The attritional gameplan of the Springboks in Sunday’s World Cup win shows there’s too much on the line for the world champions to play “enjoyable” rugby, writes GAVIN RICH.

The Boks successfully cleared the first hurdle of their World Cup title defence in a gritty 18-3 victory against Scotland at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.

Two Manie Libbok penalties to one from Finn Russell made it just 6-3 at half time, before momentum swung after Pieter-Steph du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse crossed for a try apiece between the 47th and 50th minutes, as the Boks shut down any response from the Scots after ensuring dominance on the scoreboard.

Speaking post-match, head coach Jacques Nienaber said it wasn’t rocket science how the Boks turned the screw in the second period, and writing for SuperSport.com, Rich applauds the South Africans ​​for the way they retained patience and relied on their traditional strength  –“aggressive and stifling defence”.

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“There were nervous moments and while the Boks always looked likely to win, with the phrase ‘slow poison’ – usually applied to scrumming but also to other aspects of forward play in this instance – often coming to mind during the game, there was just too much for the Boks to lose for the game to really be enjoyable,” he writes.

“You’d take poison right now on any of the top four being victorious against any of the teams ranked from No 5, which is Scotland, downwards from there, even given the way England stood up from a poor warm-up phase to outplay Argentina on Saturday night in Marseille.

“But playing the fifth-ranked team in an opening pool game when you also know the No 1-ranked team is a future opponent was a tough ask for the Boks, and the nerves they showed at stages of their opening win were understandable.

“Losing to Scotland and putting their advance out of the group phase in jeopardy would have been a massive setback for the Boks, particularly given they are the reigning World Cup champions.”

Photo: Nicolas Tucat/AFP