The Springboks’ stunning defeat by Japan shocked South Africa, casting doubt on the team’s chances of progressing to the final stages of the tournament.
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“Ultimate Bok Humiliation”, “Boks Humiliated” – were some of the headlines in South Africa’s main newspapers on Sunday.
The Sunday Times stated that the defeat by the team ranked 13 in the world “rocked the game to its very foundations”. Under the headline “Bok heads to roll”, the paper said the future of coach Heyneke Meyer may be in doubt following the shock defeat.
It also said the explosive match exposed flaws in Meyer’s “old man” game plan. Meyer’s team included veterans like Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana and was the most experienced South African outfit ever to take to the field with a total of 851 caps across the 15 starters.
In his column, former Springbok Ashwin Willemse wrote that the impact of the defeat “may be so devastating that we might not even make it past the quarter-finals or be lucky to even reach that stage”.
The Sunday Times added “the pressure on the South African Rugby Union to transform the Springboks team will grow from many quarters”.
“If what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, then South Africa should be well nigh invincible for the remainder of the World Cup. Er, maybe,” wrote Rob Houwing, Sport24’s chief writer.
While, Jon Cardinelli of SA Rugby Mag added: “Japan competed like wolverines on Red Bull.”
Captain Jean De Villiers and coach Meyer were largely at a loss to explain how the Boks suffered such a humiliating defeat.
Gavin Rich, writing for SuperSport, said: “If the truth were to be told, the Boks were also an embarrassment in terms of their passive defence, the arrogance of a captain who early in the game eschewed kickable penalties that would have made a difference to the result… The Bok discipline was abysmal.”
