‘Far from perfect’ Springboks target ‘growth’ but pleased to be building while winning
Malcom Marx (front right) and Cobus Reinach (left) both feel the Springboks have more in them ahead of the end-of-year tour
The Springboks might have won a second successive Rugby Championship title for the first time in their history, but the message is clear. There is still more in them.
Rassie Erasmus’ side clinched a historic title with a 29-27 win over Argentina at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, but it was by no means a waltz to silverware this year.
The Springboks lost their opening Test of this year’s Championship against Australia, and later lost against the All Blacks at Eden Park.
But, since then, South Africa rallied to hand New Zealand their heaviest-ever Test defeat in round four, before winning back-to-back Tests against Los Pumas.
‘There’s a lot of growth we have to do’
“It’s unreal, I don’t quite know exactly how to explain it, but it’s an unreal feeling,” says scrum-half Cobus Reinach. “Doing it back-to-back shows the character of the group.
“But, if you look at the game, there’s a lot of growth we have to do. We still have to improve weekly and every year to get better and better.”
“It shows the growth and mentality of the side,” adds hooker Malcolm Marx.
“We always want to get better, no matter what the circumstances are or the results. We always want to represent ourselves, our families and our country; we’re a very proud nation.
“It’s a bittersweet one, knowing what we went through in the first game, but coming back and eventually winning it is something special.
“It’s not really sunk in just yet, but it will over the next couple of days, it will, and we’ll appreciate it more.”
The title win might mask it, but this was far from a perfect Rugby Championship campaign for the all-conquering Boks.
Even in their wins, they struggled to piece together a full 80-minute performance. In three of their six Tests this campaign, Erasmus’ side trailed at the half-time interval, while also letting Australia and Argentina give them an almighty scare with late comebacks in round two and round six.
“We’ve always got improvements to make,” says Marx. “We were far from perfect today; we were just lucky to grind out the win.
“There are a lot of areas we can improve, and I’m pointing at myself first, but we’ve got a bit of a break now so when we get back together we’ll iron those out.
The Boks face yet another huge task this November, taking on reigning Six Nations champions France before facing Italy, Ireland and Wales in a busy schedule, but Reinach hopes the lessons from this Rugby Championship campaign will ‘come to life’ ahead of the four-Test tour.
“Rugby is a strange game; we probably played our best 20 minutes in the game we lost,” says the scrum-half.
“We lose a game here and there, but as long as we learn and keep building while we’re winning (trophies) too, then it’s going to be good.
“It doesn’t matter how we do it, just winning it is what we wanted.
“As I said, we played our best 20 minutes in that game (vs Australia), but then we might have overplayed our forwards or our hands or anything; but that’s how we learn. It makes everything come to life for us, and we take it all on board.”
