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Wembley will be the calm before the storm for the Boks

rugby27 October 2025 06:05
By:Gavin Rich
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Springboks © Getty Images

The last time the Springboks played Japan it was when they won their quarterfinal against the host nation at Tokyo Stadium during the 2019 Rugby World Cup. It was a close game for a while before the South African power took its toll.

Of course, it is not really that game that most neutral observers will think of when the names Springbok and Japan are lumped together. That would be Brighton, 2015. The first game the Boks coached by Heyneke Meyer and captained by Jean de Villiers played at the tournament hosted by England.

The Bok loss that day reverberated around the world and completely overshadowed what happened later at that World Cup for the South Africans - Fourie du Preez took over the captaincy when De Villiers was injured in the next game against Samoa in Birmingham and they won their group before progressing to the semifinal. Where they lost a close game to eventual winners New Zealand by just two points.

A lot happened off the back of that result. Eddie Jones was the Japan coach, and it was because of that win that he was seconded to the England coaching role after that World Cup. That was a role he stayed in until the Boks thumped England at Twickenham in November 2022, just under a year out from the next World Cup in France.

Jones then coached his native Australia during a disastrous World Cup campaign that saw them fail to get out of the group stage for the first time. And now he is back with Japan.

With Saturday’s game at Wembley being the first time Jones has coached Japan against the Boks since that fateful, or memorable depending on who you support, day in Brighton in September 2015.

Du Preez, who knew Jones well after playing for him at Santori, warned his fellow Boks ahead of that game a decade ago not to underestimate Japan. With so many of the Boks now playing in Japan, it will be interesting to learn if there are similar warnings being issued behind closed doors as Saturday’s opening to a tough tour approaches.

However, while Japan will be respected, this week is very much the calm before the storm for Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks. South African rugby has grown since Brighton, and they should be able to deal with Japan with a second or third string team should it be necessary.

But with a seismic clash with the northern hemisphere leaders at the moment, France, up the next week, it is going to be interesting to see what selection the coach comes up with for the Wembley game.

Ideally it should be a chance to blood less experienced players, like the young Stormers prop Zachary Porthen, but with the last Castle Lager Rugby Championship game now four weeks ago, there is surely also a need for the Bok first choice combinations to realign before what could be a massive test match.

BOKS HAVE PLAYED MORE RECENTLY THAN FRANCE

Yet whatever combination Erasmus does come up with on Saturday will have played international rugby more recently than the French team did.

Officially the last test match France played was in New Zealand in July, but the French didn’t take a full strength squad to the All Black series. So the game in Paris on 8 November will be the first time the France full strength side will have been together since March, when they clinched the Six Nations.

That might be to the Bok advantage, and there have been some injuries in the French camp, plus of course Antoine Dupont, their talisman, is still out with a long term injury. But the Bok buildup hasn’t been untroubled either, with the management no doubt waiting on any appeal that there may be on the verdict in the Jan-Hendrik Wessels disciplinary.

 

 

HOLDING THUMBS ON WILLEMSE

As a player who is effectively the new Ox Nche and the new Malcolm Marx all rolled up into one, Wessels will be missed if he is not there. But Gerhard Steenekamp is back after missing the entire southern hemisphere international season so there is cover, which makes the fullback situation even more pressing if rumours about Damian Willemse’s hamstring injury are proved correct.

Stormers director of rugby John Dobson didn’t seem too concerned after his team’s win over Benetton and reminded us that he let Willemse play on after he felt his “hamstring strain”. So maybe there’s nothing to worry about.

However, with Aphelele Fassi injured and Willie le Roux left at home, it does beg the question about what Erasmus will do should the current first choice No 15 - in the absence of Fassi - be ruled out of any games.

There is plenty of utility value in the group, and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu could be as at home at fullback as he is at flyhalf. You suspect though that it is at No 10 that the Boks will most benefit from him getting game time.

After the France game the Boks will move on to Italy, which should present Erasmus with another opportunity to experiment, before the second big game of the tour in Dublin against Ireland.

The Boks haven’t won in Ireland since 2012 and they weren’t happy when they had to share the series with the talkative Irish in South Africa last year so it will be a game the South Africans will be desperate to win before they close out the tour with another experiment opportunity against Wales in Cardiff on 29 November.

Springbok End of Year Tour

Japan (Wembley Stadium, London, 1 November)

France (Stade de France, Paris, 8 November)

Italy (Allianz Stadium, Turin, 15 November)

Ireland (AVIVA Stadium, Dublin, 22 November)

Wales (Principality Stadium, Cardiff, 29 November)

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