VIDEO: 'This win is worth no points in the World Cup'
South Africa will arrive at the World Cup in France with an elevated ranking of No.2.
Despite the aperiodic nature of their Rugby Championship campaign – including a disheartening 20-35 loss to the All Blacks in Auckland – the Springboks improved with every outing in their warm-up matches, culminating in the record 35-7 rout of the Kiwis at Twickenham at the weekend.
That means the Boks, who started the year at No.4 in the world rankings, will be one of the favourites.
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber said their new, elevated position on the world rankings will not impact their approach to the tournament.
South Africa put down a serious marker with their five-tries-to-ne win at Twickenham, the All Blacks’ heaviest defeat of all time.
However, Nienaber said they will remain grounded and continue working to improve.
“After the loss to New Zealand [in Auckland in July] we had to make some plans and adjusted a couple of things,” Nienaber told @rugby365com.
“The players came up with some good suggestions and the management also had some suggestions.
“We found some solutions.
“Some of them worked and some didn’t.
“However, we won’t get a single point in the World Cup for this win.”
The Bok coach said the match was an ‘opportunity’ to prepare for the World Cup and no more.
(WATCH as Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber chats to @king365ed after their 35-7 rout of the All Blacks at Twickenham at the weekend…)
Bok captain Siya Kolisi also warned that the “hard work starts now”.
While South Africa served notice of their intentions ahead of a title defence they start against Scotland in Marseille on September 10, Kolisi cautioned against premature celebrations.
He was delighted by the support his side received from a capacity crowd of nearly 82,000 at England’s headquarters.
“To see so many beautiful South Africans here, I can’t tell you how proud I am,” said the Springboks 2019 World Cup-winning skipper.
“We knew we had to start up front with the forwards. Our backs are special. We had to concentrate hard.”
The 32-year-old flank added: “Proud of the boys, but we know the hard work starts now.
“We have to go and defend the World Cup in France.”
Nienaber was in an equally cautious mood.
“For us, it’s a good performance in terms of certain things we wanted to get right,” the Bok coach said.
“Then there’s a lot of things that we didn’t get right.
“I thought we had a lot of opportunities in the first 20 minutes.
“I think in the whole game there were about eight opportunities where we got held up twice.”
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