EXCLUSIVE: Tough individual narratives scripted Bok mental toughness

When the Springboks were down 15-6 with less than a quarter of an hour left on the clock and they were defending at a scrum five metres from their own line, their exit from the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France had become a reality. A reality, that is, to everyone but themselves.

While all over South Africa the people who had waited up on that Sunday night to watch what most people thought would be an untroubled step for the Boks into the World Cup final the following weekend consigned themselves to having a gloomy Monday, the Bok players still believed it was possible to win.

Call it mental toughness for want of a better expression, but the Bok players just refused to panic, refused to give up, and they retained their belief. History reflects that it was an attitude and a mental steeliness that drove their comeback in the final minutes to steal a solitary point win they hardly deserved based on the 80 minutes of that game but was probably the right result based on performances in the tournament.

After all, the Boks had survived some intensely high pressure moments to get through as winners against France in the quarterfinal, a game that many felt had all the impact and gravitas of a final, and not just the first knock-out game. A week later, the Boks did it again against a New Zealand side that became resurgent and started to find on field momentum after their skipper Sam Kane was red carded.

To the winning Bok coach Jacques Nienaber’s mind, there was nothing lucky or coincidental about how everything transpired. To him, the individual life scripts of most of the Bok players, who had fought against adversity and often failed to be recognised at the first franchise or province they were contracted to, drove the World Cup