The Springboks' second half performances have been lacking over the 2025 international season so far.
The Springboks will be desperate to fix a worrying trend this season — their second half struggles — ahead of two massive Rugby Championship games against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
The Boks have in recent times been regarded a strong second half team, mainly because of their famed “bomb squad” of replacements which has allowed them to finish strongly more often than not, and pluck wins from the jaws of defeat.
However, this season has seen a bit of a reversal of that trend, with the Boks being “beaten” in three second halves out of the six matches that they have played so far.
Second half dominance
In 2024 the Boks didn’t lose a single second half in all 13 matches they played over the year, and in fact outscored themselves in the second 40 on eight of those occasions.
Even in their two one-point defeats, against Ireland (25-24) in Durban and Argentina (29-28) in Santiago del Estero, they won the second halves 18-9 and 6-3 respectively, although it wasn’t enough to get them across the finish line.
But in both their games against the All Blacks in South Africa last year the Boks managed to use those second half shows to give them wins after trailing at the break.
In the match at Ellis Park the All Blacks led 12-11 at halftime, before the Boks outscored them 20-15 in the second half to clinch a 31-27 win.
A week later in Cape Town it was an even bigger second half show, as they recovered from 9-3 down at the break to win 15-3 in the second half and power home to an eventual 18-12 victory.
This year the Boks have won five of their six matches so far, but only two of those games have come against a strong team – the Wallabies – and they lost both second halves against them.
They also lost the second half 21-14 against Italy, in a 42-24 win at Loftus, but a disastrous 33-0 second half thumping from the Aussies at Ellis Park saw the Boks go down 38-22 in the end.
This past weekend in Cape Town saw the Boks edged 12-10 in the second half by the Australians though they’d done enough in the first half to win the match 30-22.
Things could have been quite different though had Wallabies flyhalf James O’Connor landed his kicks in the second 40.
No problem
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus, however, doesn’t see a problem, explaining after the win in Cape Town that they were only worried about the score at the end of the match.
“We don’t really count games in halves,” said Erasmus when quizzed about the worrying trend that has crept into the Boks’ game.
“We count it on the scoreboard at the end. But looking at it, I don’t think it is a problem with our fitness. I think because they (Australia) beat us last weekend (at Ellis Park) we were a bit tight when the pressure came,” said Erasmus.
“We might not have been up there with teams in the second half recently, but I think tonight (last Saturday) is another stepping stone for us to get back up there.”
Despite that assurance, the Boks will have to be wary in their next few Tests, especially the two games in New Zealand in the next fortnight as it will definitely become a big problem if those second half losses end up contributing to them losing overall on the scoreboard.
