As the rugby World Cup gallops into week three, one of the salient features of the tournament has been the comparative absence of tight matches.
Half-time is key here because often teams (think the Boks’ 6-3 half-time lead over Scotland) have stayed in the hunt until the break, only to be flattened like a frog in the road in the second stanza. On Sunday night, for example, Japan’s “Brave Blossoms” (an incipient defeatism in the nickname?) were 13-9 down against England and looked good value for their hustle and bustle. After half-time, though, the England machine ground through the gears and Japan’s resistance collapsed like a paper-walled house in a hurricane.
At this point the Blossoms didn’t look brave but bedraggled, rather like an under-9 softball team in the rain. Final score? Well, it was 34-12 to England.
A sample of one is no sample at all, so an example or two more. The Tricolores monstered the All Blacks in the second half in the tournament opener two weeks ago, ditto the Boks against Scotland. England punished Argentina in the second half of their match on the first weekend, while France ran away with their match against Uruguay after the break, scoring two of their three tries in the second half to run out 27-12 winners.
The obvious exception to the “no-close-matches” rule concerns Fiji. Both of their matches, their opening 32-26 defeat by Wales, and their later 22-15 defeat of Australia, were close. The margin of victory over Australia in St Etienne on Sunday might have been slightly wider but Frank Lomani, their replacement place-kicker, hooked his extra-time penalty wide. Had he nailed the three points, Fiji would have run out 25-15 winners, thus depriving Australia of a losing bonus point for finishing within seven points of the winning score.
Fiji are clearly thinking about life after the pool as they hit the sauna of the knockouts. No less a sage than the former Golden Lions coach Swys de Bruin said before the tournament they could be this World Cup’s lucky packet. He could be right.
“They’re a more complete side now there’s woema in the forwards to go along with their crisp back-line play,” he said.
With their brio and slick running game they bring bells and whistles but they have a powerful eight-man engine up front. If other matches go according to form and ranking, the Wales versus Australia game in Lyon on Sunday will decide which two of Fiji, Wales and Australia leave the pool.
This is all a slightly long-winded way of saying that it’s about time the tournament had a genuine edge-of-the-seat, “I can’t-watch-this-kick” nail-biter. Might South Africa’s Pool B match against Six Nations champions Ireland in Paris on Saturday night (9pm kick-off SA time) fit the bill? All the pundits are suggesting it might well be too tight to call. The Irish media are billing it as “Ireland’s most important game in four years”.
For the South Africans the match is similarly important. Not only will it in all likelihood define who finishes first and second in Pool B but it will put into context the worth of heavy recent Bok wins against Australia, Wales and New Zealand, narrower wins against Argentina (twice), and a single loss away to the All Blacks 35-20 in the Rugby Championship in the middle of July.
The last time the Springboks played Ireland was at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium back in November, where it ended up 19-16 to the home side. At the break it was six-all, with two penalties apiece to the respective fly-halves on the day, Jonny Sexton and Damien Willemse. Early in the second half, Josh van der Vlier, he of the red scrum cap, corkscrewed over after an Ireland line-out close to the line and, moments later, a snipe by Irish scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park resulted in a huge overlap, with winger Mack Hansen dotting down.
Ireland’s ten-point, ten-minute blitz galvanised the Boks. They opened their try tally with a mad lunge from close to the Ireland line by Franco Mostert before Sexton kicked a penalty with the neat little steps of the Leprechaun – 19-11 to Ireland.
Stung, the Boks charged back and, after a quick recycled ball close to the Ireland line, the ball found its way to Eben Etzebeth, lurking in-field but close to the corner flag. Gulliver-like, he plodded off on his giant’s run, only to find his path blocked by two Irish defenders; undeterred, he simply popped the ball over them basketball-style. Kurt-Lee Arendse received the pass and sprinted over. Not for the first time that afternoon, Willemse missed the conversion as Ireland squeaked home by three.
Every water-cooler wise-ass in Mzansi will be talking about just these two things ahead of Saturday night: Will Etzebeth play? And will Manie Libbok, he of the “hey-I’m-looking-the-other-way” audacity which made Arendse’s try against Scotland, be able to add spot-kicking efficiency to his more eye-catching talents at ten?
Handré Pollard, a better all-round kicker and a more muscular presence on the gain line, re-joined the squad from club Leicester after injury this week, so the Ireland clash might be Libbok’s last chance to impress Jacques and Rassie, two men half the nation thinks they’re on first-name terms with.
One of the many reasons why the Boks won the World Cup in Japan four years ago was that the coaching staff were ruthless. This might mean that, irrespective of the result against Ireland, Jacques and Rassie are seriously considering playing Pollard in the quarter-final, or at least putting him on the bench should Libbok’s kicking go awry. In the interests of fairness, Pollard’s kicking isn’t perfect (he missed his opening kick in the World Cup final, an inconvenient fact no-one seems to remember) but it’s more reliable than Libbok’s.
Another reason for winning four years ago is the Boks didn’t stand still. They were always trying new things and always looking for ways to unpick the lock to the opposition’s try-line. This culture is now second nature and evidence of this was shown in the game against Romania on Sunday.
Fearing they were inadequately covered at hooker with only Bongi Mbonambi in the position after Malcolm Marx’s knee injury, they tried out both Deon Fourie and Marco van Staden, nicknamed “Eskom” in the squad “because he knocks your lights out”. Faf de Klerk, too, was given the opportunity to stretch his legs at fly-half in the 76-0 romp.
Such thoughtful experimentation should be dismissed as tinkering: it keeps the players from drifting into their comfort zone, setting up competition within the squad. As contingency planning, it prepares for all eventualities. In the unlikely event that things go desperately wrong for Ireland (say, a red card for the fiery Peter O’Mahony, or an injury to Sexton) you wonder how they’ll cope?
From now on in the competition (the Boks play tricky Tonga after Ireland, their final group game) it’s not so much about talent as about composure and calm. Composure is needed because World Cups do your head in. The wind is swirling and the rain is pelting down and it’s so loud in the stadium that you can’t hear your own pep talk; you step back and squint through your wet fringe at the posts. You’re two points adrift and the clock is ticking….
Luke Alfred is a seasoned South African sports journalist.