5: No Way Back?

“But while Allister thought we needed to be a bit more expansive, that was easier said than done.

Different times have what South Africans call their ‘big rocks’, and the Springboks’ big rocks had always been a good defensive system, a solid set piece and a physical pack. I was still young and my understanding of the game wasn’t what it would become, but in hindsight we should have just improved those big rocks and fine-tuned as we went along. Instead, we neglected them, thinking we could suddenly be like the All Blacks. If only sport was that simple.

New Zealanders play rugby the way they do because they were raised in a certain culture. Playing expansive, attacking rugby is in their DNA, and even it was no longer paying dividends they’d never dream of playing like the Springboks. Instead, they’d work hard to improve on what they did best. In the same way, it would be madness for a country like Fiji to try to play like the Boks because their rugby DNA is speed, athleticism and flair. Yes, they need to work on their set piece and game management, but the most important thing for them, and try any sporting team, is to adhere to an identity.

Occasionally you play a game where everything goes the opposition’s way and nothing goes yours, and that was certainly the case in Albany. At the same time, the All Blacks were ruthlessly efficient at turning lucky breaks into points. And like a batsman who can score all around the wicket, they accumulated points almost without you noticing, so that you’d look up at the scoreboard and think, How the hell did that happen?

They weren’t necessarily spectacular (although they did score a few outstanding tries), they just made the most of every scoring opportunity. And the more we felt the game slipping away from us, the more desperate we became, and suddenly we were doing things we didn’t normally do – running everything, trying risky passes and offloads, making more and more mistakes. And instead of the mistakes being in their half, they were in our half and the All Blacks gleefully seized on them. In the end, the only sensible option was to batten down the hatches and hope it didn’t get too ugly and humiliating. But we left it too late.

I suggested to the coaches that we should do something to relieve the tension, otherwise the guys would go crazy holed up in their hotel rooms. So I invited all the forwards to a spit braai at my house on the Monday, with a live band and instructions to relax and not talk about rugby.

As the week progressed, I knew I had to do everything in my power to give the team an edge. To that end, I wrote a note for each player, telling them that they were going to play great at the weekend. And on the day of the game, I left a note on each player’s locker, letting them know that I still backed them and honestly believed we could beat New Zealand, despite what happened in Albany.

I already knew from my experience at the 2015 World Cup that a couple of weeks is a long time in rugby, but I’m not sure anyone thought we had hope of bouncing back from a 57-point deficit against the All Blacks, especially since neither team had changed much in terms of personnel. But this time we were able to snuff out a couple of early try-scoring opportunities and gain a foothold.

We were leading with 12 minutes to go, until a magical try by All Black full back Damian McKenzie and late penalty by Sopoaga. Malcolm Marx barged over for a try at the death and the conversion made it 24-25 but they managed to hold on for the win, their sixth in a row against us. The All Blacks had won all six of their games for their fifth title in six years, while we’d finished third behind Australia, with two wins, two draws and two defeats.

9: Lion Taming

“Our 46-man squad for the series included 22 overseas-based players, a significant increase from the 2019 world cup. Putting aside whether that reflected well on South Africa’s domestic rugby, the overseas players brought different perspectives and insider knowledge to the Bok set-up. It was almost as if we had spies in the Lion’s ranks because the guys who played in Europe had played with or against pretty much everyone in their squad. They had first-hand experience of how they did things, their strengths and weaknesses, which is very different from watching players on tapes.

It’s the nature of sport that sometimes you have a bad day, and there were obvious reasons for our under-par performance. But when Rassie took over we weren’t allowed to have excuses. It didn’t matter if we’d been travelling a lot, playing loads of games, training too hard or not training enough, Rassie’s attitude was, ‘You can’t on the one hand say you’d do anything to play for the Boks, that you’d die on the field for your country, and on the other hand say that you didn’t feel quite right. That’s bullshit.