Disciplined, clinical performance can win it for Boks

If the Springboks go on to win this World Cup there is a good chance that any equivalent of the Chasing the Sun documentary series will feature coaches and players talking about the importance of Saturday’s big showdown with Ireland (9pm).

That’s not because the Paris match will necessarily be particularly pivotal to the South African advance from the pool stage.

Even if the Boks do lose at Stade de France, their advance to the quarterfinal phase will only be in jeopardy if Scotland cook in their remaining two group games before they play Ireland, and then confound expectations by actually winning that game.

The importance of this game could instead be centred on its potential to be a great dry run for a possible final against one of Ireland, France or New Zealand at the same Stade de France venue.

There was one in the previous World Cup of course, namely the opening game against New Zealand in Yokohama, where lessons were learnt from defeat, and then-coach Rassie Erasmus turned the later clash with Italy in Shizouka into another dry run in the sense that it was sudden death.

Had the Boks lost then, that defeat coupled with the one against the All Blacks would have sent them tumbling out of the World Cup.

However, this game is arguably much bigger and even more authentic as a preparation for the playoffs.

The Boks play New Zealand at least twice every year because of their participation in the Rugby Championship.

There was also never really much chance of them losing to Italy despite Erasmus’s protestations to the contrary.

It goes without saying that this Ireland game is far more 50/50 than Shizouka was — it is effectively No 1 against No 2 in the world.

For the Boks it is also a game against an opponent they have not beaten since they scraped to a narrow win in what was then Port Elizabeth to clinch a home series win in 2016.

Subsequent to that series, which saw the hosts lose a game on home soil to Ireland for the first time, the Boks have played Ireland only twice.

Allister Coetzee’s career as Bok coach had started with the Newlands calamity and pretty much ended on the November night in 2017 when Ireland ran riot at the Aviva.

The appeal of Saturday’s huge showdown in Paris is that since then, in a period of six years, we only really have one reference point when analysing what might happen in this Pool B clash — and that was a desperately close affair in Dublin in November 2022 where Ireland got home due to a quite freaky try to Josh van der Flier as well as the poor Bok goal-kicking.

It was, in fact, the last big game the Boks have played without some involvement from Manie Libbok — last week’s rout of Romania doesn’t count as a big game — and he will be key to SA’s chances of translating the hype that has developed around them into something concrete.

The Boks used three kickers at the Aviva 10 months ago and they all kicked a bit of a shower.

In the end, the margin was close enough to suggest they would have won had the kicks been nailed.

Libbok does share the duties these days but so much will hinge on him holding his nerve.

It goes further than that. Mention was made of Van der Flier’s try, which was dotted down on the corner flag off a driving maul, and it cues the word clinical.

Ireland were clinical that night, the Boks weren’t.

The kicks at goal weren’t the only opportunities the World Cup champions wasted in Dublin.

The Boks have been good in the final build-up to the global rugby showpiece event and in the early World Cup games, but they haven’t always been clinical.

Against Ireland, they have to be. The kind of freaky try scored by Van der Flier needs to be scored by the Boks this time.

Make no mistake, the Irish have enough shape to their attacking game to challenge the Bok defences, and the champs will be hard-pressed to keep intact their incredible record of having conceded only two tries in the eight World Cup games they have played since they lost the 2019 opener in Yokohama. — SuperSport.com