A dark, wet evening in Brent is a long way from the sun and sea of Brighton. And, boy, there were not many echoes here of rugby’s greatest upset – quite possibly sport’s – bar the names of the teams and the inimitable fellow sitting in Japan’s coaching box, Eddie Jones. South Africa were 43-point favourites in 2015 and a mere 37 this time, but the reality of lopsided rugby was all too formidably asserted.
Instead, it was Wembley that echoed, the lower tier around two-thirds full. South Africa, nine of whose squad play their rugby in Japan, wanted to organise this run-out to bring together their squad from around the world before the big one next Saturday against France. As an exercise it worked well enough, the Springboks utterly dominate from start to finish, notching up nine tries in the process.
“It’s interesting,” said Jones, “that in the 10 years since that game, South Africa have won two World Cups. What Ithat result did was refocus South African rugby on its DNA. Japan, though, hasn’t really developed its system to meet the demands of international rugby. It’s a real challenge for us. There are quality players in Japan. We just need to find a way to fast-track them.”
These days, South Africa are indisputably the best team in the world, and Japan some way shy of where they were 10 years ago. Michael Leitch, at one end of the spectrum, the talisman of 2015, is still there in the back row, aged 37. A full-back, Japan fielded the student Yoshitaka Yazaki, an amateur, who showed he is smart indeed when he went over for Japan’s solitary try, 10 minutes or so after the break, a tap and dart from a penalty during a rare phase of Japan pressure. Alas, they were 33-0 down at that point.
But that was it for romance in the suburbs of London. South Africa opened with a standard lineout and drive for their first try after three minutes, finished by their captain and talisman in the back row, Siya Kolisi. Then up stepped the latest star of South African rugby.
Let us not reach for any hyperboles just yet. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has been mentioned in the same breath as Dan Carter more than a few times, but we will settle here for saying he is really quite good. He took the record for points in a Test match this year, with his 37 against as formidable an opponent as Argentina, so he was always likely to look comfortable against Japan.
That he did. He weighed in with two tries, both individualist and brilliant, not dissimilar to You Know Who, who was the same age, 23, when he turned in the performance of the age against the Lions in 2005. Certainly, this bears no comparison with that masterclass, but, having converted Kolisi’s try, he followed up his own up-and-under to score South Africa’s second 10 minutes later, before showing off his running skills for another five minutes after that.
Running on an arc, he dummied inside Dylan Riley and beat the long-levered, grasping Jack Cornelsen to canter to the posts in imperious style. All right, this was a friendly against overpowered opposition, but he will be around for some time. It is not as if they do not already have Handré Pollard, sitting in the stands for this. The Springboks’ depth is the envy of the world.
The new term these days is “hybrid player” and the two coaches are just the type to peddle its use. Japan had Tiennan Costley on their bench, a back-row forward who covered the wing – and indeed came on in that position. But South Africa boast the prototype in Kwagga Smith.
South Africa Kolbe; Hooker (Reinach 71), Kriel, De Allende, Arendse; Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Libbok 54), Reinach (G Williams 54); Nche (Steenekamp 19), Marx (Grobbelaar 45), Porthen (Louw 45), Snyman, De Jager (Nortje 69), Kolisi (capt; Esterhuizen 45), Mostert, Wiese (Smith 45)
Tries Kolisi, Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2, penalty, Louw, Arendse 2, Esterhuizen, Kriel Cons Mngomezulu 3, Libbok 4
Japan Yazaki; Ishida, Riley, Lawrence (Costley 54), Osada; Lee (Greene 69), Fujiwara (Fukuda 66); Kobayashi (Iwaihara 65), Sato (Hirao 66), Takeuchi (Tamefusa 65), Cornelsen, Dearns (capt). Gunter, Shimokawa (Paul 62), Leitch (Makisi 48)
Yellow cards Takeuchi 36, Gunter 46
Try Yazaki Con Lee
Referee Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Att 23,243
Now they add to their armoury Andre Esterhuizen, until recently Quins’ beloved giant in the centre. He came on to play in the back row – seems only natural – and thought he had one try from a lineout, which was chalked off, before powering over round the fringes for one that stood.
That was South Africa’s seventh. Either side of it, Kurt-Lee Arendse, one of who knows how many electric runners the Springboks have at their disposal, scored twice. He picked up when Yazaki spilled an up-and-under and coasted home, before a Cheslin Kolbe – there’s another one – break put him over for his second.
Both sides enjoyed a lap of the famous pitch, but the match itself will not live on like its more famous iteration 10 years ago.
Graham and Van der Merwe lead Scotland romp
Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe continued their scrap at the top of Scotland’s try-scoring charts by filling their boots in a 13-try victory over the USA at Murrayfield.
Van der Merwe marked his 50th cap with a double to bring his international tally to 34, but fellow Edinburgh wing Graham moved level with him as Scotland’s highest try-scorer of all time with a hat-trick in a record 85-0 rout.
Dylan Richardson opened the scoring when he pushed over from close range and two minutes later, 21-year-old debutant back-rower Liam McConnell produced a brilliant run and basketball pass to set up Edinburgh teammate Van der Merwe.
The Scots conjured a third try in the 10th minute when Adam Hastings looped a lovely pass out to Graham and Jamie Dobie got his name on the scoresheet 10 minutes later. Van der Merwe’s second of the night came when he danced past two defenders to score on the left and Dobie notched his second after some fine play from Stafford McDowall.
Graham got his second when he finished off a scintillating move on the right and completed his hat-trick four minutes after the restart. Rowe got in on the act in the 57th minute after being played in by Dobie and Scotland ran in four tries in the closing 10 minutes, with Stafford McDowall, George Horne, Dobie and Ollie Smith all capitalising on American fatigue to cross the whitewash.
Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach, said: “Obviously we had more ball than we probably would get normally against a top 10 team. I thought the effort was outstanding. Of course next week will be a different opposition, one of the top teams in the world, but what we worked on in training, we got that out on the pitch so it’s a good start to the campaign.
“Everybody’s aware of the step up next week. We obviously know New Zealand are going to test us in different ways than the USA weren’t able to do.” PA Media
