but it’s going to come down to physicality always and it always will
Kinda ignoring the big white elephant in the room in these close matches - goal kicking. We faced Ireland without a reliable kicker and lost. Pollard had to slot a 50m penalty in the rain to pull us through against England. If NZ kicked their goals in the final they would probably have won. And a charged down conversion ended up being the difference on the scoreboard between us and France.
If Marx had not been injured then no Pollard. Almost feel like saying that in a twist of fate there was luck in Marx's injury.
( and how come South Africa don't dominate the Rugby Championship? ) Well this is most probably something Rassie would like to change with his new Additions on the Coaching staff and Young talent getting selected…Our WC win was just to close for Comfort and could have worked out much Different, were it not for Pollie and a fair portion of Luck.
Stav, with South Africa crumbling beneath our feet, those 1-point wins are a much bigger achievement than it seems.
The fact we've even remained competitive is surprising on its own.
Not including school teams; The UK has about 690 rugby teams, France has 200...NZ 180(to five million people). South Africa has 160, mostly on shoe-string budgets.
The school system saves us and is the origin of the conveyor belt.
Still, the Boks could just as easily be languishing at the bottom of international rugby like the Ozzies are and, given the big picture, it could seem par for the course.
So we'll take those 1 points and call it domination, thank you very much.
If Marx were fit a plan would have been made to get Pollard
Physicality has served the Boks well. Add in some finesse and we are hard to beat.
Denny one of the 4 skromskakels would've got the heave-ho
Simple Stav the Springboks have to play with a certain quota plan and with players that are not up to standard but in the RWC most of the players are top class players with a few exceptions forced on the SARB by the government.
By the way a win is a win and thankfully they went all the way.
Plum your posting lays it out quite clearly and is spot on.
Great.
27,740 posts
The loss that showed Pollard why the Boks will always dominate World Cups
Leicester Tigers were taught a sobering lesson in January when they travelled to the Stade Marcel Deflandre to take on reigning Investec Champions Cup winners La Rochelle, returning home 45-12 losers after being pulverised physically.
For fly-half Handre Pollard, who started on the bench that day, he experienced what it was like to be bullied “into the ground”, rather than usually being part of a South Africa team that inflict the punishment.
The loss also provided the 29-year-old an opportunity to teach the next generation a vital lesson- that rugby will always come down to “brute force and physicality”.
Up against a La Rochelle pack containing the 145kg tighthead Uini Atonio and his fellow 145kg teammate Will Skelton, Pollard explained on RugbyPass TV’s The Big Jim Show recently that his teammates were in awe of the size of the Australian.
The double World Cup winner added that he was asked what they could have done differently against the European champions, but explained that La Rochelle have the same approach as South Africa, which comes down to brute force, and has led to the Boks winning more World Cups than any other nation.
On top of that, he said that rugby will always come down to physicality despite the changes coaches make to the game between World Cups, and that it always will.
“We are used to playing with big people but he is massive,” the 69-cap Springbok said.
“So many of our guys have never been to La Rochelle, never played against him, some of the younger guys just couldn’t believe their eyes. It’s a big man, it’s a massive pack of forwards and that’s what they do to teams there, they just bully you into the ground and it’s wave after wave and that’s why they’ve won the Champions Cup two years in a row. It’s big, big human beings, it’s tough, especially there.
“Some of the guys asked me after the game what we could have done differently and I said ‘How do you think South Africa win a lot of rugby games?’ It’s just brute force and physicality.
“It’s a part of the game that everybody tries to reinvent it every four years and we’re going into the next four-year cycle now and I’m sure a lot of coaches will try and reinvent the game and make it more appealing to the eye and all that – I get it, I get that completely – but it’s going to come down to physicality always and it always will.”