The Springboks’ 2023 World Cup pool opponents Scotland and Ireland look ominous in the Six Nations but hosts France may have peaked, according to GAVIN RICH.
Scotland kept their Grand Slam title charge going by thrashing Wales at Murrayfield on Saturday night, to go joint-top of the table with Ireland, who earlier in the day claimed a bonus-point win over France.
In his SuperSport column, Rich suggested the weekend’s Six Nations action might cause Bok supremos Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber “some indigestion”.
“There is a lot of excitement in the north about what is happening in the Six Nations and what it might mean for the forthcoming Rugby World Cup in France. But England and Wales are not really the Bok coaching duo’s problem. Scotland and Ireland are,” he writes.
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“They’re both in the same pool as the South Africans. And right now both teams are thriving, with Scotland as comprehensively underlining their right to be in the top 5 as Ireland rolled the drums in favour of their No 1 status.
“After watching them devour France in what was a great advert for rugby and hopefully an indicator of where the code is heading, it is no longer possible to just write off the chatter in Ireland as hype.
“Scotland are charging too. After their great win over England at Twickenham on the opening weekend, the question being asked was the inevitable one about their ability to back up.
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“That has changed now, with the Scots having completed the first two games of the competition as winners for the first time since it became the Six Nations. And they didn’t just beat Wales, they hammered them.
“If Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber were somewhere on Sunday morning where British newspapers were readily available, and if they were in the habit of reading them over their bacon and eggs, you could imagine them collectively heaving a huge sigh of concern and muttering ‘Oh dear, this isn’t good!’”
Trailing 22-16 at half time in Dublin on Saturday, France, the world’s No 2 team, were outscored by the top-ranked nation four tries to one in a disappointing 32-19 defeat at the Aviva Stadium. It also ended a run of 14 wins in a row for Les Bleus.
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Rich writes: “But while no-one would dare to suggest the French were poor in Dublin, for it was a high quality and highly skilled game played for the most part at a hectic pace, it is time to start asking the question: Have the World Cup hosts peaked?
“A week before they lost to Ireland, France left it late to beat Italy. And if you go back to the autumn internationals in November 2022, it was a similar story for them against Australia, while their narrow and quite fortunate win over the Boks in Marseille was achieved against a team that was down to 14 men from a very early stage of the contest.”
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