LONG READ South Africa should be everyone's second favourite team

South Africa should be everyone’s favourite second team. If you’re not from South Africa, the Springboks should be your second favourite team. You could of course be from South Africa and then have them as your second favourite team, but that would be super weird. And while it may be difficult for some to replace Fiji with the Boks as their second favourite team, it is worthy of consideration.

It has been quite a journey for South African rugby over the past 30 years. If a drama was pitched to Netflix on the history of rugby union, South Africa would have been prime candidates for the baddies role, given the country’s chequered political history. Diplomatic immunity? I doubt it.

Yet, while South Africa still grapples with complex societal issues, in rugby it leads the way. Unlike any other rainbow in existence, the rainbow nation really did find a pot of gold at the end of it. And in that little pot was sitting Rassie Erasmus and his Boks.

Through silverware alone, the Boks are the definition of success over the past eight seasons. Back-to-back Rugby World Cups in 2019 and 2023, a Lions Series in 2021 have now been bolstered by victory in the Rugby Championship. A victory, it must be said, achieved with some heavy squad rotations. South Africa used 35 players in the Rugby Championship and 49 in total in the 10 Test matches played this calendar year. But the Boks’ metamorphosis from baddie to goodie is about more than just winning. You can be a winner and still be unpleasant, look at the world’s most famous winning loser, Donald Trump.

The first major progression the Boks have made for their global appeal is in the brand of rugby they play. If you think South Africa play 10-man rugby, with a monster pack of forwards and a goal kicker, then you haven’t seen them play recently. That stereotype died a long time ago. Yes, the Boks have a pack of Marvel monsters – actually a multi-pack of Marvel monsters – but they are also flanked by a series of magical pixies in Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse and their counterparts.

Thanks to Erasmus, front-row forwards get the WWE-style entry they deserve. Half man half sofa, Frans Malherbe, is part of world player of the year discussions.

Kolbe in particular has become the benchmark for the undersized wing – overtaking even Shane Williams and Jason Robinson. All three have thought patterns which can trigger a motion sensor and the feet to match, but only Kolbe actively bounces locks and back-row forwards like they’re inflatable toys. If anything, the Boks should no longer be known for picking big forwards, but playing small, undersized wings. A selection policy at odds with the rest of Test rugby.

The Boks are also the first team to build a rugby bridge between the northern and southern hemisphere. Prior to the past few seasons, the hemispheres have almost been viewed as two separate rugby planets. Which is made even weirder when you consider Japan are often considered to be a southern team – even though any map will tell you they’re based in the north. One can only assume this decision was taken by the same group who put Australia in Eurovision. We digress. With the South Africans joining the United Rugby Championship, they’ve become the first nation to play their club rugby in one hemisphere and their Test rugby in another. In that regard alone you could argue they’ve done more to bring the two rugby ‘worlds’ together than any other nation.

The Boks have pushed innovation to the max with the introduction of the 6:2 forwards and backs bench split and the (bonkers) 7:1 arrangement. Love or loathe these approaches, they have changed the game and our interpretation of it. This new strategy on forward replacements, especially changing forwards en masse, has made many realise just how important front-row players are.

Prior to Erasmus’ bulk replacement of the tight five, most props came on without anyone really knowing they were on the field – except for maybe their own mothers watching them trot onto the pitch. Now, thanks to Erasmus, front-row forwards get the WWE-style entry they deserve. This has also sparked far more media recognition. A decade ago, most conversations around the top five players in the world revolved around fly-halves and wings. Now half-man, half-sofa, Frans Malherbe, is part of world player of the year discussions. So too half-man, half-faster sofa, Ox Nche, who has arguably been the player of the Rugby Championship.

The Boks also became the first of the ‘big three’ southern hemisphere nations to start selecting players who were based overseas. It was a masterstroke. Much the like the Pumas, they allow plenty of their bigger, more expensive names to stretch the budgets of other nation’s CEOs, not their own. A policy which more unions should utilise.

But by far the greatest achievement of Bok rugby in recent years has been the galvanizing of their core supporters in South Africa. Rugby was once viewed as the preserve of the white population. Today, a camera operator can point their viewfinder anywhere in the crowd they like, and find evidence of a people and a nation united. It’s heartwarming.

The Boks in particular have taken the game forward like Pieter-Steph du Toit hitting a short ball on a blocker pattern.

Many will argue rugby has gone backwards in the last decade. It hasn’t. The Boks in particular have taken the game forward like Pieter-Steph du Toit hitting a short ball on a blocker pattern. And it doesn’t look likely to change any time soon. If they aren’t your second favourite team, they should be.

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