Boks fly on the wings of fitness and form

The question is if the coach had enough time to build a team

● Already billed as potentially the most open and keenly contested Rugby World Cup (RWC), this year’s tournament in Japan should reveal if burgeoning form carries more weight than enduring class.

The Boks are unbeaten in their four matches this year and they will draw huge inspiration from the fact the All Blacks failed to beat them for two successive years in the New Zealand capital Wellington.

The Boks have lost just once in their last seven matches, while the All Blacks have been slightly off their imperious best, losing last month to the Wallabies.

There is however nothing new in them slipping up ahead of the big event as their coaches are then most likely to mix and match combinations.

The Wallabies have sneaked a win over their Trans-Tasman rivals ahead of the last three RWCs. The All Blacks have of course gone on to win the last two instalments and much of that success would have been built on the back of winning with monotonous regularity between RWCs.

While the Boks’ recent form is encouraging, their win percentage since the last RWC is only 48.8, while the All Blacks have won 82.6% of their matches.

England have achieved a win record of 76.7% since the last RWC despite losing five in a row last year. Since losing to New Zealand at Twickenham last year however they’ve only lost to Wales, albeit twice.

Australia have a paltry win percentage of

‘I think we can still lift the intensity and we can go toe-to-toe conditioning-wise with the top teams in the world’

41.3 since they made the 2015 final.

Ireland have a 71.4 win percentage since the last RWC. They however suffered three defeats this year, the most alarming coming in the last Test when they were hammered 57-15 by England.

Wales will go into the tournament with the most impressive form. They lost only once in their last 16 matches and boast a win percentage of 65.1 since the last RWC.

While the coaches of those teams have been able to carefully plan since the last RWC, Springbok fans will be asking whether the two years Rassie Erasmus had to bed down his combinations will be enough to launch a serious challenge at the RWC.

Captain Siya Kolisi was in no doubt that the team should take as much of their recently acquired momentum into the event. “We are going to build on what we worked on. The RWC is a different tournament. We have to make sure we pitch up every time.”

Coach Erasmus laid bare what he believes will make his team competitive.

“We have 31 fit guys. They are conditioned well and medically fit.

“I think we can still lift the intensity and we can go toe-to-toe conditioning-wise with the top teams in the world.

“The moment you are able to do that then it is a question of getting the tactics right and we are slowly getting the tactics right.”