South Africa have rewritten the Test match coaching manual at the Rugby World Cup.
Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have been the international game’s great innovators ever since winning the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Selecting seven forwards and just one back on the bench for Saturday’s World Cup final against New Zealand was a huge risk. But like everything the Springboks coaches did in France, it was vindicated in the end.
The roll of the dice could so easily have backfired, but South Africa managed to hold out and defeat New Zealand 12-11 to retain the Webb Ellis Cup.
South Africa and New Zealand have now won seven of the 10 World Cups between them, and are probably the two teams who have most often been the Test arena’s most progressive outfits.
Ireland might be able to lay a claim with how they had prepared for this World Cup, while England were the most innovative team in the years building up to 2003. New Zealand were the pioneers of change on the way to glory in 2011 and 2015, but since claiming victory in 2019 it must be said that Erasmus and his coaching team have shifted the dial incredibly.
Not all of the left-field ideas have been well received, but when it came down to the biggest games, they have been proven right.
New Zealand started the World Cup by losing to hosts France in the rain, backing their skills but playing too much open rugby. The All Blacks appeared to have learned their lesson, but were hamstrung by the same affliction in the final against the Boks.
In the opening quarter of Saturday’s final in Paris, the rain was heavier than at any other point in the tournament. And that 20-minute spell is most probably where they lost the game. Again they tried to play too much rugby in the wrong areas of the field, in the trickiest of conditions.
Once the rain stopped the All Blacks looked the better side, but by then they were 9-3 behind. They could have kicked a number of first-half penalties that they punted out for lineouts instead.
In this day and age it is easy for coaches to send messages onto the pitch. No one actually needs a traffic-light system to tell their players to kick at goal, even though the Springboks claimed to have used different coloured lights to relay messages about injuries.
New Zealand wanted to win, but South Africa could almost not afford to lose.
There was not much at all between the sides. And when a team wins both the quarter-final and semi-final by a single point, a sense of destiny starts to emerge.
South Africa were definitely on vapours by the end of the game, but still they summoned just enough to get over the line.
Sam Cane got his tackle height wrong and no one could really argue with his red card. Siya Kolisi in contrast was close enough to getting his levels correct that he managed to escape with a yellow card. And on such fine margins are finals won and lost.
Special mention to referee Wayne Barnes, who was outstanding. The Englishman dealt with a lot of very tricky situations exceptionally well and with sheer class. The body of work he has put together in his career completely warranted him taking charge of a World Cup final, and rich congratulations are in order for one of the sport’s finest officials.
