Lure of the lucre costing Boks

Everything about Francois Louw screamed ‘Springbok’ as he stood there on Saturday night trying to make sense of it all.

From the chiselled face to the giant frame decorated with the fashionably retro blazer that his grandfather Jan Pickard might have worn when on duty with South Africa back in the 1950s when he won four caps.

He speaks with an Afrikaans accent that has had some of the edges taken off it by a long stint in England with Bath and therein lies the not-so-secret clue as to just why these Boks can be bashed by 35 points in Dublin.