How Boks plan to use Nations Championship as RWC dress rehearsal

INTERVIEW: The Springboks are fully focused on claiming the inaugural Nations Championship trophy, but they also have another goal in mind: to use the tournament as preparation for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia.

The Boks kick off the second leg of the Nations Championship against Italy on Saturday, heading into this clash at the summit of the Southern Hemisphere table on points difference, tied with New Zealand on 15 competition points.

The nature of this tournament can be cruel – should the Boks and New Zealand win all their games, their place in the Final could come down to bonus points and points differential.

South Africa have a tougher task of facing two of the three Six Nations powerhouses in France and Ireland, while New Zealand have it “easier” against Scotland, Wales and England, of which the latter could be their banana peel.

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In a World Cup, the path to the Final isn’t as cruel, but just as tough, if not more, and the Springboks are embracing this tournament as a dress rehearsal for next year’s global showpiece when they will defend their title, according to defence coach Jerry Flannery.

“The [Nations Championship] tour is a good representative for us going into a World Cup next year where players have to assemble and play matches on a consistent basis in a short period of time,” Flannery said on Tuesday.

“We’re not sure how much we will rotate [players] during this period, so for us it’s very much like knock-out stages to play group stages, head into a Round of 16 before the quarterfinal, semifinal and Final.”

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#SPOTLIGHT: “The Boks are experts at capitalising on even the slightest mistake.”
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Much like a World Cup, players don’t have ample preparation time as a group due to club commitments, especially if their team reaches the play-offs, which gives the national coaches limited time to work with them ahead of a Test match.

Similarly, this week, the Boks had their first training session on Monday after many still featured for their United Rugby Championship teams this past Saturday.

Flannery admitted that it’s not an ideal situation, but the Springboks are embracing it and that many other teams are in a similar boat.

He also touched on how they manage a week like this with limited time together as a group before a Test match on the weekend.

“It’s not easy, but it’s similar for most of the teams competing in the Nations Championship.

“We weren’t together for a long time, and a lot of the current squad were with us throughout that period.

“You always want to evolve as a team, but a lot of the stuff that we would’ve done during the Greatest Rivalry [series] is still fairly fresh in the players’ minds.

“It was a case of getting them in and not overloading them, but reminding them how we do things when we’re in camp,” Flannery said.

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They weren’t at their defensive best all season long…

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Despite all the above-mentioned factors of what it might take to reach the Nations Championship Final, Flannery said the Springboks’ first mission is to win all their games before worrying about the trimmings.

“We are aware that we could win all our matches and not feature in the Final.

“At the moment our points differential is superior, but we are aware that it will come down to teams getting bonus points.

“But we don’t want to go into matches being disrespectful of the contest and target bonus points.

“We’ve played Italy before, and they pushed us really close. We want to focus on winning, and we’re also aware that winning the game is the most important thing.

“After that, you can switch to scoring four try bonus points, but I think it’s difficult to head into a match with the mentality of winning with a bonus point.

“You’ve got to win the game first, and the quality of teams we are playing is too high to think of bonus points initially.

“First, win the game and then maybe in the final 20 minutes if you’re ahead on the scoreboard you can go for those extras.”