Springboks have another point to prove

Winning close games doesn’t rest in the realm of the rugby gods. Bok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach believes good preparation helps grease your path to the inside lane for when the chips are down.

Last year the Springboks marched to their fourth Rugby World Cup title on the back of three one-point wins in the knock-out stages of the tournament. Reinach does not subscribe to the theory this is a remarkable coincidence as they prepare to play England, who they beat in last year’s semifinals, at Twickenham on Saturday.

“Rugby is a strange game,” said Reinach. “Sometimes you are on the good side of the result in a close match. For me it is about how you put your week together, how you prepare. Do you prepare for certain circumstances in a game and certain situations that come your way?

“With our coaching staff we are preparing for everything that can happen. The players then feel confident and know what to do in certain situations.”

Reinach expects England to come out firing after their defeats in their past two games to the All Blacks and the Wallabies, but insists the Boks can combat that by sticking to what they do well.

To suggest England and SA have had beef over the years would be an understatement and it did not take much for things to stew and then boil over during and after their World Cup knock-out match last year.

Reinach was asked, though not in such colourful terms, whether the Tom Curry affair had left a collective bad taste in the mouth.

“If we get into that it will take us away from the Test match,” said Reinach. “We need to focus on what is coming on Saturday — how to put our plan on the field. If we lose sight about what we want to do, we might be embarrassed and not happy with our performance.”

Though 34, Reinach has retained the spring in his step. He has been in the Bok set-up for more than a decade and shows no signs of slowing. The arrival of attack coach Tony Brown earlier this year has in some ways taken the leash off a player whose instinct it is to tear away.

“I’m loving it,” he said about Brown’s influence. “Tony changed the way we see attack. He taught us how to be brave on attack.

“How we as nines can scoot a little bit. Take the ball three steps before we make a decision. It is nice to have the ball and not just pass off the deck all the time. Everyone’s bought in and it has been really good for us.”

On Saturday, Reinach and the rest of the squad return to the ground where he played in the Bok starting line-up for the first time in 2014. He scored a breakaway try in a 31-28 win for the Boks and of late he has also been showing Father Time a clean pair of heels.