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Boks vs Ireland – here’s a four-point battle plan for Rassie’s men

Boks vs Ireland – here’s a four-point battle plan for Rassie’s men
Manie Libbok kicks the ball during the World Cup in Paris, France. Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images
Jon Cardinelli
By Jon Cardinelli
30 Jun 2024
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How the South Africans can play to their strengths – and exploit their opponents’ weaknesses – in a clash of styles and cultures.

Rassie Erasmus and opposite number Andy Farrell recently announced their squads for what promises to be a monumental series between the world champions and the Six Nations titleholders. A clash of styles and cultures is expected at Loftus Versfeld and Kings Park over the next two weeks. 

Assessing the sides’ respective strengths and weaknesses, and bearing recent meetings in mind, Daily Maverick has compiled a checklist for Erasmus’s Springboks, who have beaten every major nation bar Ireland over the past six years.

Vary set-piece attack


World Rugby has confirmed that Luke Pearce will replace Angus Gardner as the referee for the first Test at Loftus, with the latter withdrawing for personal reasons.

As a result, South Africa and Ireland will revise their preparations and account for Pearce’s unique management style and interpretation of the law, especially in key areas such as the scrum and breakdown.

The Boks won the 2023 World Cup on the back of a dominant scrummaging performance, but the coaches and players will tell you that dominance is in the eye of the be­­holder, or in this case, the match-day referee.

In the season opener at Twickenham, referee Chris Busby awarded South Africa four penalties in this area, Nevertheless, many front-row experts, including former Bok hooker and SuperSport analyst Hanyani Shimange, feel that they were short-changed.

Ireland will be more competitive in the coming weeks, and the battle between Ox Nché and tighthead Tadhg Furlong could be one to savour. On paper, the Boks have the better combination – and set-piece success usually hinges on an eight-man effort.

Will Pearce and Karl Dickson, the referee for the second Test, fully reward the South Africans for any scrum dominance? It will be interesting to see how the new law variation affects the game (there is no longer a scrum option from a free kick), and whether Ireland will exploit that to their advantage.

You’d expect the Boks to milk as many penalties from this set piece as possible, and to convert any penalties into territory and points. If the scrum isn’t rewarded, however, they will have to change tack.

The flow of the recent match against Wales may well be instructive. Although the Boks won 41-13, there was a period in the contest where the scrum failed to fire, and they began to lose control.

A better side than Wales – who finished last in the 2024 Six Nations – may have taken control at that point and gone on to win the game. The onus is on the Bok leadership to adapt much more quickly in the coming matches against Ireland.

Neutralise Ireland’s disruptors


The laws are in place, but so much depends on a specific referee’s interpretation. Some officials will sanction the holding of opposition players at the bottom of a ruck and penalise players who go out of their way to disrupt and impede the attacking scrumhalf. Others will let it go.

The great All Blacks side that dominated Test rugby in the 2010s turned this type of disruption into an art form. In more recent years, we’ve seen Peter O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier and other Irish forwards leading the way in a department known simply as “shithousery”.

The Boks must neutralise these potentially disruptive threats if they hope to dictate the tempo of the game.

… while being disruptive


Ireland’s biggest strength is the speed of their ruck-recycle and ultimately the tempo of their attack. When that machine is allowed to operate at optimum efficiency, there isn’t a team that can stop them.

Jamison Gibson-Park is the best scrumhalf in the world when he’s on the front foot and has formed a potent combination with the likes of Johnny Sexton and Bundee Aki in recent seasons. The Irish forwards are conditioned to play the game at a high tempo, and they are often involved in elaborate multi­phase plays that fracture the defence.

Boks vs Ireland Manie Libbok kicks the ball during the World Cup in Paris, France. (Photo: Gaspafotos / MB Media / Getty Images)



But throw a wrench in the gears of that machine, and Ireland’s vulnerabilities start to show. Pressure their set piece, disrupt their breakdown, slow down that ruck-recycle and suddenly Ireland’s multitalented ball carriers are on the back foot. We’ve seen the Boks employing this strategy in the past, and then using their rush defence to kill the attack.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Am returns to 39-man Springbok squad for Ireland Test but injury rules out Moodie

Ireland will go into this battle without a few important attacking weapons. Gibson-Park has been ruled out of the series after sustaining an injury in the recent United Rugby Championship playoffs.

Sexton retired after the World Cup, and other star players such as wing Mack Hansen (injury) and fullback Hugo Keenan (who will travel to the Olympic Games with the national sevens side) are unavailable.

Halfbacks Craig Casey and Jack Crowley have been good for Munster, but they are hardly in the same class as Gibson-Park and Sexton. If the Irish forwards are neutralised and the halfbacks don’t receive quick ball, a potentially imposing midfield of Aki and Garry Ringrose, as well as the dangerous winger James Lowe, may struggle to make an impact. The Ireland kicking game could also lose some of its potency.

Kick your goals


In the past two meetings, the Boks have ticked most of the aforementioned boxes, but they have still gone on to lose. In both instances, they failed to translate hard-earned dominance into points.

The Boks missed three shots on goal, and a potential seven points, in the 19-16 loss in Dublin in 2022.

Last year, they pushed four goal attempts wide in the World Cup pool match in Paris, a wayward performance that cost them 11 points in a tight contest that eventually ended 13-8 in Ireland’s favour.

Although the Boks have evolved over the years, they have often relied on their goal-kickers to steer them home in big series and tournaments – the past two World Cups, the two most recent Lions series, and so on.

They are fortunate to have one of the best goal-kickers on the planet in Handré Pollard, but their options for reliable kickers at Test level have been limited when the veteran flyhalf has been unavailable.

If Pollard breaks down at any point of the series, the Boks’ chances of winning will take a hit. Manie Libbok has shown that he has the ability to nail match winners from the touchline at URC level, but is yet to show any real consistency as a goal-kicker in a green-and-gold jersey.

The Boks have some exciting young flyhalves in Jordan Hendrikse and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu – who kicked a 55m ­penalty at Twickenham recently – but it would be a big ask for these rookies to shoulder that responsibility in a series of this magnitude. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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