Boks really have ‘pretty’ good win

There are those armchair experts who are describing yesterday’s World Cup Rugby semi-final win by the Springboks over Wales as “not pretty”.

We disagree … because any pass into the final of rugby’s premier tournament is pretty. What would really have been not pretty would have been not making it at all. So, let’s savour the moment. The Boks’ winning three-point margin in the 19-16 game did the job, because, just as you can’t be a little bit pregnant, you can’t only lose a little in a semi-final.

When we line up against England next weekend, it will be in the knowledge that we have never lost a World Cup Rugby final – we won in 1995 and again in 2007, when England were our hapless victims – and, to the superstitious at least, this is another 12-year gap from our last triumph.

On the other hand, we also reject the assertion by some die-hard fans that criticising yesterday’s performance is somehow unpatriotic and that had we been more loyal as fans over the years, the Boks might well have had a better record.

The match against Wales was billed beforehand by a number of rugby scribes as something akin to a chess match. That, frankly, is an insult to the cerebral and thinking game of chess. Both sides kicked way too much and the Boks lost too much possession that way.

Against an English side in anything like the form they were on Saturday in beating odds-on favourites the All Blacks, that sort of kicking will be punished severely. The Bok performance was still off par … which is good news because their really killer performance – when they finally click and show us proper running rugby – could be waiting in the wings.

As for the English, can they do it twice in a row? Somehow, we have a good feeling about this…

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