Final analysis: Fantastic finish masks underwhelming year for Springboks

The Springboks ended 2022 on the highest of notes with a fantastic win over England at Twickenham, which had followed a thrashing of Italy in Genoa, but those two games have masked what was an average year for the world champions.

After their 2019 World Cup triumph in Japan, the Boks were set back by the Covid pandemic in 2020, as they missed out on a whole year of international rugby, before a mixed bag in 2021 saw them win the British and Irish Lions series, but produce a disjointed showing over the rest of the year.

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Going into 2022 hopes were high that the Boks had learnt from their mistakes and were much better prepared, having had a full international season in 2021.

With a number of their opponents in 2022 struggling, the Boks were also hot favourites to produce a big year on the international stage, however that did not happen.

The Boks ended the year with eight wins against five losses, a win ratio of just over 60%, which was very similar to what they produced in 2021.

They won their incoming series against Wales 2-1, disappointingly missed out on the Rugby Championship title, and won 50% of their games on their end-of-year-tour, making it an underwhelming year.

Wales series

At the start of their season back in July the Boks almost got off to the worst possible start, relying on a late Damian Willemse penalty to see them edge Wales in the first game of their incoming tour.

Wales had a desperately poor season, finishing ninth in the world, while suffering shock defeats to Italy and Georgia, while they threw away a 26 point lead in their last game against Australia to end a disastrous 2022.

They were heavy underdogs going into the Bok series, but almost produced a major shock in the first game, before they managed to pick up their first win on South African soil with a one point win in the second match.

This was the one acceptable Bok loss of the season, as the coaches threw caution to the wind by making wholesale changes to test their depth, and they still almost pulled off a win.

The third Test against Wales finally saw the Boks back to their best as their regulars put in a very good performance in lock Eben Etzebeth’s 100^th game, to brush aside the visitors, as they should have done in the opening match on the Highveld.

Rugby Championship

The Boks then started the Rugby Championship with arguably their best win of the season, as they absolutely dominated the All Blacks in Mbombela, but followed that up with a dismal showing a week later.

Going into the second match the Boks had everything going for them, with them playing at a fortress in Ellis Park, on the Highveld and playing against a struggling All Blacks team that had lost five of their previous six matches, but the Boks still contrived to lose the game.

They then followed that up with arguably their worst performance of the season, a terrible loss against an injury ravaged Australia in Adelaide, which put the All Blacks into the lead in the competition.

Despite the Boks finally finding their groove and ending the Rugby Championship with three strong wins, against the Wallabies in Sydney, and Argentina in Buenos Aires and Durban, it wasn’t enough to overhaul the All Blacks.

This made it a massive missed opportunity for the Boks, as they could easily have finished as unbeaten winners had they played to their potential.

November tour

The end-of-year-tour was then a chance at redemption for the Boks, but that was ended after two losses in their first two games against Ireland and France.

In the grand scheme of things they weren’t big losses as the scorelines were close and it was against the two in-form teams this year in their own back yard, but the Boks should be disappointed with their performance against Ireland, while their effort against France was much better.

A big finish to the year then followed, with wins against Italy and England, which has garnered the Boks a lot of goodwill and hope going into a World Cup year in 2023, and if they can continue the impressive style of play they produced over their final three games, they could become a force to be reckoned with.

It was also telling that coach Jacques Nienaber claimed that the end of year tour was his best since joining up with the Boks in 2018 and hopefully that will show in 2023.

“I said to the team after the game that this has probably been one of the most enjoyable four weeks I’ve had, although we only won 50% of our games. I thought that the working relationship between the coaching staff, management, players and game drivers was great,” said Nienaber.

“There was clarity and I thought we really gelled well. So although we didn’t get the results in the first two games on tour we were in with a chance.

“In the end it was enjoyable. We were creative in terms of the plans we made, we stuck with it and we gave it a good go. There were other enjoyable moments as well, but this group over these four games really took ownership from a player and management point of view and that was pleasing.”