Little to choose between Springboks and Wales in second semi

The Springboks are preparing for an epic battle against Wales. Photo: Steve Haag Sports/ Hollywoodbets

The Springboks are preparing for an epic battle against Wales. Photo: Steve Haag Sports/ Hollywoodbets

Published Oct 25, 2019

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TOKYO – With South Africa feeling they are

close to perfecting their attritional game-plan and Wales having

long ago decided that defence can be the best form of attack,

Sunday's second World Cup semi-final will probably not bring

many surprises. 

While Springbok physicality and pragmatism brought an end to

Japan's effervescent run through the tournament last weekend,

Wales made a meal of struggling past a France side reduced to 14

men for half an hour. 

The South Africans will not find it as easy to beat up a

Wales side that prides itself on its suffocating defence on

Sunday, and Warren Gatland's side will probably believe they

cannot perform so poorly for two weeks in a row. 

Both sides have lost fine running backs to injury in the

shape of South Africa winger Cheslin Kolbe and Welsh fullback

Liam Williams – only encouraging the suspicion that this might

be a forward-dominated game for the rugby purist.

A titanic battle at the set piece between two big and

experienced packs, plenty of kicking from hand all over the park

and big men from both teams trying smash their way over the

gainline can be expected.

The band of fleet-footed outside backs might struggle to

find room to shine, especially on a Yokohama International

Stadium pitch likely to be at the very least damp from the

typhoon season rains. 

Six Nations Grand Slam champions Wales, disregarding three

defeats in warm-up matches, consider themselves unbeaten in

"competitive" contests since February 2018 and have won four of

their last five games against South Africa.

All four wins have come in Cardiff at the close of South

Africa's season, however, and the Springboks will feel they won

the one of the five that mattered most, the 2015 World Cup

quarter-final. 

The clashes have mostly been won by one or two scores and

the expectation is that it will again be a tight affair with

South Africa flyhalf Handre Pollard believing a single kick will

probably settle it.

Motivation should never be a problem in a World Cup

semi-final but both teams have had a sense of mission driving

them at this tournament.

The 2011 semi-final loss to France after Sam Warburton was

sent off has haunted Wales ever since and there will be a

determination from a battle-hardened squad to send Gatland off

at the end of his 12 years of service with some sort of prize. 

"You get these opportunities once in a lifetime potentially

and you've got to grab them with both hands and make the most of

it," the New Zealander said this week.

"It's about having no regrets and that's the message of this

week." 

South Africa have won the World Cup twice, of course, but

they feel honour-bound to make up for a couple of years since

the last tournament where they did not do justice to the famous

green shirt.

"I think we have been under pressure for the past couple of

years to redeem ourselves," said coach Rassie Erasmus. 

"We've been number five, six, seven in the world over the

last three years since 2015, and we've got some proper hidings

against almost all the teams. Now we are at that stage where we

want to become number one in the world again."

A final against New Zealand or England, who play on

Saturday, would be another huge mountain to climb for whoever

comes out on top but both sets of players will be desperate to

give themselves a chance to take on that challenge.

 

Reuters

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