RUCK N ROLL
GAVIN RICH: Boks on the front foot; now they must keep pushing forward
Beating the All Blacks doesn’t happen often so it’s understandable that a wave of heightened energy and confidence is being detected in the Springbok camp ahead of Saturday’s clash with Australia in Port Elizabeth. It’s not as if the vibe was bad before the win in Wellington. The mix-and-match selections have possibly led to underperformance, but Rassie Erasmus’s arrival as coach did bring renewed energy. What has changed for the Boks, though, is that they have now been imbued with the confidence that they can beat anyone on a given day. But now comes the tough part. If you compare the way the Boks played against the All Blacks with what went before, it is clear that to a large extent the Kiwis were set up. The aggressive defensive game that the Boks employed to push the All Blacks out of their comfort zone was a surprise to the world’s No1 team. The opinion that prevailed afterwards that the All Blacks presented the game to the Boks on a platter is not entirely fair to the South Af...
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