‘The Boks are missing Marx’ — former ’95 World Cup winner

Former lock Mark Andrews says the Springbok pack has been less effective without Malcolm Marx at hooker.

Marx started the Boks’ opening match of the 2023 World Cup against Scotland before suffering a tournament-ending knee injury at training.

It was a huge blow to the defending champions, with Marx having been in the form of his life and virtually irreplacable.

So it wasn’t a surprise when coaches Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber used the setback to bring fit-again flyhalf Handre Pollard back into the squad, instead of next-in-line hooker Joseph Dweba.

Bongi Mbonambi, who had been a Bomb Squad member against Scotland, regained the No 2 jersey with versatile veteran utility forward Deon Fourie backed as the back-up hooker.

While it was business as usual for the Boks against whipping boys Romania, Marx’s absence was keenly felt in the loss to No 1-ranked Ireland.

Big blow

“I don’t think the South African public realise what a big loss Malcolm Marx is to the Springboks,” says Andrews, who earned 77 Test caps from 1994 to 2001 and was part of the team that won the 1995 World Cup. “His presence in that pack … he brought something else and was at a different level.

“If you look at the effectiveness of the Boks’ lineout mauls, they just haven’t fired like they did when Marx was there. The same with the effectiveness of our scrummaging.

“Against Ireland, the Boks had three attacking lineouts and scrums, and if Marx had been there I’m convinced we would have come away with at least two tries from those five set pieces.

“Our Bomb Squad also isn’t as effective because Bongi is now starting. He brought a huge amount of energy off the bench.”

Forward dominance

Andrews says the Springboks’ game plan is based on forward dominance and smashing their opponents behind the gainline, and when they can’t achieve that, they become vunerable.

“You don’t have to be a strategic analyst to know how the Boks will play against you. They’re going to try dominate you in the forwards and put you on the back foot in every set piece. They’re going to try win the contact in the tackle, because the whole Bok game plan depends on the opponents attacking while on the back foot, which allows our rush defence to work and cut them off.

“If the opposition kick, they do so under pressure, and we’ve got incredibly dangerous outside backs on who can counter-attack from a bad kick. All of that is reliant on our pack dominating the set pieces and broken phases.

“For the first 20 minutes of the match against Ireland, the Irish couldn’t get over the gainline because every time they got the ball they were hit backwards. But we couldn’t sustain that impact and pressure, and the Irish were able to get over the gainline and get momentum. All of a sudden, the Boks looked a bit vulnerable.”

South Africa also weren’t helped by the fact that flyhalf Manie Libbok missed two goal kicks, and Faf de Klerk two-longe range efforts from penalties that should perhaps have been used to set up attacking lineouts inside the Irish 22.

“Manie is a superb attacking player, but to win a World Cup you have to have a kicker with an 80% success rate,” says Andrews. “One of the reasons we lost to Ireland is that we missed our kicks [and 11 potential points]. Points on the scoreboard also builds pressure [on the opposition]  and we weren’t able to do that.”

Massive clash on the cards

If the Springboks claim a bonus-point win in their final pool match against Tonga on Sunday, and Ireland beat Scotland or avoid a big defeat next weekend, the quarter-finals will witness a huge clash between the world champions and the World Cup hosts at the Stade de France on 15 October.

“I would have preferred for us to play the French in the final, when they would have been under more pressure and more emotional [because of the occasion],” says Andrews.

“For us to beat them, we will have to match them in the goal-kicking department, because we will get the penalties. The French have the pack to contain our pack and will have learned from what the Irish did against the Boks.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see Duane Vermeulen play against France because we’ve lost Marx’s ball-stealing ability – Marx is always good for two or three steals, especially in the Boks’ 22. Duane is always good for two as well, and has the ability to slow down opposition ball.

“If you give the French slow ball, they’ll then kick to us which, as I said, will play into our hands with our ability to counter-attack.

“And if we beat the French, I think we’ll go all the way.”

This story was first published on sarugbymag. It is republished here with permission.