Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and key loosehead prop Ox Nche are inching ever closer to starting in Saturday’s opening Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry against the All Blacks at Ellis Park (kick-off 5pm).
Nche injured his knee against England in early July, while Kolisi missed the Nations Championship with a hamstring injury before suffering a recurrence of the problem in his comeback Test against Argentina earlier this month. Kolisi, in particular, appeared highly doubtful, but one thing history has taught us is that the Springbok skipper is a fast healer.
On Monday, Rassie Erasmus said the pair needed to get through the afternoon training session unscathed, and on Tuesday assistant coach Felix Jones delivered more good news.
“Both are tracking pretty well,” the Irishman said.
“There have been no flags or issues from what we’ve seen today in training. We’d still have another session later in the week, but there’s been nothing majorly negative coming out of either of their recovery plans.”
Those words suggest Kolisi and Nche are on course to start, which would be a major boost for the Boks, given Kolisi’s stature as a leader and Nche’s brilliance at scrum time and in general play.
The first three matches of the All Blacks’ tour featured “warm-up” clashes with the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls. Those games certainly allowed Dave Rennie to give 40 players valuable game time in South African conditions, but Jones revealed there was another side to the exercise — the Bok coaching staff have also “gone to school” on how the Kiwis have played.
“Luckily, we’ve got a good relationship with the United Rugby Championship teams and all of us as coaches chat pretty regularly,” he said. “It’s been good to get their thoughts on their games, but a lot of it has been a confirmation of what we saw in the Nations Championship (when New Zealand played France, Ireland and Italy).
“A couple of things probably trended across the feedback from the different franchises.
“A few things around the breakdown they experienced, like tucked shoulders going into the breakdown, and reverse-arm, non-wrapping action, which I know the South African teams weren’t happy with. That was a consistent theme that came out.”
The breakdown is certain to be a brutal affair in the four-Test series, and if the All Blacks have been infringing with the illegal “tucked shoulder” ploy to disrupt the pillars supporting a ruck, the South African coaching staff and media have put match officials on notice.
Jones added that the three URC teams often managed to get themselves into scoring positions deep in the All Blacks’ 22, only to falter.
“Most of the teams got multiple lineout opportunities there,” Jones said.
“I think they found they were frustrated that they couldn’t score with their maul. It’s tough when someone is pulling you or trying to lift a leg or maybe just going off their feet for a couple of seconds. Those were two common themes they weren’t happy with.”
On social media, clips have appeared of Springbok players with Jones “dancing” around while wearing headphones. Jones has now cleared up what they were doing.
“We have been working with a new virtual training tool that tests reaction times,” Jones said.
“It’s like a simulation of trying to actually gather loose balls from contestable kicks,” he explained. “We very kindly took on one or two guys in South Africa who are developing it, and they have lent us their unit.
“We think there’s something in it, and we’ll keep enjoying it.”
When the Boks won the World Cup in 2007, they swore by the “eyegym” programme developed by former South African hockey star Sherylle Calder, which was credited with sharpening their reactions.
The Boks could be on to another “virtual” winner.