MARK KEOHANE | Boks brains trust must realise consistency is king

Manie Libbok’s game time is the greatest positive from the season’s first four Tests, which included a disappointing Rugby Championship.

The Boks were poor in edging Argentina by a point in Johannesburg and 13 changes have been made for a second crack at the Pumas in two weeks. 

It will be a tough ask and for the first time in two seasons I am not backing the Boks to win the Test.

Buenos Aires is one of my favourite cities to visit and I love the passion of the Argentine people. I’ve seen stronger Bok teams struggle in Argentina and the composition of the match 23 playing on Saturday has a “bits and pieces” look.

It looks like an afterthought to the Rugby Championship and a Test in which players will get international playing minutes. 

I have never been comfortable with how easily Springbok coaches dismissed winning Test matches in a World Cup year, in the guise of any defeat being part of a World Cup-winning master plan.

I felt 2019 was different when the Bok coaching leadership spoke of their desire to win the Rugby Championship, despite playing just one of the three matches at home.

The Boks, to win the Championship, had to get positive results in all three Tests and they managed a win at home against Australia, a 16-all draw against the All Blacks in Wellington, New Zealand and a decisive Championship Title win against the Pumas in Argentina.

There was freshness about the Boks pre the 2019 World Cup, there was a winning habit and there was momentum in the lead-up into the tournament. There was also the yardstick Test against the All Blacks in their tournament opener, but thereafter there was a surge of form and a coming together of a plan built on this winning habit.

There will always be hope for the Boks in a World Cup. Three title wins in seven attempts is unrivalled among their competitors.

The primary group of players is four years older and four years more experienced. But they are also six years into an international cycle as a playing group and not much has changed with the core starting options, which can make for complacency, mental fatigue and the label that they are an ageing team in how long they have been together, and not because of respective playing ages.

The All Blacks, throughout their successful 2023 Rugby Championship campaign, built the sort of winning habit, confidence and momentum I saw with the Boks four years ago. All Blacks coach Ian Foster made his intent public when he said they had ambitions to win the Rugby Championship, retain the Bledisloe Cup and win the World Cup. 

What was coming out of Australia, by way of Eddie Jones, was they would love to win all three, but only the World Cup would be remembered in a World Cup year. It mirrored a pro-World Cup focus from South Africa.

One of South Africa or Australia may go onto win the World Cup and boast the defeats were all part of the plan. I am not sure any defeat is part of a plan because no-one plays to lose in professional sport.

At least they shouldn’t.

I have had such belief in this group of Bok players and their coaching staff, but in the past year they have not produced consistent performances to match this belief. It has dipped and I only hope that in the three matches before the World Cup we see a performance which matches that of a World Cup title-winning contender and matches the idea that international rugby is called a Test match because it pits the best against the best.

I am no disciple of the phrase “dead rubber” or “meaningless Test”. If it does not matter, then don’t sell the occasion to the public as a Test match. Sell it as a glorified practice session leading into the World Cup.

Don’t afford matches in the World Cup year, pre the actual World Cup, official Test status. Play as a SA XV or a NZL XV ...

I am not much the wiser after the Boks’ four Test matches this season, but I am more disillusioned that they, as a side, have been more stagnant than staggeringly good.

There will always be hope for the Boks in a World Cup. Three title wins in seven attempts is unrivalled among their competitors. The All Blacks have three from nine attempts. Australia have two and England break the southern hemisphere monopoly on the title with their 2003 win in Australia.

Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, as a coaching combination, have won a World Cup, a Rugby Championship title, a British and Irish Lions series, and they’ve won at Twickenham and in Wellington, New Zealand.

But in between the highs there have been enough lows to turn conviction of their ability into a state of confusion that they are now a squad capable of one big match result, but not necessarily three in succession which is what is needed in the World Cup play-offs.

I don’t enjoy the Boks getting beaten and while they have not yet failed in their World Cup defence, they have certainly failed to deliver the winning consistency Erasmus spoke of immediately after the 2019 final win against England.

He said it was this consistency in winning in between World Cups which would define the greatness of the team.