If all you saw was the 40-0 and nothing else, hold your horses

By Enock Muchinjo

HARARE – Knowledgeable Sables fans will not be astonished by the mildly dissatisfied murmurs from the Springbok camp that the South Africa ‘A’ side wasn’t as clinical enough as they would have liked to see against Zimbabwe on Saturday.

Simply because, unless you’re merely an armchair critic like most who have reacted to the result, everything leading up to the outcome in Gqeberha on Saturday will make sense beyond what the graphic designers circulated after the final whistle.

To conclude, purely on the basis of the scorecard, that Zimbabwe were outplayed by South African novices, or Under-20s, isn’t only a little too simplistic.

It’s a deficiency in the grasp of world rugby’s state of affairs, of the game itself, and of the untamable beast that is South African rugby in the world at the moment. In fact, I would go as far as saying it’s an insult to the Sables as well as the very good men and women behind the scenes who’ve made it possible to be even where we are now.

The SA ‘A’ side that lined-up for the national anthems at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday was not a fly-by-night project simply for the South Africans to fulfil an obligation, if at all they have any towards anyone, or to please Zimbabwe by pretending to take them seriously.

This was serious business by the world’s best rugby nation, whose vision and strategic foresight is quite simply unparalleled at the moment even by their peers in world rugby.

What we saw was the next generation of a super Test team that has dominated world rugby with an iron grip, and has absolutely no intention of loosening that stranglehold anytime soon.

We were witnessing the exhibition of a national South African project, a special project so dear to the heart of the all-conquering Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus.

In the words of Erasmus himself in the build-up to the game, giving those extremely talented players SA ‘A’ caps on Saturday was crucially important for the purpose of “capturing” them so that they won’t in future switch allegiance and become eligible to play for any other international team other than the Springboks.

This was what the Sables were up against on Saturday and it is no child’s play.

For a country whose national schoolboy XV will offer strong competition to a lot of national teams in the world throughout 80 minutes, what the Sables were facing on Saturday, against five capped Springboks and others knocking hard on the selectors’ doors, can only be underestimated by those with little devotion to events and the game.

On the Sables’ part, what was left therefore after Saturday was to take a full retrospect of the game and see if they made the most of the occasion.

I really felt they did, for the simple reason that SA ‘A’ didn’t totally dominate and if it’s true that they felt their performance on Saturday was underwhelming, Zimbabwe should take it as a huge compliment.

The Zimbabwe players and coaching staff must take credit for it.

They played direct, and that left little room for the South Africans’ forwards to exploit the Sables. Zimbabwe needed to move away from the expansive and loose game we saw in the friendlies against Zambia few months ago, otherwise the score would have doubled in Gqeberha.

There were lot of pleasing factors for the Sables that should not go unnoticed.

The scrums were a thing of beauty – they didn’t buckle under pressure.  The forwards did their primary job well; they were present at breakdowns and fought tooth and nail.

That the Sables did their homework was evident in quite a few areas of their game on Saturday. For example, South African teams, when they play against their greatest rivals in the world, normally destroy the opposition when they do the second shove at scrum time. They always tend to milk a penalty out of that.

That second shove for Zimbabwe was stable, thanks to roughly about 910kgs upfront, probably the heaviest forward pack in the history of the Sables.

Debutant lock Gary Porter is 115kgs, he added the much-needed weight to the side. Then not forgetting the impact players like the front-rowers Liam Larkan, Michael Kumbirai and Tjde Visser, who all come from the South African rugby system.

Yes, 40-0 is rather harsh if you’re one who’ll prefer to ignore context and rather go for sensationalism.

Saturday wasn’t Zimbabwe’s first time to be playing against South African reserve teams as opener to Springbok Tests.

In the past, against lesser Springbok Emerging sides, not as deliberately and strategically assembled as the one we saw this Saturday, the Sables used to get a good hiding even with some of our finest players in history in the line-up.

40 points, yes, some soft tries, yes, no reply from the Sables, yes.

But you ought to have seen something else.

The line-outs, too, worked well for Zimbabwe. Big Porter even stole line-outs of the SA ‘A’ ball, and him being a product of SA schoolboy and varsity rugby, and now with Stormers and playing Currie Cup rugby for Western Province, he of course understands the calls. It is yet another good reason for the Sables to tap into more players of Zimbabwean heritage plying their trade at that sort of level down south.

On the whole, a very commendable team effort.

Tapiwa Mafura – cool, calm and classy from the back as ever, giving Zimbabwe go-forward ball. He tried to link here and there with the mercurial winger Eddie Sigauke, although it didn’t bear fruit when the Sables visited the South Africans’ 22.

Not getting any points after frequently getting into the opposition’s 22 is obviously a downside, but being able to even get there in the first place is a positive for the Sables moving forward.

If you don’t get it, forget about it.