The Springboks will be better rested, have more players available and be in better form than their opponents when the tournament resumes.
Kurt-Lee Arendse’s improved showing in Baltimore epitomised the team’s elevated performance over the series. Picture: Richard Nichols/NurPhoto via Getty Images
An emphatic comeback in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series agaisnt the All Blacks shows the Springboks are well-positioned to finish at the top of the Nations Championship Southern Hemisphere table, and probably emerge as the tournament’s overall winners.
The Springboks learned from where they failed in the breakdowns and defence in their defeat at Ellis Park to secure three consecutive wins against the world’s number two team in Cape Town, Soweto and Baltimore, to win the series 3-1.
South Africa’s performance in the 43-28 victory in the United States on the weekend was as close to a complete performance as we’ve seen for some time.
Battle for the Nations Championship
Furthermore, while the Boks will rue the fact that star wing and goal-kicker Cheslin Kolbe will be out for some time with a broken jaw, the All Blacks are struggling with more injuries, including to regular captain Ardie Savea (shoulder).
This is important because they have less than a month to race to get fit for home and away fixtures against the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup in October.
Thereafter, they play Scotland, Wales and England away in the Nations Championship before the finals weekend in London, all in November.
The All Blacks are second on the Southern Hemisphere table, tied on points with the Springboks but with a lower points difference.
They will be hard-pressed to come through the Bledisloe Cup and final Nations Championship games without their injury toll telling.
The Boks, who have fewer injuries and better depth anyway, just have a one-off Test against the Wallabies in Perth in two Tests, where they are likely to ring the changes after several veteran players played four Tests in a row.
Then it’s Nations Championship away fixtures against Italy, France and Ireland, and the finals weekend, in November.
That gives players rested during the Wallabies game about five or six weeks to recover before those four back-to-back Tests in Europe.
The Boks are ticking all the boxes: scrums, lineouts, attack, defence, kicking, goal-kicking, squad rotation. They need to simply continue their course to win the inaugural Nations Championship, and hopefully next year’s World Cup in Australia too.
Springboks take ‘calculated risk’ in squad rotation
Rassie Erasmus commented on their squad rotation policy after the Baltimore Test: “I know people sometimes don’t understand it when we change the team by 12 or 13 players. We hope it’s a calculated risk.
“But the team that played today had an average age of 31, that’s not a young team. Not to say we’re clever or that was right. But our experience from playing a series like the British & Irish Lions and the World Cup, you have to have the guys you know are experienced and can manage the pace of the game.
“But what we’ve tried to do the last four or five years is chopping and changing teams. Sometimes we get a lot of flak for that and we lose a game here and there.
“But as the young guys come in, it’s not their first time. And they’re next to an older guy with a wise head, maybe not as fast or energetic anymore. But a calm head. That’s the thought behind that.”
