was also by just two points, and amid the most controversial match officiating.
Three golds and two bronze medals in seven attempts is a statement that historically the Boks deliver at World Cups and no golds, no silver and no bronze is a statement that Ireland don’t.
Equally France, who have played in three finals and lost all three.
For me, there is something to learn from Rugby’s World Cup history — and that is not to bet against the Boks.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.