Comment by Ashfak Mohamed
It was quite revealing that Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus didn’t harp too much on Manie Libbok’s penalty miss in last week’s 29-28 defeat to Argentina in Santiago del Estero.
And the Bok boss didn’t have a knee-jerk reaction in his selection, either. When everybody and his dog wanted Handré Pollard to start at flyhalf for Saturday’s Rugby Championship title decider at Mbombela Stadium, Erasmus opted to hand the No 10 jersey to Libbok instead.
In true Bok fan fashion, many critics on social media suddenly agreed with Erasmus to give Libbok another go.
But the selection is not about the 27-year-old pivot saving his Test career this weekend – it’s about a far bigger picture than that.
The world champions have made a conscious decision to expand their horizons by embracing an attacking game this year.
New Zealander Tony Brown has opened up new avenues for the Boks to explore with ball in hand, and everybody from Damian de Allende to Pollard has spoken in glowing terms over the past few months about the former All Black flyhalf’s effect on the team.
Brown has made them think differently and see things differently on attack, which is part of the reason Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has excelled in his first season of Test rugby.
The Cape Town youngster has been given the freedom to showcase his vast array of skills, and he has been a sensation on the highest stage.
Now that he is out with a knee injury, it is Libbok who is also similarly equipped to pull the strings for the Bok attack, as he has done wonderfully well so many times before.
That is not a slight on Pollard, who I mentioned last week started his career as a running flyhalf. But he is a different No 10 to Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Libbok – not as nimble and skilful, but possessing other attributes such as ball-carrying, passing, kicking and physicality.
It’s clear that the South African team management has realised that for this group of players to do the unthinkable and pull off a three-peat at the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, they need to take their attacking game to the next level, which is why Libbok is being persevered with.
It has always been a personal frustration that, traditionally, the Boks haven’t paid as much attention to their attack and backline as they do to their defence and forwards.
That is changing in 2024, where there seems to be an equal spread of importance across the various areas of the game, and it is paying off handsomely.
Don’t forget that the Boks beat the Wallabies twice in Australia, which hasn’t happened in a very long time, and then saw off the All Blacks two weeks in a row as well.
Erasmus spoke about the calculated risk he took in resting stalwarts such as captain Siya Kolisi, Cheslin Kolbe, Pieter-Steph du Toit and others for the trip to Argentina in order to keep them fresh for the Mbombela Test – and yet the group that went to South America came up just one point short in the 29-28 loss.
But back to Libbok. “We certainly have made some plans, and the way we want to play, Manie is integral to that this weekend. Manie’s general play is fantastic, and he brings a lot of energy and playmaking abilities to the backline. He dictates play well, so we back Manie fully to do the job for us at flyhalf,” Erasmus said.
And that is what Libbok is being asked to do, and those are things he does extremely well.
The 27-year-old from Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape is a playmaker supreme, capable of pulling off some audacious tricks – like the no-look cross-kick against Scotland at the World Cup – and the basics of creating space for his outside backs and taking on the opposition with his underrated turn of pace.
Yes, of course he needs to sort out his goal-kicking issues, as last weekend’s miss was unacceptable, and that is being addressed by Erasmus and his management.
One of the solutions is to let someone else take the shots at goal.
Cheslin Kolbe, Jaden Hendrikse and Manie Libbok were all spotted today in training taking shots at goal 🦵🎯 pic.twitter.com/xuCTQGSom2
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) September 24, 2024
But Libbok must be allowed to carry out the role given to him as the Bok flyhalf and play his natural game, as that is what Erasmus has asked of him, without being vilified by the public for his goal-kicking shortcomings.
If he is successful in that regard, the Boks will be buzzing on attack and become almost unbeatable.