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Why Springboks are World Cup favourites after ‘statement’ win over All Blacks
By Finn Morton
The in-form Springboks might be worthy of the ‘favourites’ tag ahead of the upcoming Rugby World Cup after recording frighteningly dominant wins over Wales and New Zealand last month.
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South Africa started their preparations for this year’s World Cup with a big win over Eddie Jones’ Wallabies in Pretoria. It was a statement win, but they needed to back it up.
But the Boks took on fierce rivals the All Blacks at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium a week later, and the result was never really in doubt. The hosts put on a show as they ran away with a 35-20 win.
Two wins over Argentina followed, but the Boks looked like a shadow of their former selves – and time was running out.
But fear no more Springboks fans, your rugby heroes have come of age ahead of their Rugby World Cup title defence. The Boks beat Wales and New Zealand by incredible margins, and will go into their tournament opener full of confidence.
“A month ago I was slamming them when in cold in Mt Smart, they got blitzed in the first 20 minutes, and I asked for a statement performance in Johannesburg against Argentina. They snuck in by one point,” South African scribe Mark Keohane said on Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.
“I wrote a scathing column saying, ‘Come on, give us that statement performance.’
“They went to Cardiff, they won 52-16… Then the All Blacks picked what they could, their best 15 to start, and then Rassie pulled the great one – seven on one, Twickenham.
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“Looking at that scoreboard, 35-nil after 65 minutes and I couldn’t believe it. Seven of the nine worst-ever Springbok defeats have come against the old enemy, the All Blacks.
“It was really the statement performance… they go into the World Cup on a high and New Zealand, for me, go in with some serious questions, once again about their forward pack.
“The Springboks, two big statement performances just a the right time.”
The convincing win over Wales was a step in the right direction, but the Boks’ highly anticipated clash with the All Blacks in London was always going to be a defining challenge.
South Africa dominated the territory and possession battle from minute one at Twickenham, but they couldn’t quite turn their pressure into points at first.
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But tries to Siya Kolisi and Kurt-Lee Arendse, and a second yellow card to All Blacks lock Scott Barrett just before the break, opened the floodgates.
The Boks put on an attacking clinic in the second half, with the All Blacks falling to their worst-ever defeat 35-7.
“In the professional era, it’s right up there because again, the quality of the opposition,” Keohane explained.
“This wasn’t a New Zealand second-string side that played in Dunedin, this was a very good All Blacks side that went out there and just got blitzed.
“It was a great performance. We speak about the traditional South Africa and New Zealand rivalry, in the professional era, it’s coming in blips.
“A lot of people have said it’s a meaningless game, the All Blacks were cold – they haven’t played for four weeks, (but) it was a big, big result for South Africa, and a big, big confidence booster ahead of the World Cup.”
Great performance by the Boks, but the AB were not at their best. I believe the tournament is wide open this year, about the most even it has ever been.
No game between New Zealand and South Africa is ever "meaningless"
It's the pinnacle of any All Black or Springbok player's career.
Ahead of all other test matches, with all other nations.
Our forwards have been "average" since 2015.
We just haven't been able to match the ability of that Champion Team who won the 2015 World Rugby Cup.
The problem South Africa has now is "to get back up" to that mental peak, where they could have beaten any team in the world.
It just happened to be the All Blacks.
France or Ireland will be harder.
if Boks win they will take RWC winning record from 43% to 50% (4/8 after being excluded from '87 and '91) leaving the ABs on 33% - the kinda stat that would make Ben Smith go nuts / nuttier ?
Let the games begin. Tired of all the nonsense and drivel been shared. Bottom line a number of teams can win. For sure the most even and competitive WC probably ever.
Keohane should stop peddling and just admit he made a kak call with all his comments and move on...You're NOT South Africa's messiah sports writer as you so much would like to think...
AB beat France by roughly 50 points in the lead up of 1999 and 2007. Conversely, they got massacred by the French in Nantes ‘86
TLDR, pre RWC form is irrelevant
Death knell sounded.
The France game will show if the All Blacks have real forward problems or not. I think they will be much better and surprise everyone and beat the French, only to bow out against an Ireland team that will hit form later into the tournament after losing to South Africa 🇿🇦 I will not be surprised at all if we meet the Irish again in the final.
France are favourites,bokkies looking good
It was a fantastic test performance by Springboks and a very poor one by the All Blacks.
However, World Cup history shows the favourites very rarely win the RWC and form in the warm-up tests and even pool matches are poor indicators of performance in the knockout rounds.
It’s all about performance on the day.