Last night the 5th and final episode of Chasing The Sun 2 was screened which is a behind the scenes documentary recording the South African rugby team before, during and after last years Rugby World Cup.
Chasing the Sun was the first series which followed the team from 2017 right up till the 2019 Rugby World Cup which they then went on to win. No one expected them to repeat this by winning the 2023 World Cup except those involved within the squad.
After watching this series and the one before it is rather obvious the big differences between this squad/team and all the others and that there is no super stars with everyone regarded on the same level. Every player and backroom staff has a job to do whether they are playing or providing a supporting role during the week building up to the next match.
Rassie Erasmus for those that don't know is the main coach in charge of the team and is a guru when it comes to the tactics and accessing other teams weaknesses. When he was playing back in 1997 he was already studying other teams and had valuable input into how that team played and he has been doing this for nearly 30 years.
The other teams in world rugby evolve around the 23 players who are the core of their teams yet South Africa evolved around 60 players. Over the 4 years between the World Cups there was players ready to step in at a moments notice if required. This is the amount of preparation the team had done and every player had to meet certain numbers according to the statistics sheets.
The tactics were simple and that is you play the other team off the field hitting them as hard as you can breaking them down over a period of 60 minutes. The team then replaces the forward pack with the "bomb squad" who are just as good as the players they replaced and more importantly fresh and raring to go. No other team has this and creates the impact to turn any game on it's head. The opponents are tiring and the next thing they know they are up against a new team who are looking to finish them off.
In the years that have gone by fitness was the key with the top teams able to take advantage of the last 10 minutes scoring the bulk of their points. Using this method of replacing an entire forward pack is risky but the benefits are massive as long as the players replacing their team mates are of the equivalent standard. This is what other teams do not have and why they will struggle to win a World Cup.
South Africa have won 4 World Cups now and two being back to back and he next one will be harder, but I would not bet against them achieving this. This is a squad mentality against a team mentality and most of the countries in the world don't have 60 players who are of equal standard so the team would be severely weakened if they tried similar tactics.
If any of you get a chance to watch this then please do because it reveals far more than any other sporting documentary. Nothing is hidden and it is all there out in the open with plenty of foul language throughout. This is real though and if you have ever been in a sporting changing room this is the language you hear.