Boks don’t want to die wondering this time

The experienced Springbok duo of Malcolm Marx and Damian de Allende have won a Rugby World Cup together, they’ve beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand and this week they both made the Dream Team selected by World Rugby. What they have yet to do, and desperately want to do, is win against England at Twickenham.

They’ve only played against England at the famous stadium twice, once in 2018 and the other time in 2021, and both of them were frustrating experiences. Both of them were games where you could argue that the Boks should have won, and perhaps quite easily, were it not for their inconsistency during the game.

The 2018 defeat will be remembered for the Owen Farrell incident. The one where the England player clattered into Andre Esterhuizen with no arms and late. It should have been a penalty, and the Boks were trailing by just one point, but Australian referee Angus Gardner didn’t see it that way (and you wonder why Rassie Erasmus has his tizzy fits).

While the frustration shown by the Boks and their supporters after that game, which unlike this Saturday’s clash at Twickenham, started the tour for the Boks as opposed to finishing it, was understandable. The Boks should have won despite the referee, because they completely dominated the first half but just couldn’t score.

Heard that one before? It has been a constant problem for the Boks this year, and at other stages of the Erasmus/Jacques Nienaber era. Not converting their dominance in the 40 minutes in the 2018 game energised England, who came out after halftime refreshed and played with much more confidence.

In 2021 it was the reverse. Eddie Jones’ attacking ploys exposed rare chinks in the South African defensive system early on, and England ran up a handy lead. They were ahead 17-6 at one point, with the Bok scrum enduring the rare humiliation of being penalised, though they were for technical offences rather than being destroyed by their opponents.

The Bok scrum took its time to get the anticipated dominance, but it did in the second half. The maul had done the business against the England pack from the start, but that area also slipped into overdrive after halftime and the Boks clawed their way back despite another against-the-run-of-play try from England to take a narrow lead with seven minutes to play. With the South Africans having the bit firmly between their teeth and the pack completely on top, the win seemed assured.

However, England had the legs and the drive to get back into the Bok half one last time, and a controversial penalty was awarded that was kicked by Marcus Smith to give his team a 27-26 win.

De Allende has enough of a recollection of that game, and the one three years before that, to be pretty clear about what the Boks need to do at the home of English rugby on Saturday.

“I don’t think I have beaten England at Twickenham and it would be incredible to be able to tick that off,” said the Bok centre.

“It will be a tough encounter, as England are a great team who like us have been up and down recently, but that will add to their determination to win. I am not sure why winning at Twickenham has been so hard, but what I do know is that we just haven’t been consistent enough through the entire 80 minutes in either of the last two games we played there.

“There were a few moments last year where we came back after a poor start and could have won the game, but we didn’t take those opportunities. We had soft moments that cost us, and there was also a harsh yellow card call against us. Maybe we lost a bit of composure towards the end and tried to force things too much.

“But we have learned from that and spoken about it as a group. We know that in the last two games at Twickenham we have had our periods of dominance, but also periods where we have let ourselves down. The key on Saturday will be to minimise those down moments, be less patchy and put it together more consistently across the full 80 minutes,” he added.

Having also been part of the last two games, Marx shares De Allende’s pain, and his view of what is needed. What he is sure of is that both teams will be desperate to win.

“It is the last game of the year, but in my view we give our best regardless of whether it is the first game of the year or the last, or who the opponents are,” said Marx.

“The guys are excited and keen and very eager to win here. I have also never won at Twickenham, and it is something I desperately want to do. There has been an eye being kept on next year’s World Cup during the course of this season, but no team likes losing, and I think it is the same for England. They will be desperate to win too, while we will be looking for the victory that will enable us to start next year feeling positive.”