RUGBY NEWS - It’s remarkable how quickly the mood of South African rugby followers can swing between extremes, but there is good reason why the Springboks are expected to deliver the coup de grace to the French at Emirates Airlines Park on Saturday.
To say that the Johannesburg venue is the South African national team’s fortress is not as accurate as it might seem. For instance, the French have won four games there, and the All Blacks have made a habit of winning there in recent years. England pushed the Boks hard in the second half of the second test of the 2012 series, and the British and Irish Lions were comprehensive winners of the dead rubber test there in 2009.
The second half of last year’s match against Ireland though might provide a more accurate pointer to what could transpire on Saturday. Lest it have been forgotten, the Irish were all over the Boks in the first half of the last international match played in Johannesburg, but the injection of the home based Lions players from the bench got the big crowd in behind the Boks and they quickly found their momentum. If they hit Saturday’s match with that sort of momentum from the start, the French could be in trouble.
