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Springbok Wake Up Call In Time To Make Amends

Springbok Wake Up Call In Time To Make Amends

The Springboks experienced a shock 34-32 defeat at the hands of minnows Japan during their 2015 Rugby World Cup opener in Brighton on Saturday, with Heyneke Meyer’s men displaying a poor performance, succumbing to the heart and discipline of Eddie Jones’ Japanese machine.

The victory was historic for Japan, which had only won one previous World Cup game against Zimbabwe back in 1991, and had never faced the Springboks before, while for South Africa the result was an embarrassment that they will soon hope to forget.

The Springboks have a wonderful World Cup record, having won two competitions out of five played, while they had only lost matches to Australia, New Zealand and England, until now.

The Japan result came as a major surprise to fans of rugby throughout the world, as the Springboks have always been one of the best teams in the game, while Japan are not considered a top 10 side.

Rankings React

The result manifested itself in terms that demonstrate the significance of the loss for the Boks, with the Rugby World Rankings reacting to the defeat by relegating South Africa to sixth place in the world, down from third, while Japan moved from 13th in the globe to 11th.

This is the lowest ranking that South Africa have ever achieved since the system was introduced in 2003, placing consistently in the top three along with the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

Reactions following the biggest upset in World Cup history included apologies from the Springbok players and coach, directed at South African fans, who were expecting a confidence boosting win from the Japan encounter before more testing games against Samoa and Scotland in upcoming games.

Wake Up Call

Instead, and perhaps fortunately for the Boks, they experienced the devastating loss in the opening game, and they now have the wake up call they needed to realise that they cannot underestimate any opponent, and they will need to field their best available team in all fixtures to do well in the tournament.

With enough time on their side to rectify their approach and attitude, and for Heyneke Meyer to give proper thought to his best 15 players to field, the Springboks need to use this opportunity to the best of their ability, and ensure that Saturday’s match against Samoa is treated like a final.

This same approach, once further optimised with lessons learned in the Samoa match, must be used to guarantee a victory in the third test of the pool for South Africa, when they take on Scotland.

The final match of the pool for the Springboks is against the USA, which have already been dubbed as minnows, but South Africa, while needing to move on from the Japan loss, must not forget the lessons that the shock defeat provided. The USA will need to be faced as though they are the All Blacks with a title on the line.

Once the Springboks have negotiated the pool and successfully progressed to the knock out rounds, they will have done enough to patch up the confidence that they have so severely damaged, but that is when the tournament gets very serious, with only the best teams remaining and every chance of facing top tier teams including Australia, current champions New Zealand and hosts England.

The right approach throughout and a humble but determined attitude following the Japan loss could see the Boks turn things around entirely and make a push for the title, which would gain them respect and ensure that their 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign is remembered for more than just a single surprise defeat.