Boks at their best when favourites or underdogs? Mental coach weighs in ahead of World Cup

It’s common knowledge that the Springboks have always done well when faced with adversity, carrying the underdog tag, and when their backs are against the wall.

Indeed, in all of their three Rugby World Cup wins in 1995, 2007 and most recently in 2019, the Boks were not expected to come out on top, which seemed to motivate them to go the extra yard.

Now, heading to the global spectacle in France starting in 11 days’ time, the Boks are the defending champions, they are second in the world rankings and they are coming off record wins against Wales and the All Blacks in warm-up matches; it means they are in the circle of favourites.

‘At their best when underdogs’

It is something former Boks mental coach and psychologist Henning Gericke, who was part of Jake White’s backroom staff in 2007 in France, is not too pleased about.

He elaborated on why the Boks find more pleasure in being the underdogs.

“One thing about the Boks is you can never write them off, they’re at their best when they are a little bit the underdogs,” Gericke said when speaking to The Citizen.

“It’s a major thing about our South African mentality. If we’re favourites like ‘we’re going to win the World Cup’, we never do well. Last time (at the World Cup in Japan), everybody wrote us off. They complained about our kicking game, but then we beat Wales in the semi-final and peaked against England in the final.

“We are at our best when nobody expects us to win. England beat New Zealand in their semi-final (in 2019), so they became the big favourites .. and that’s when we played at our best.”

When in a position of favourites like in 1999, 2011 and 2015, the Boks fell short.

‘Never good as favourites’

“South Africans are never good when they are the favourites,” said Gericke.

“I’m always worried when South African teams have got a lot of confidence, and everyone talks them up. I’ve seen it too often … we need to be hungry, and we need to be aggressive.

“We play a different style of rugby, we play hard and have a good defence, we can attack, but we play a more conservative game that we dominate with our forwards, and we need to be aggressive.

“If you’re favourites, you’re not always that aggressive, you’re a little bit tentative sometimes and complacent,” said Gericke.

Bok coach Jacques Nienaber and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus have built one of the best squads international rugby has seen, and their tenure has brought a lot of success. This World Cup will now test the team’s fortitude in terms of doing well from a position of favourites, believes Gericke.

“Great teams can be favourites and still win. The Boks need to show that this time.”