‘The gees is unbelievable’ says rugby coach

LUKE ALFRED

“We can win it,” he says, noting that Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has built on traditional South African rugby strengths of superb conditioning and unremitting physicality. “He’s backed his captain, Siya Kolisi, in a similar way to the way that Jake White backed John Smit when Jake first started out as coach, and he’s taken the template of White and Kitch Christie and focused on traditional South African rugby strengths.”

That said, Musikanth believes that the final against Eddie Jones’ England in Yokohama on Saturday won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. It will be rugby for the die-hard fan and aficionado, he predicts, custom-made for those who like their rugby dour and attritional. “This is a rugby purists’ dream final,” he says. “Everyone would like the flair brought to the game by, say, a New Zealand or a France, but this is going to be down to a kicking game and a try here or there.”

Evan Speechly, who was the Springbok physiotherapist when Joel Stransky slotted that never-to-be-forgotten drop-goal against the All Blacks in extra-time at Ellis Park in 1995, doesn’t think twice when asked about who will emerge victorious in Japan. “There is no doubt that South Africa are going to win this final,” he said from Dubai, where he is assisting the Dutch cricket team in an International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 tournament. “We really are looking incredibly strong. It’s an extremely well-drilled squad and just the gees [spirit], as we say, is looking unbelievable in that side.

“All of us in Dubai see it as [a Springbok win] about to happen,” Speechly said. “The 1995 group are confident it’s going to happen, so we are all looking to a great final.”

Musikanth, whose Ikeys also won the World Varsity Cup in 2015, is a great fan of Erasmus, calling it a masterstroke that he’s been able to adapt and extend historical Bok strengths like forward dominance, strong defence, and the kicking game.

That said, he’s also a great admirer of the Sydney-born Jones, saying that the quality of England’s physical and mental preparation has been truly astounding. “Eddie’s going to have good insight into our plans [Jones was part of White’s coaching staff when the Springboks last won the World Cup in 2007] because of his involvement with the Boks. The game is going to be cracker.”

He notes that both South Africa and England use an aggressive, in-your-face defence, and this is going to give the final a bruising intensity. “They’ve got hitters, big tacklers, like Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola, and Sam Underhill who all showed how Kieran Read and Beauden Barrett were smashed back in those hits in the semi-final. New Zealand were rocked back, and were unable to gain any attacking momentum. We would need to be aware of that.

“England’s defence has been incredibly effective in the tournament so far,” he says. “They kept New Zealand down to seven points; they kept Argentina down to ten points; Australia – a side which can attack from basically anywhere on the pitch – were kept to 16 points. That’s really remarkable.”

Musikanth also points out that not playing France (the points were shared when the game was cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis) will clearly be to England’s advantage come Saturday’s final. “It means that we’ve played 20% more rugby than England have, because we played all our pool games,” he says. “Eddie realises that what it boils down to is a marathon runner who runs 5km before the start of the main race. That’s going to be huge.”

While not discounting England, Musikanth remains an evangelist for all that is green and gold. Having showed steady improvement under Erasmus, he’s not surprised that the Boks have reached the final, and thinks they can go all the way.

Should Kolisi be lifting The Webb Ellis Cup aloft in Yokohama on Saturday, it will be an incredible journey for the youngster from the Port Elizabeth township of Zwide. A boarder at Grey High in Port Elizabeth, Kolisi lost both his mother and grandmother when he was a boy, his path being littered with obstacles that would have hobbled the more faint-hearted.

If Musikanth tends to see things through green-tinted spectacles, he’s also Israel’s national coach, and bemoans the fact that rugby doesn’t have more opportunity for smaller nations. “There was a plan for a promotion-relegation system through what was called the Nations Cup which gave a team like Georgia the opportunity to get into the Six Nations, but it was shelved. I never really found out the reasons why.”

Such dynamism would have been good for all the smaller rugby-playing nations, including Israel, because it would have given them something to build for. Israel’s next fixture is against Malta in March. Rest assured, they’ll be preparing for it with the same kind of intensity the Boks are bringing to Saturday’s World Cup final.