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South Africa reels after shocker
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The Springboks’ stunning defeat by Japan in their opening match of the Rugby World Cup has shocked South Africa, casting doubt on the team’s chances of progressing to the final stages of the tournament.
“Ultimate Bok Humiliation”, “Boks Humiliated” — were some of the headlines in South Africa’s main newspapers yesterday.
The Sunday Times stated that the defeat by the team ranked 13 in the world “rocked the game to its very foundations” — South Africa is ranked No. 3 and has twice won the World Cup.
Under the headline “Bok heads to roll”, the paper said the future of coach Heyneke Meyer may be in doubt following the shock defeat. It also said the explosive match exposed flaws in Meyer’s “old man” game plan.
Meyer’s team included world cup veterans like Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana and was the most experienced South African outfit ever to take the to field with a combined total of 851 caps across the 15 starters.
In his column, former Springbok Ashwin Willemse wrote that the impact of the defeat “may be so devastating that we might not even make it past the quarterfinals or be lucky to even reach that stage”.
As a rugby-mad country, the 32-34 defeat also drew widespread shock and surprise from fans, who expected the Springboks to cruise past a Japan side that had not won a World Cup match since 1991.
“I thought it was an absolute farce, I was expecting South Africa to win by a way, way big margin,” said Wayne Saralina, a 46-year-old fan.
The Springboks went to the World Cup under the usual cloud of a race row over the selection of the team. Critics, including top government officials, have repeatedly accused the sport’s administrators of maintaining elitism by mostly selecting white players.
Japan plays Scotland on Wednesday in its second Pool B game while South Africa has an additional three days to recover before meeting Samoa on Saturday.
A day after England had kicked off the six-week showpiece by quelling a fired-up Fiji at Twickenham, there were also victories for Ireland, France and Georgia.
But Saturday belonged to Japan, a country that will host the 2019 edition.
Nicknamed the Brave Blossoms, the men in red and white shirts finally provided a moment worthy of the moniker when they refused to settle for a probable draw when they were awarded a kickable penalty in the dying seconds of the game.
Meanwhile, Wales sparkled in patches and ran in eight tries, including three for center Cory Allen, to overpower Uruguay 54-9 in their opening Pool A match yesterday.
Hit by injuries, the Welsh moved level with England at the top of the group on five points ahead of the teams’ seismic clash at Twickenham next Saturday.
In the day’s early game, Samoa beat the United States 25-16 in Pool B.
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