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They are a genuine powerhouse of rugby. Feared and respected around the globe. With a rich history and a fan-base shadowed only by the cult of the All Blacks.
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Dual World Cup winners, constantly living in the IRB top three and sometimes at number one. They sit upon the highest mountain of the rugby universe. They have sat upon the throne and served as King and ruled proudly over the rugby kingdom.
They are the South African Springboks.
For the Rugby Cup World Cup 2015, they are second behind only the All Blacks as the team every other team wants to avoid.
The Pool of Death, featuring Wales, England and Australia, is not merely a fight to get into the finals, but a desperate, overwhelming desire to top the pool in order to avoid the Boks and the Darkness. Those teams are all intimately aware that coming second probably delays the inevitable ending of their campaigns at the hands of the Southern Hemisphere juggernauts.
Whereas emerging from the pool at the top means they can sit back and watch the cannibalisation of the Southerners gleefully, hoping that the victor is worse for wear after the battle.
Introducing oneself as a Kiwi in South Africa, particularly in a bar setting, invariably leads to new friends, beers on the house and long, detailed discussions about rugby, players, referees, and specific incidents in a particular game over the last 20 years. They are impassioned by rugby, surpassed by few outside of the Land of Darkness and perhaps slightly shadowed by the bloke-crowded, Guinness beer halls of Dublin.
The recent loss to Argentina in South Africa was embarrassing for the Boks and their supporters, as was their last place positioning in the Rugby Championship which was won by the sputtering Wallabies. Australia have emerged with more gel than that seen from their corner over the last four-year period (in fact more gel than Matt Rogers had in his hair when he debuted, if any Roarers can recall that moment of TV weirdness). And Argentina has been gaining invaluable experience by playing the Top Guns every year.
But Japan. That is simply unfathomable. Even the most die-hard anti-Springbok pessimist would never consider that to be a potential reality. The likelihood is as remote as moving faster than the speed of light. There were three blokes in the entire universe that took the 80:1 odds of this occurring.
Anyone who has watched Japan play over the last few years since 2011 World Cup, know that they play with a passion and a determination that is reflective of their culture and is embedded deep, deep in their DNA. And they are fast. And they enjoy quite a bit of success over their Asia counterparts.
But to beat the Springboks in a World Cup match? The likelihood of that occurring is about the same as winning the lotto – if you didn’t purchase a ticket.
But they did. And they have. And they were brilliant. And the crowd cried. And the World Cup delivered on its promise of an upset to occur.
And England, and Australia, and Wales, and Ireland all spat out their morning coffee.
And the proud nation of South Africa fell to its knees in despair.
The thing is, South Africans believe that they are the best in the world of rugby. It doesn’t matter that they have not been ranked number one by the IRB for many years, as that process is flawed, nor that they have only beaten the All Blacks once in the last four years. They believe that was about bad yellow cards, bad refs, bad weather, bad horoscopes, bad Richie, bad political process’ of the homeland.
And believing something is not the same as thinking it. To many hardcore fans it is a knowing. The Springboks are the best in the world. And they will show you charts and data and spreadsheets and tea leaves at the bottom of the cup to prove that point. It’s not arrogance, it is merely reflective of their national pride.
And in truth, they are a damn good team. And if those pesky Kiwis in their fancy black costumes and their war dances didn’t keep on beating them (just), then the rest of the world would be prone to agree.
But to lose to Japan. That is inconceivable.
A very wise man, in fact the most intelligent man in the land, Vizzini, from the cult movie classic The Princess Bride, also never considered the inconceivable, and it didn’t work out too good for him either.
So where to now? Rather than apply the blow torch to the opposition, their original intent, now the Boks will be applying it to themselves, for this original sin. There will be genuine questioning of living in the past with their golden oldies selection after sending their most experienced team ever to take on these nipping, Japanese usurpers.
And the picking of offshore players will justifiably be placed under the looking glass. With the main question being, “how valuable are combinations that play together all year?”
In favour of the Spingboks, this whole nightmare will be akin to implanting a Tony Robbins microchip directly into their frontal lobes. Such will be the motivation. The world is laughing at them. They have no choice but to unite and fight like they never have before.
Now, more than even just last week, they need to get at least to the semi finals. They must.
If losing to Japan means they are knocked out of the tournament, that would be inconceivable.
A story circulated recently of New Zealand international baggage handlers scrawling loser graffiti on the All Black luggage after losing out to France in the 2007 quarter finals (if it wasn’t the handlers, then it may have been Donald Trump). And that was considered France’s greatest game.
Should this loss to Japan prove to be the Springbok’s undoing in the 2015 World Cup, then the players passports might never even make it through South African immigration.
If they go on to win the tournament, all will be forgiven.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.