A rainy Corsica welcomed the Springboks at their pre-World Cup base on Monday, but the weather could do nothing to dampen the mood of a team that had just handed out a record defeat to the All Blacks.

The Boks are in the final stages of their preparations for the defence of their Rugby World Cup title in France. It starts against Scotland at Stade Velodrome in Marseille on 10 September.

A heaving Twickenham, scene of the Springboks’ 35-7 win over the All Blacks last Friday, had seldom seen anything like it. The world of rugby had certainly never witnessed New Zealand losing by such a wide margin because it had never happened before.

The Boks’ relentless pressure led to an ill-disciplined performance from the All Blacks that ended in 15 penalties, five of their own lineouts lost, two yellow cards and a red card for Scott Barrett (for a second yellow).

All Black prop Tyrel Lomax suffered a serious gash on the leg, from a stray stud, which required 30 stitches. Things could hardly have been any worse for the All Blacks, who have subsequently limped to the base of kit sponsor Adidas in Germany, to finalise their World Cup preparations.

The only good news for Ian Foster’s men is that Barrett was cleared of any further sanction by a disciplinary committee. All Black skipper Sam Cane has followed Foster’s post-match comments, suggesting that the outcome was a wake-up call for the All Blacks.

It most certainly was like having a bucket of ice-cold water poured over you, especially as the All Blacks face hosts France in the tournament opener at the Stade de France on 8 September.

The Boks also showed their ability to adapt and innovate, when losing fullback Willie le Roux in the warm-up to a minor niggle they opted to add looseforward Kwagga Smith to the bench. That made it an unheard of  7/1 split between forwards and backs.

And around the 50-minute mark, all seven forward replacements were added to the contest en masse. It was an extraordinary show of brute force but also a show of the ability to push boundaries.

The Boks’ tactics, developed in the Rassie Erasmus/Jacques Nienaber laboratory of out-the-box thinking, have already had many writers on the sport calling for a change to regulations. It’s the ultimate compliment — ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, change the rules.’

RG Snyman pinches an All Blacks lineout. New Zealand lost five lineouts on their own ball at Twickenham last Friday on their way to a record 35-7 loss. (Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images)

No complacency

While the brutal beating the Boks dished out will certainly focus New Zealand minds, the reigning world champions have to protect themselves from becoming complacent.

At least that’s the theory. In reality, the Boks were immediately looking ahead and picking over the bones of what they could’ve done better at Twickenham, and not what they did well.

Veteran No 8 Duane Vermeulen chose to focus on shortcomings, rather than spend too much time metaphorically patting the team on the back.

“We made mistakes (against New Zealand) and there were a couple of things that didn’t go our way — discipline was one of them,” Vermeulen said.

“We got a yellow card and gave away penalties that can make you lose a game, so we have to sharpen up on that.

“We really wanted to play a full 80 after the last time we met, and I think the guys really played their part. Our last game against New Zealand wasn’t great and our first 20 minutes was our worst performance against New Zealand ever. They capitalised on our mistakes.

“This week we’d worked on all those small things that didn’t go well. This is one step in the right direction — there are still one or two little things that we can tweak. The coaches are happy and the team’s really happy with the performance and hopefully we can build on that.

“I think there’s still a lot in the tank. We’ve got to prepare well for our first game against Scotland. All the focus is on Scotland from this moment on.”

Bok skipper Siya Kolisi has told his team that “the hard work starts now” as they begane the final phase of their RWC 2023 preparation in Corsica. (Photo: Juan Jose Gasparini/Gallo Images)

All business

Captain Siya Kolisi was all business after the match: “I’m proud of the boys, but we know the hard work starts now. We have to go and defend the World Cup in France.”

Coach Jacques Nienaber was similarly forward-thinking after the All Blacks’ demolition job.

“For us, it’s a good performance in terms of again certain things we wanted to get right,” Nienaber 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 was about eight opportunities where we got held up twice.”

The Boks are back up to number two in the world rankings — not that it matters much considering the Pools were allocated three years ago and it will count for nothing in France.

“We don’t even look at the rankings,” Nienaber said. “In 2019, I don’t even know what number we were — probably number five — and we ended up winning.

“This is just a step towards our goal. It’s good to build momentum. “After the last Test against New Zealand (the Boks lost 35-20 in Auckland), we had to change a few things, and the players came with some good suggestions and the management and coaches too.

“We found some solutions, but we didn’t get one point in the World Cup for beating the All Blacks and New Zealand will feel the same. It was a warm-up for the World Cup, and that’s it.”

Vermeulen added: “We really wanted to lay a marker down going into the World Cup and we wanted to show each other what lies inside every single person,” he said.

“We played for one another, and it was a fantastic result for us. It was our biggest margin over New Zealand so it was a good one and good preparation — but it’s now just the start of the World Cup and hopefully we can go into it with a bit of confidence.” DM