Gazelles Damian Willemse and Willie le Roux.
Editor-in-chief of News24 Sport
- The Boks may have lost five Tests in 2022 (disappointing by some measures), but they weren’t washed up either.
- The final games against Italy and England respectively showed welcome signs of a brave new world on their part.
- South Africa featured fresh and exciting faces like Kurt-Lee Arendse and then-teenage debutant Canan Moodie.
If the Springboks’ “little picture” (five blemishes in calendar year 2022) did little to flatter to deceive, the bigger one at least held on to its genuine potential for critical acclaim in the all-important 2023.
South Africa ended their year with a winning percentage of 61.5, which seems drab when you compare it to, say, France… Les Bleus put up a rare and perfect record of 10/10, which is a great mental device to wear to a year in which it will host the World Cup.
But there were some “softer” opponents there: the French mid-year series was a relatively undemanding two-test event in Japan, while the European heavyweights nearly clashed at home with the Wallabies before pulling off a impressive 30-29. result in November.
Most other nations had some pronounced ups and downs during 2022, prompting the widespread view that RWC 2023 will be extremely open.
The Boks still instinctively measure themselves against, say, the All Blacks… and they’ve won eight of their 13 identical, moderate events.
A more accurate (and favorable) measure of Jacques Nienaber’s charges, perhaps, would be to examine some of his setbacks: one came at home against Wales with a highly experimental Bok combination, while both year-end losses in games key players in Dublin and Marseille, respectively, could have gone the other way with slightly better fortunes.
In that sense, the results against Ireland (16-19) and France (26-30) respectively were open to interpretation as psychologically effective “wins” for RWC purposes…especially the French game, which the Boks played hampered by a red one. -carding for a remarkable 68 minutes.
There is also a case to be made, with the luxury of hindsight, that the Springboks got too “pretty” in selection for the fateful second home game with New Zealand in the Rugby Championship.
After scoring a record two-way (on SA soil) 26-10 win at Mbombela, the Boks looked to have the All Blacks dizzy on the ropes for the follow-up date at Ellis Park… but a controversial alteration to the position of the The hooker column, for one thing alone, contributed to a disappointing 35-23 slide and the demise, indeed, of a fledgling Bok shot at the title.
To be fair, the Bok Brains Trust accepted the blame for their excessive tampering with a winning concoction.
Very promisingly, however, as a lead-up to their defense of the Webb Ellis Cup later in 2023, Siya Kolisi and company ended the Test season with a bang: back-to-back, enticing wins over Italy and England in their own backyards.
Not only were they fitting ways to round off the year, but the style of rugby the Boks unleashed in each instance was eye-opening: an almost unexpected level of ‘release’ for enthusiasm and ball-in-hand skill.
While they had occasionally fallen victim to charges (a long-standing historical trend) of strategic rigidity and over-reliance on the brutality of their strikers in previous meetings during 2022, there was suddenly very little justification for such accusations at Genoa or Twickenham.
The net result was that the Boks now look much more difficult for major enemies to plan for than might have been said before their Northern Hemisphere pilgrimage.
During the year, they lost little or nothing, more exactly? — from his enviable reputation for power and depth in forward play, even through both forms of set pieces and the ability to set powerful mallets in motion near the enemy try line.
But the back of his roster also brought back into play the speed, cunning and self-expression of the Springbok outside backs, several of whom had had patience-testing spells where defending and bomb-dropping tall were too their main form of service. .
What 2022 did was pleasantly broaden the stock of slippery wing candidates, as established figures (and RWC 2019 winning icons) such as Cheslin Kolbe and Makazole Mapimpi found themselves increasingly unable to indulge in any semblance of complacency.
You see, the year emphatically heralded the arrival of younger thrill machines in the wider berths: Kurt-Lee Arendse (an odd Kolbe clone, in many ways) and the just-turned-20-year-old Canan Moodie were prime examples. .
But there were other reasons why Bok supporters were happier about the prospects for 2023, not least as central figures like captain Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth and Frans Malherbe only re-emphasized their pedigrees with consistent regality on their various jerseys.
Furthermore, by the end of the Test year, previously under pressure veterans such as fullback Willie le Roux and scrum-half Faf de Klerk had admirably cemented their places.
Le Roux largely eradicated his penchant for expensive, sloppy moments, while Bok’s growing commitment to the company was also bringing out resurgent qualities in de Klerk, no longer required to throw almost relentless kicks to the sky.
From both squad harmony and current levels of cohesion and purpose, the Springboks appear to be in an optimistic space.
Remember, the last full calendar year preceding the Boks’ triumph of a World Cup, three times champions so far: 1995, 2007 and 2019, has generally been considerably more eventful than 2022.
In 2018, his year’s win record had been just 50 percent, in 2006 it was 41.6 and in 1994 the figure was 55.5.
