The Springboks start their final preparation camp on Monday in Corsica ahead of the Rugby World Cup, with the main focus on the squad adapting to the climate, what they can expect from the mainland conditions and what aspects of their play to improve on as they look to defend their world title.
After the Boks dispatched New Zealand 35-7 in London on Friday and moved to second on the World Rugby rankings, all eyes will be back on head coach Jacques Nienaber and his troops.
The island in the Mediterranean will, therefore, be the perfect place to lay low and stay out of the media to do their final preparations with as few eyes as possible on them before heading to Toulon, where the team will be based for the tournament.
It may seem that the Twickenham clash exposed the Boks’ World Cup hand a bit earlier than expected, especially with how the starting forwards and Bomb Squad operated after they completely dominated the much-fancied All Blacks.
But this island getaway is also an ideal time to give Nienaber, Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus, and the rest of the coaching staff additional time to plot some more surprises ahead of their tournament kick-off against Scotland.
South Africa will face the Scots (September 10), Romania (September 17), Ireland (September 23) and Tonga (October 1) in the pool stages. One can expect that the Boks will have a slightly different plan in approaching the Scottish clash than the one they used to dismantle the Kiwis.
Despite climbing the rankings to second, with only the Irish above them, the Boks do not believe ranking placement will count for much when they take to the field in Marseille.
“We won’t even look at that,” Nienaber said about the rankings and going into the tournament as the second-ranked side.
“Last time in 2019, I think we went in not even in the top five, and we ended up winning the World Cup. The main thing about our win was to gain momentum.
“This win doesn’t give us one point in the World Cup. It was an opportunity to prepare us to go into it.”
Now, the final pieces of their master plan to retain the title must come together in Corsica.
The players had the opportunity to explore Bastia, which gave them some much-needed rest and recovery time after a physical outing, but the hard work in planning to take down the Scottish next Sunday starts today.
There will be a few areas the Springboks will want to sharpen up on.
While they had the Kiwis under immense pressure in the first 30 minutes of Friday’s duel, their conversation rate in the 22m area was poor. New Zealand defended well but Nienaber lamented the missed opportunities.
That’s been a key focus area for the South Africans since the first Test of the year against Australia. During that match, the Boks had plenty of chances too but they did not pounce, the same thing happened in both Tests against Argentina.
Nienaber said the outcome of a World Cup match will most likely depend on converting the three or four chances a team gets in a game. So, this will most likely be a key focus for his side as an area to improve on.
Then, the coaches will have to make the difficult decisions on how that first match-day squad will look. The centre pairing, along with scrumhalf, will most likely be the important positions to decide.
@LeightonK