Rugby Championship Preview: South Africa
Ahead of the 2017 Rugby Championship, we preview the teams looking to get their hands on the coveted silverware. Last up it's South Africa.
The Springboks should enter the 2017 Rugby Championship with modest optimism. They have improved a great deal since last year’s disastrous season. They claimed a 3-0 series victory over a weakened French side in June, and the bulk of their squad is made up of Lions players that went to a second successive Super Rugby final.
Last year: It was a horrendous campaign for the Boks. In the Rugby Championship, they won two of their six Tests. They suffered two massive losses against the All Blacks and a first-ever defeat to Argentina. Later in the year, they drew with the Barbarians and lost to England, suffered a first-ever loss against Italy and finished with a loss against Wales.
Defence was a major issue, as well as organisation and tactics on attack. In almost every Test, the Boks looked as if they were not being coached. Allister Coetzee retained his job, but Brendan Venter and Franco Smith were brought in to sort out the Springboks’ defence and attack respectively.
This year: 2017 has seen the Springboks get off to a fantastic start. They deserve to be praised for convincingly defeating a weak and unprepared French side 3-0. Clearly Venter has made a significant impact since joining the squad, as the defensive organisation was improved dramatically. However, plenty of credit must go to the men on the field, who were far more determined to play to the best of their abilities in the green and gold. This was seen in the manner in which they defended across the series, even in the final game where nothing was at stake.
On attack, the resurgence of our forward pack’s efforts in cleaning out rucks and securing clean ball has allowed the Cronje/Jantjies 9/10 combination to flourish. This combined with set plays brought in by coach Smith should give a talented backline far more of a chance to make an impact against any side in this year’s Rugby Championship. Other teams appear to be on the decline as the Springboks improve. Argentina are struggling. They lost to England’s C team twice. Australia lost to Scotland and almost lost to Italy.
The Springboks should aim to win both Test against Argentina, win their home games against Australia and compete with them away from home. Against New Zealand, the Boks should be challenging them far more competitively than they did in 2016. South Africa should take confidence from the drawn series against the British and Irish Lions and the performance of the Lions, and even the Stormers, in this year’s Super Rugby campaign.
Players to watch: Franco Mostert has been a revelation this season. He works tirelessly in the scrums, lineouts, rucks and mauls. He is also critically the Lions’ top tackler over the past two seasons. He deserves his spot in the Bok XV ahead of the uber-talented Pieter-Steph du Toit right now. Jan Serfontein was sensational against the French. He is a rock on defence and has regained the ability to spot a gap and take it on attack along with having good distribution skills.
Prediction: The Springboks shouldn’t have any trouble defeating Argentina and can come away with a better record than Australia. They should also give the All Blacks a run for their money in Cape Town. Second.
Fixtures:
Saturday, August 19: vs Argentina (home)
Saturday, August 26: vs Argentina (away)
Saturday, September 9: vs Australia (away)
Saturday, September 16: vs New Zealand (away)
Saturday, September 30: vs Australia (home)
Saturday, October 7: vs New Zealand (home)
by Brandon Yates