Rain or shine, Boks will be ready for any conditions on World Cup final day

The Springboks will be prepared for whatever the weather gods decide to do on Saturday when the defending champions from 2019 take on the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris.

The Boks were found wanting by an intelligent kicking game from England in the rain in their semifinal clash at the same stadium last weekend, and they will hopefully be better prepared should they face the same conditions in the final.

Early indications are that rain will fall in Paris at the weekend, meaning it could be another wet affair in Saint-Denis.

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Bok assistant coach Daan Human has claimed that the weather was not something that the team are worried about and that they would be ready come game day.

“We’ve been training in the rain. The big guys enjoyed it especially, and there was a lot of energy. The circumstances will be the same for both teams on Saturday, so the conditions don’t really matter,” said Human.

“All credit to England. They had us on the backfoot for a while and it was a wake-up call. We’ll need to lift our game and be better if we want to be the world champions again.”

Forward battle

The forward battle will be a big one in the final and the Boks will be hoping to get some first half ascendancy before unleashing their famed ‘bomb squad’ in the second half.

This season the Boks have struggled a bit when starting with Steven Kitshoff, who hasn’t been able to get the ascendancy he usually does in the scrums, but have been able to hammer teams with the introduction of Ox Nche in the second half and they will hope to do it again against the All Blacks.

 “We’ve worked hard on our scrums in the last four years and it’s one of the big rocks in our game, similarly the lineouts and our kicking game,” said Human.

“We always strive to be better, and I still feel we are not where we want to be even though we only have one match left to try to reach that level.

“They (the All Blacks) are good in all departments, and they are better in the scrums as well. They are well prepared, they have a great forward pack, and they’ll certainly try to use it to their advantage and dominate there, so it will be a tough battle.”