Rassie Erasmus’s record-breaking World Cup winners will add to their legacy in beating Argentina in Santiago. Victory will win them the Rugby Championship and make this squad the most successful Springboks in the history of the tournament, writes Mark Keohane.
The Boks are chasing their sixth successive win in the Rugby Championship, having won the last Test of their 2023 tournament campaign and the first four of the 2024 campaign.
These Boks are on fire and have won 20 of their most recent 23 Tests. There have been two single digit defeats to Ireland, in Dublin and at the 2023 World Cup Pool stage in Paris, and a heavy defeat to the All Blacks in Auckland.
Outside of that 35-20 loss to the All Blacks, it has been all golden for the Springboks, including winning the 2023 World Cup.
Erasmus, in the aftermath of the 2019 Springboks World Cup win, said great teams were defined by more than just winning a World Cup. The greatest he said won World Cups and dominated in between World Cups.
He singled out Richie McCaw’s 2011 and 2015 World Cup champions as having set the standard in sustained excellence, with the back to back title-winning All Blacks winning 88 percent of their Test matches between the 2011 World Cup opener against Tonga in Auckland and the 2015 World Cup final against Australia at Twickenham in London.
Erasmus challenged his Springboks to chase similar numbers to be considered among the best to have played the professional game.
And wow have they responded. They have won seven from eight in 2024 and in 2023 they averaged 84 percent with 11 from 13.
It is a statement only rivalled by Nick Mallett’s 1997/98 Springboks who won 17 in succession (16 with Mallett in charge) and the first of the streak in the record-breaking 61-22 win against the Wallabies in Pretoria in Carel du Plessis’s final match as Bok coach in 1997.
To appreciate the legacy of these Springboks one has to be reminded of the Springboks record between 2015 and 2018. In those four seasons the Boks won 24 from 50 (48%), with the individual season breakdowns being 55% in 2015, an all-time low of 33% in 2016, 54% in 2017 and 50% in Erasmus’s first season in charge when the Boks started the year losing to Wales in Washington DC and finished the year losing to Wales in Cardiff.
It wasn’t a heck of a lot better in the 2010s, with the Boks winning 73 from 122 Tests for 59.84%.
The magical numbers, in the 20 from 23 charge, started against Italy in Genoa and No 23 was against the All Blacks in Cape Town.
Historically, the Boks have had Argentina’s number, having drawn one and lost two in 17 visits to Argentina, lost just one against the Pumas in 17 in South Africa and beaten Argentina in a World Cup semi-final (Paris, 2007) and a World Cup third place (London, 2015).
The Boks, who won 14 in succession to Argentina between 1993 and 2012, have also won the last three played in Argentina.
The hosts are understandably more difficult to beat at home, with a 12-point losing differential compared to the 17 points when the two play in South Africa and the 16 points in the two World Cup matches played on neutral grounds.
What the 2024 Rugby Championship has highlighted is that this is a vastly evolved Pumas squad from their predecessors, although equally inconsistent. In 2013, as an example, the Pumas lost 73-13 to the Boks at Ellis Park and a week later came within a converted try of beating the Boks in Mendoza. The South Africans edged the Test 22-17.
In this season’s Rugby Championship, the Pumas trailed 20-8 against the All Blacks in Wellington, New Zealand before scoring 38 points in a stunning victory. It was the most points conceded by the All Blacks in New Zealand in the history of the game.
A week later, the All Blacks led 42-0 after 42 minutes at Eden Park in Auckland.
The inconsistency surfaced again in Argentina where the Pumas lost the first Test to the Wallabies, trailed 20-3 after 30 minutes in the second Test and went onto a record-breaking 67-27 win.
They are a punter’s nightmare!
I expect them to deliver a performance of quality on Saturday night, but not good enough to subdue a Bok team chasing a 21st win in 24 Tests, which would put them right alongside McCaw’s mighty All Blacks, in terms of excellence and consistency.
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