The Boks managed to drag off a 38-21 victory at a packed Kings Park in Durban within the last spherical of the Rugby Championship, but it surely was finally a bitter-sweet outcome because the Springboks nonetheless finally completed second within the Rugby Championship.
Doing the double over the Pumas, whereas choosing up wins in opposition to each New Zealand and Australia represented progress in keeping with coach Jacques Nienaber, though he additionally admitted there have been key enhancements nonetheless required.
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Writing in his column for Sport24, former Bok coach Nick Mallett advised the selections for the second Test in opposition to the All Blacks finally undermined the crew’s marketing campaign within the Rugby Championship.
“The Springboks fell just short on the log, but in truth, it was selection that cost them this tournament. In the second Test at Ellis Park, it was inconceivable that the Boks wouldn’t carry on with a guy like Malcolm Marx, who was demonstratively so good in that first Test in Mbombela that people were talking about him being the best player in the world.
“To leave an asset like that out for a guy who has just returned from a season of sitting on the bench in French rugby in Joseph Dweba was unthinkable. The time for learning for a guy like Dweba is through the URC, not playing against the All Blacks when you’re trying to win the competition. It was a poor selection that undermined the Boks’ efforts and hurt their cause.
“Getting Duane Vermeulen back into the mix for that game, having not played in eight weeks, was also a selection error. It’s easy to be wise afterwards, but they were two calls that were surprising as soon as they were made. Why would you make those changes after the team had performed so well the week before? I think that’s where the competition was lost.”
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The Boks are subsequent in motion in opposition to Ireland, the No 1 ranked crew on this planet, in Dublin in November when Nienaber mentioned they might have an excellent higher concept of the crew’s progress.
“We’re not where we want to be yet. We need consistency, and we’ll probably get a pretty good idea on our end-of-year tour. We play No 1 and No 2 [France] teams in the world and we have an SA A side, and it will be a challenging tour. But it will give us nice answers as to where we are.”
Boks captain Siya Kolisi mentioned “we had some great, great moments in the Rugby Championship, and we also had some weak moments”.
“We know we can win against anyone in the world on our day, but today was a big step forward because it was a third win in a row and we want to take that momentum with us into the end-of-year tour,” added the Bok captain.
The Boks completed one level behind New Zealand on the ultimate standings
Nienaber famous that he had used 34 gamers within the match and that some questions had been answered over place depth.
“We built some squad depth. Some players got some experience but that wasn’t the main aim – which was to win the Rugby Championship and we fell short on that. But there were some positives to take out of it,” he mentioned.
“We are in a better position now in terms of learning about certain positions than we were when we started. There was always this big issue around flyhalf and whether Damian (Willemse) could play there and hats off to Frans (Steyn) today, in a very short space of time he had to slot in and he will just get better in terms of that.
“We’ve also had Kurt-Lee (Arendse) and Canan (Moodie) come through and now Cheslin (Kolbe) has to perform if he wants to get back in – but we know he is quality, and we look forward to welcoming him back.”
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The Boks presently discover themselves in third place within the newest World Rugby rankings following the conclusion of the 2022 Rugby Championship.
Tournament winners, the All Blacks, are in fourth.
Ireland proceed to paved the way forward of France, whereas Australia have plummeted to a lowly ninth place, beneath Argentina who completed backside of the Rugby Championship log.
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TOP 10 IN THE LATEST WORLD RUGBY RANKINGS:
1. Ireland – 90.03
2. France – 89.41
3. South Africa – 89.00
4. New Zealand – 87.30
5. England – 86.25
6. Scotland – 81.93
7. Wales – 81.28
8. Argentina – 81.21
9. Australia – 80.65
10. Japan – 77.74