With the dust settling after the momentous Springbok victory against the British and Irish Lions the Boks now look to the Rugby Championship and the end of year UK tour which in many ways is more daunting then the Lions. Playing Australia and New Zealand away, all in be it in Australia, is a massive ask for any team and with the target squarely on their backs it will require an enormous effort to emerge on top. The Boks seem to play better when they are written off and told they cannot achieve at the highest level and this year’s Rugby Championship is both good and bad for their motivation. It is bad that they are current best in the world having beaten the Lions and won the World Cup with history telling us that they don’t do well after winning big tournaments. It is good in that the entire rugby world is against them with an ongoing tirade of criticism for how the Boks play and the underhanded skullduggery of the pantomime villain Rassie Erasmus. This will motivate the Boks to prove the haters wrong and beat the All Blacks away from home prove they are the best.
Looking at the Boks game plan it is all about execution because the template is simple and any professional player can be taught very quickly what his job will be. A perfect example of this is the role of the eighth man to drop back and receive box kicks which Duane Vermeulen does with aplomb and Kwagga Smith/Jasper Wiese haven’t quite mastered. The strength of the squad is that the personnel they have are incredibly efficient at executing this game plan and often are the best in the world in the category of job they are required to do. The problem with this is that they are so good when someone else has to step in execute under pressure they are inevitably not at the level the Boks game plan requires. The development of depth of players who can execute the game plan is going to be the difference between having a great year or being one of the best ever. The match against Argentina showed us that there is sufficient talent to be the backups and one day the starters in the Bok template. How quickly these players can master the tasks required is going to determine how far this team will go. These players will become important because there will be injuries and the need to rotate tired legs as the season continues with so much rugby to be played after a relative drought of games.
Looking at the two players the Boks absolutely cannot lose in order to succeed are Lukhanyo Am and Francois Steyn/Damian Willemse (I am condensing them because they fulfill the same role). Starting with Lukhanyo, he is the general of the Boks backline defense which is the backbone of how the Boks are able to strangle the opposition. The Lions tour was a perfect example of this with any attempt to go wide shut down with the perfect read and thumping tackle to force the Lions infield. Coming infield is like swimming back into the gaping mouth of the hippo as the forwards can gang up on the runners in the tackle and breakdown to stifle any attack options. Am’s ability to read the right time to shoot out the line or play for time is so good that anyone who replaces him won’t be able to execute at his level. We saw an example of this with Jesse Kriel against the Argentinians shooting out to make the tackle which has to end the play in its tracks or risk leaving the wing on an island. It was wrong call as he was too far away and the ball went wide leaving the Boks exposed. The Boks could replace most of the backline players and still be able to come close to the execution they require but without Am they will be exposed by better attacking teams and the whole game plan falls flat. If teams are getting reward for going wide our bigger forwards have to run further and aren’t as effectual at dominating collisions and the breakdown.
Damian Willemse/Frans Steyn fill the role of backline do it all Swiss army knives and have the ability to play in every position except scrumhalf. This allows the Boks to play the famous bomb squad 6-2 forward to back split which has been so effective lately. Why does it make such a big difference? The reason is that it allows the Boks to play a specialist lock and two loose forwards instead a utility player to cover lock and loose forward. This means the engine room has so more power in the last quarter of the game often overwhelming the tired opposition and allowing the scrums/mauls/rucks to create penalties and turnovers. Without a player who can play most of the backline positions this means the Boks have to revert the traditional 5-3 split which doesn’t have the same impact. It sounds so simple having a utility back who can cover all the positions but in reality it takes a player with unique abilities. He has to be a capable flyhalf with a pinpoint kicking game, be physical enough to play centre on defense and attack, have the positional play to be an international level fullback and of course enough speed to cover wing if needed. This is a very special player indeed and it looks like Damian Willemse can do it with the watchful eye of veteran Frans Steyn helping him along.
If the Boks lose Am and Steyn/Willemse the game plan is severely blunted to the point where I give them almost no hope of defending the Rugby Championship crown and challenging the UK teams at the end of the year. This is how vital these two players are the Boks cause and I expect them to be wrapped in bubble wrap until needed.
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