The Boks have not planned beyond, this has been the focus for six years

The Springboks could do what only New Zealand have done, and win back-to-back World Cups when the sides meet in Saint-Denis tonight

Sat, 28 Oct, 2023 - 08:45

Craig Ray

The band is breaking up but they have one last show, and it’s the biggest of their lives against their bitterest of rivals for the ultimate prize in rugby.

The Springboks could do what only New Zealand have done, and win back-to-back World Cups when the sides meet in Saint-Denis today.

They could also become the first team to win four Webb Ellis Cups, as could the All Blacks.

For both sides the careers of several key players and coaches are ending, but for the Boks this really feels like a full stop.

There is no plan for tomorrow, or next week. There has only been one plan for the better part of six years – win RWC 2023 in Paris.

Yes, the Boks won the 2019 title along the way and it was brilliant, emotional and deserved. But it wasn’t the plan. It was a happy by-product of a formula that was still being tweaked to reach its peak in France.

And just because they won RWC 2019, the plan wasn't suddenly ripped up because Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber are nothing if not calculated. Everything they do has been thought through to microscopic details, and then pulled apart and thought through again.

Siya Kolisi lifting the Webb Ellis Cup on that wonderful Yokohama night four years ago, was, to the coaches, a sign they were on the right track but not the destination they had circled.

The track still led all the way to the Stade de France on 28 October.

“It was never a secret, if you look back from 2018 our focus was always on 2023,” assistant coach Mzwandile Stick said on Friday.

“A miracle happened in Japan but it was always part of the plan to make sure we performed at our peak in this World Cup.”

Erasmus, the director of rugby and Nienaber the head coach in the last four-year cycle, have come a long way together. They probably know each other better than their families do, having met in the early 1990s.

And sometime around 11pm local time in Paris we will know if all the planning and tinkering, the plotting and experiments, and the failures and mistakes that moulded the Boks into the formidable, seemingly unbreakable unit they have become, pays off.

It’s the last time, at least for now, that Nienaber and Erasmus will work together. Members of the band are looking for new creative outlets, and who can blame them.

Few, if any countries place as much store in their national rugby team as South Africans. Rassie and Jacques, RasNaber, have made the country fall in love with them because they’ve not only been winners, but they’ve been innovative and creative. They've also been controversial and belligerent.

Erasmus in particular, has not been shy to ‘stick it to the man’ and South Africans have lapped it up.

Kolisi, the Boks' inspirational leader, who has ensured the game has grown in all communities, hasn’t confirmed if he will play on in 2024. He joins French club Racing 92 next month and at 32, his priorities might shift.

Felix Jones, the Irish assistant coach, has taken up a role with England post-RWC 2023, mostly to be closer to his family while talismanic No 8 Duane Vermeulen will retire after the final.

The Boks have a slew of players in their early to mid-30s who are unlikely to make it through another RWC cycle but they also have some seriously good young talent emerging.

Erasmus is still contracted to SA Rugby until 2025 and assistant coaches Stick and Deon Davids are there until 2027. There will be some continuity but no one really knows what it looks like just yet because everything has been geared towards this moment.

There is no indication that Erasmus will leave South Africa, although he is likely to be linked to almost every high-profile job available once the dust settles on this tournament. If the Boks win tonight and Erasmus gets a great offer in the coming months, it would be tempting.

Conversely, through his abrasive actions, especially against referees in the past, he has made enemies and become unpopular in many parts of what is a small ecosystem.

That might limit any massive overseas offers, which is something South Africans would love to hear.

Nienaber is replacing Stuart Lancaster at Leinster. He enjoyed his first stint in Ireland with Munster and is keen to do more coaching and less of the tasks required of a national head coach.

Basically, he wants to be on the training field more often, working on developing young players.

Nienaber was an instrumental figure in the early careers of Kolisi, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth and Steven Kitshoff. He loves taking raw talent and moulding it.

So yes, the Boks are out for immortality in Paris tonight. Everything has been designed to come together today.

Tomorrow doesn’t matter. That's a problem for another day.