Why the Boks really needed that one

You just had to look through the Irish newspapers and watch British television in the build-up to understand why Saturday’s match to celebrate the opening of the new Aviva Stadium was so important to the Springboks.

The Boks have slumped so far in the international estimation over the past year that it seems bizarre sometimes to think back to just 14 months ago, when almost everyone was making them favourites for the World Cup. South Africa had so many rugby trophies that the administration organised a tour of the country to show them off.

Of course, the game itself is not in bad health in South Africa. The Bulls are the Super rugby champions, having now won the title two years in a row, and the Dublin test match did seem a significant step down in pace and intensity from the excellent Currie Cup final we saw seven days earlier between the Sharks and Western Province.

But before Dublin the Boks had dropped in the space of a year from the No 1 ranking in world rugby to No 3, and in the Tri-Nations season both the All Blacks and Australia showed that the Boks had failed to take cognisance of the changes brought about by the new law interpretations at the breakdown.

Watching the early stages of the All Black/England game at Twickenham in a Dublin pub before the Irish game reminded me of how significantly the game has changed. As one Irish reporter put it, everything now favours the attacking team so much that you have to think a hundred times over before doing something that might surrender possession and give it to the opposition.

The Boks protected the ball well in the early stages of the Dublin match, but you would hesitate to suggest that this was a game that showed they had caught up with the new trend or were showing any willingness to embrace change. The Boks didn’t play the rugby the Sharks played to win the Currie Cup, they played the rugby of the Bulls -- only they were a lot more conservative than the Bulls have been lately.

Given the weather conditions, however, they had little option. As Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll put it afterwards, only the 30 players on the field knew just how difficult it was to handle the ball (though from my vantage point in the Press box I could get a general idea -- my fingers hurt when they touched my computer keyboard, it was that cold!).

And maybe right now isn’t the time to worry too much about how the Boks go about it. Right now the most important thing is that they win, and regain the pride that, judging from the way the Irish and British media talk about them, has taken a massive dent.

During the England/All Black game at Twickenham, the commentators made a couple of references to the All Blacks being world champions in all but name. And after the way they dominated the Tri-Nations, who could argue against that contention.

Regardless of what happens at next year’s World Cup, it is a crying shame that South Africa was unable to effectively harness this golden age of players so that the win in France in 2007 could be built on and an era of consistent excellence started.

Instead we had a situation where in 2009 the Boks showed what they were capable of, but on either side of that they underperformed.

And that underperformance was the reason the Irish media were so disdainful of the Bok chances of beating Ireland almost to the point of being disrespectful. I understand it was a massive motivating factor for the Boks, and full marks to Victor Matfield, who has impressed in the past week, for using that motivation as a spur for the players.

This was one of Matfield’s finest test matches, and that is saying something if you think of how well he has played over so many years. He spoke before the Currie Cup final weekend of how hard he and Juan Smith were working on their laptops in trying to pinpoint Irish weaknesses.

The net result was that the one Achilles heel from last year’s game at Croke Park, the lineout, turned out to be where the Boks laid the platform this time. That and the scrum, where Beast, Bismarck du Plessis and his brother Jannie were every bit as impressive as they were with their angry performance in the Currie Cup final the previous week. The front-row won this game as much as the lineout did.

The conditions did conspire in South Africa’s favour, as it made it impossible for Ireland to live on the scraps they were presented with. Also let's not get too carried away about the strength of Ireland. The Boks boast a poor recent record in Dublin, but the Irish are not the strong team they were two years ago and let's not forget that just a few games ago they conceded 70 points to the All Blacks.

But the most important thing was that the Boks won, and in doing so with a depleted team they proved to the Irish that they are not exactly a gathering of lambs being led to the slaughter. Even a weakened Bok team needs to be respected.