SPRINGBOK centre Jesse Kriel runs to score a try during the rugby Nations Championship match against Scotland at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.
After England had been walloped by the Springboks at Ellis Park, the refrain from the British press was “Who can stop the Boks from a World Cup three-peat?”
Who indeed is the question after the dew settled on a 42-28 defeat of an excellent Scotland team that stretched the overhauled Bok team to its limits.
This match had all the hallmarks of the 2022 Springbok defeat to Wales in Bloemfontein, where a radically changed team lost. There was a public outcry back then, but the critics were silent a year later when some of the players trialed that night went on to win the World Cup in France.
This time, in Pretoria, Rassie Erasmus’s back-to-back wins showed how far the world champions have progressed, winning the game and proving that the Boks will enter 2027 with glowingly enriched depth.
