HIER KOM DIE BOKKE!

The rugby world cup fever’s got us. People are skipping class and heading to a pub to watch the Springboks play in Japan. This is the most the entire country, as a collective, has cared about rugby since our victory in 2007. Maybe  it is because we stand a decent to good chance of actually winning this year or the formative change with the team having its first black captain, Siya Kolisi. I guess that’s something to be proud of.

I can't help but think back to 2007. I was only 10 years old at the time but I remember the 2007 IRB World Cup quite well, the atmosphere if nothing else. After winning the final, I saw it fit to have a “wall of fame” in my bedroom which heavily featured the Springboks and other movie posters.

The team that played in 2007 was impressive, to put it lightly. You know how every kid wants to be a sports star after an immaculate victory? Well, that wasn’t me, although I did idolise the Bokkes. Some of the players that were in the team include Schalk Burger who had his own burger with Steers(see what they did there?), the charismatic Victor Matfield, John Smit the greatest captain there ever was, Os "The Boss" du Randt, Percy Montgomery the golden haired prince, and Bryan Habana who I was surprised to see still pouncing around for TV commercials.

In that campaign, the Springboks went unbeaten through the entire tournament having been in the same group as England before meeting again in the final.  I remember how the England captain thought he had the bead on us because he could count to three in Afrikaans. Lol.

That's all in the past now so let’s take a look at Sunday’s match, Japan vs Springboks. This will the third time the teams go head-to-head in the entire history of rugby. The Cherry Blossoms won the first encounter back at the 2015 IRB World Cup with a narrow score of 34 – 32, one of the biggest upsets in rugby. Recently, though, the two teams went head-to-head in a warm-up match in September with the Bokkes securing a decided victory of 41 – 7. We definitely showed them. But, these are the quarter finals; mentalities are more stiff, there is much more at stake than the gloomy feeling of disappointment after a lose.

Currently, at the world cup, Japan is on a better form than the Springboks, having won all four of their matches in the group stages  and finishing top of the table. Whilst, on the other hand, the Bokkes lost their opening match against New Zealand with the half decent score of 23 – 13, hence, only managing to finish a modest 2^nd.

  

It is with little to no bias when I say that Springboks are the favourites for this encounter. Comparing the two, South Africa comes out on top in the attack and defense domains. Across the four opening matches, the Bokkes managed to gather 185 points whilst giving away a forgivable 36 points. This sets us with the highest points difference(+135) in the entire tournament. On the other hand, the Brave Blossoms came away with a total of 115 points after allowing 62 points against them resulting in a points difference of 53, the second lowest difference of all the qualifying teams. This is not say we can write-off our Japanese counterparts. They have caused an upset before and they aren’t afraid to do it again. These fellas ain’t no push over. Propelled by the 100% winning record, the underdog spirit burning within and a continent made up of 127 million fired up individuals egging them to win, I’d say this is going to be an even match.

Kick-off is at 12:15 (SA time) on Sunday, 20 October.