This was a real nothing test

What becomes more confounding every time the Springboks and the All Blacks clash in a rugby test is the way the New Zealanders, in their anthem, sung with such gusto before the game, implore God to defend their country.

Considering the way most of the test matches have gone between these two nations since the end of the isolation era, it should surely be South Africa that God should be defending.

And haunting and beautiful hymn though our own anthem undeniably is, maybe we are not specific enough before a clash with the All Blacks about which part of Africa should be blessed.

Come to think of it, England might be failing in their quest for complete consistent global sporting domination for similar reasons. I cannot see the point of putting all efforts into saving the queen on a day when an under-strength England team is playing Australia in Sydney. Surely it is the rugby players who require saving on that particular day?

But let’s get serious and turn our attention to the latest instalment of the long rivalry between South Africa and New Zealand on the rugby field. It started, as it always does when you play the All Blacks, with the haka.

This is significant, because I am starting to develop a theory about why the Boks always somehow manage to be competitive against New Zealand, and it all has to do with the All Black haka.

While most other nations get a bit intimidated by the haka, maybe it switches South Africans on, raises their blood levels, gets them ready to do battle.

Think about it. We know the different psyches of the nations that play rugby against New Zealand. Some Kiwi players have even gone public about their view of South African players. They reckon that the Boks are just always incredibly angry.

Well, maybe it’s because every South African male relishes a physical challenge, and the All Blacks, when they deliver their haka, certainly lay down the challenge in no unambiguous way.

Whereas an Englishman might see the haka and think the thoughts “What the heck am I doing here?”, the thoughts that go through your average South African male mind is probably more along these lines: “Look at that nutter. What does he think he is doing? I cannot wait to get hold of him and give him a good clubbing.”

Former Springbok hooker John Allan used to get so psyched up by seeing the New Zealand haka that he once walked into the All Black throng while they were delivering it and then proceeded, once the game had started and the first scrum was called, to walk straight into Sean Fitzpatrick’s chin (Christchurch, 1996).

This psyche might explain why the Boks invariably seem to start well against the All Blacks. Even in two of their biggest defeats, in Auckland in 1997, when they lost 55-35, and in Pretoria a few years ago, the Boks started the game bristling and with a fair amount of intent. If memory serves me correctly, they scored first in both those games.

Is it not because at the start of the game they are still so incensed and psyched up because of the haka? And then, once they forget about the haka, they just slowly lose that impetus and get progressively worse.

It sort of happened again on Saturday, and in truth, the match itself was not completely unlike many other Bok/All Black battles of the post-isolation era. It was utterly forgettable, and probably will become so during the passage of time.

It also taught us absolutely nothing. Several top rugby people who I had conversations with during the week building up to the match, including former Springbok coaches Nick Mallett and Rudolf Straeuli, had predicted the game would turn out precisely the way it did.

They said the Boks would play with great passion and pride, but that ultimately they would not be good enough. I suppose if you have coached the beast, you must understand the beast.

We know that the Boks do get themselves up for All Black games, and the All Blacks, much like in a South African derby during the Super 14 season, get sucked in when they play against us into a battle of testosterone. It has happened countless times before, and will doubtless happen countless times again.

What we need to take note of, however, is that in the 39 minutes before halftime following the Fourie du Preez try, when everyone, including the patronising NZ commentators, got so excited about how competitive the Boks were, the All Blacks hardly had to do any playing, and yet scored 19 unanswered points.

I don’t blame Jake White for instructing his team to try stop the All Blacks from playing. Any coach worth the name, following what had happened the previous week, would have done the same.

But it would be counter-productive to pretend this approach will make the Boks competitive beyond maybe a one-off game in the World Cup. They showed us in Wellington they have lots of pride and passion when the challenge is laid down to them, but then we knew that already.

What we should also have known already is that Solly Tyibilika is not the answer at openside flank. The Kiwi commentators were quite kind to him, but I watched him closely, and if he participated in two rucks in the entire match it was a lot. Most of the time he looked quite lost.

I have seen it written that he made two big tackles where he drove Richie McCaw and Chris Jack back. But then isn’t it the openside flank’s job to drive an opponent back every time he makes a tackle? For most opensides, it is impossible to isolate instances where they put in a good tackle because they make so many of them.

If Tyibika wants to make an impact in the No 6 jersey at international level, he simply has to go much harder on the ball than he does at the moment. Until he does so, he is never going to compete with the real top opensiders.