Prayers for their heroes as Boks take training to Cape Flats before Wallaby rematch

The Springboks took their Rugby Championship preparations to the Cape Flats suburb of Belhar on Wednesday in the run-up to their clash against Australia at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

South Africa suffered a surprise 38-22 defeat to the Wallabies at Ellis Park in Johannesburg last Saturday and will be looking to fix that seven days later in the Mother City, with head coach Rassie Erasmus making 10 changes to the 23-player team.

At Wednesday’s training session at the Erica Park Sports Ground – known for hosting the Bayhill soccer tournament in April every year – residents from surrounding areas streamed into the venue.

The sole pavilion at Erica Park, which overlooks the main field, where the Boks trained, was filled with children in school uniforms from all over the Northern Suburbs of the Western Cape, from Belhar High to Fairbairn College. There were no spare seats on the pavilion with teachers and the smaller, primary school kids standing on the stairs leading to the seats.

As the Springboks’ arrived in their trademark green bus embellished with the words “Forever Green, Forever Gold” on its sides, spectators on the raised grass embankment opposite the pavilion poured over to catch a glimpse of their favourite rugby heroes.

Prayers

The emcee of the day, a local resident, insisted on opening the session with a prayer because “after Saturday’s game the team needs prayer”.

It was the Springboks’ first loss of the year and broke their eight-match winning streak dating back to the end of last season’s Rugby Championship when they fell by one point to Argentina, in a 29-28 loss in Santiago del Estero.

The emcee handed the mic to a pastor who had been invited to say a few words and a prayer. He was, however, interrupted twice by a legion of schoolchildren in the pavilion who couldn’t help themselves and chanted “Manie! Manie! Manie!” when they saw flyhalf Manie Libbok run onto the field.

Libbok had a nightmarish second half against the Wallabies, at one point attempting a massive skip pass which was intercepted by Australian winger Joseph Suaalii who touched down unscathed.

Nevertheless, the maverick flyhalf clearly remains a fan favourite among the locals. He is not in the playing 23, replaced by Handrè Pollard in the No 10 jersey, although Erasmus confirmed that was a planned decision.

Scrumming lessons

On the field, set-pieces were a big focus in the Boks’ training, kicking off with lineouts and mauling. South Africa lost an uncharacteristic seven lineouts last week, and they’ll be hungry to improve in this area.

Outside the fenced-off field rugby balls were passed around among youngsters which led to games of touch rugby and a brief spell of “running it straight” challenges. There were also impromptu scrums with eight players from opposing schools taking each other on, not to be outdone by the ferocious Springbok pack practising their scrumming technique.

Young flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who is on the bench for Saturday’s fixture, was the last one to leave the practice field, slotting attempts at goal from the halfway line with distance to spare as assistant coach Tony Brown shared some advice.

By that stage crowd-pleasing winger Cheslin Kolbe had probably signed his 50th autograph as adults and teens alike handed their Springbok jerseys over the fence to get the double-Rugby World Cup winner’s signature.

Damian Willemse, André Esterhuizen, Ruan Nortjé and Damian de Allende were among a group of Bok players who stayed to provide the hundreds of youngsters in school uniform with selfies and autographs with which to brag at school tomorrow.

Wednesday was the team’s last big training session. Thursday is a rest day and Friday is the captain’s run before the big match day on Saturday at Cape Town Stadium. DM