By Nick Said
NICE, France (Reuters) – South Africa have a potent attack with powerful forwards and dazzling backs, but it is their defence that could be decisive in their bid to retain the Rugby World Cup having conceded two tries in their last eight games at the tournament.
Since being breached twice in their opening loss to New Zealand in Yokohama in 2019, only Canada in the pool stages of that tournament and Wales in the semi-finals have managed to cross their tryline.
That is a remarkable average of more than five hours of World Cup rugby per try conceded on their current run, which includes shut outs against Namibia, Italy, Japan, England, Scotland and Romania. Their points aggregate across those eight games is 343 scored and 47 conceded.
World number one Ireland will provide a stern test of that defensive organisation when the teams meet in Paris on Saturday, but for head coach Jacques Nienaber it is challenge he relishes.
He was defence coach when the Springboks lifted the World Cup four years ago and has carried that theme forward in his tenure as the head of the technical team.
“This team has always prides themselves on their defence, so I am extremely happy,” he said in the wake of the 76-0 victory over Romania on Sunday.
“We gave Romania a lot of attention from a defensive point of view this week, and we worked really hard to ensure we were well prepared for them.
“The players put good intensity and effort into that area of the game, and I’m pleased with that.”
Nienaber will bring back many of his leading players that were rested for Sunday’s match in Bordeaux when they take on the Irish, with the team announcement expected on Tuesday.
“It will be a good game to see who finishes one and two in the pool, but there’s still games to play, so I don’t want to get too far ahead,” he said.
“From a selection point of view, we’re open and honest with the players, they know what we’re thinking and we’ll share that with them. We have an idea in our minds what we want to do for the next game.
“It’s nice that there’s such good internal competition within this group and positive competition. There’s not a big gap between the players.”
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Michael Perry)
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