DURBAN - How does a team go from losing 57-15 to the All Blacks at Kings Park in October last year to beating a strengthened France 37-15 at the same venue, a week after beating the same nation 37-14.
Independent media rugby writer Mike Greenaway has highlighted five changes made by the Springboks since 2016.
1. Get with the program
The saddest thing about the Springboks in 2016 was watching humiliated players cluelessly stumbling about the field. No plan, no idea, nobody taking charge. The players literally did not know what they were doing. There was no firm direction given on how to play and the composition of the team had no single Super Rugby franchise overly dominant. The Boks were a bits-and-pieces side and they could not make the pieces of the puzzle fit. In 2017, the team is dominated by the Lions, and the Boks play like the Lions. Problem solved. Simple.
2. Shore up the defence
One of the oldest clichés in rugby is that you judge the morale of a team by the way they tackle. In 2016, players made their one-on-one tackles, as you would expect from a Springbok, but that is where it ended. There was no energy on defence because - in terms of morale - the players were running on empty and frankly were too disheartened to spring up after a tackle and rush back into the line. Defence coach Brendan Venter has sorted the technical aspects out on defence but the most vital key to the dramatically improved defence is that the players are defending for each other, because they care.
3. A happy team is a winning team
Nobody likes losing. Last year the Boks were a desperately unhappy squad. They had to endure the ridicule on social media. In sport losing is a habit as much as winning is, but you will not break the losing habit until you have a smile on the dial, and you have all 23 players pulling in the same direction. When the game becomes enjoyable again - because everybody is on the same page - you will break the losing sequence. On Saturday one episode said it all. The Springbok pack stood miraculously firm, defending a 13-man French rumble towards the line. Last year, they wouldn’t have bothered.
4. Key players
have hit form
Is the Elton Jantjies of 2016 (in a Bok jersey) the same Jantjies that has run the show with aplomb in this series against France? They look the same but ... you get the point. They are different players in the top six inches of the head. An indication of the confidence in the flyhalf is that in two Tests he has been successful with 11 of 12 kicks at goal. He runs the show with the Boks in the same way that he has been running the Lions. Rugby is not rocket science. Build a team around form players from the form team.
G - " final week , gonna be BIG " @13LionelMapoe14 @Francoishougi @Skosan14 #preperation pic.twitter.com/CmJFOPMlKD
— elton jantjies (@jantjies_elton) June 18, 2017
5. Leading from the front
Warren Whiteley is the perfect captain for a rebuilding Bok team that needs a strong and exuberant leader. With respect to Adriaan Strauss, he was out of form last year and was too introverted to grab a team in disarray by the scruff of its neck. Whiteley has a natural ebullience about him that rubs off on his teammates. He is a positive, cheerful soul, he is the best player in his position, and he is the catalyst for the way the Lions play. Therefore the classic, rangy No 8 is the obvious catalyst for how the Boks must play now.