Springboks guarding against Japan banana peel in London

The French may be calling “Ahoy” from across the English Channel, but the Springboks are adamant all their focus is on Japan, who they open their end-of-year tour against at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday evening.

The Test against Japan is outside the World Rugby window for internationals, but Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus apparently organised it because he did not want to go into next weekend’s massive Test in France at all underdone.

Which makes this Japan outing important and explains why Erasmus has picked most of his first-choice players for an opposition who may be plucky and tricky, but are still ranked only 13th in the world.

So though the Springboks are doing their best to say 100% of their focus has been on Japan, there is no doubt the win is expected, but so too is a good dress rehearsal for most of these players who should feature against France next weekend.

Though matches that happened 10 years ago can have very little relevance to today’s rugby, when Japan famously knocked over the Springboks in the 2015 World Cup in Brighton — the last time these two teams met on English soil — they did it with chop-tackles and fast and ferocious spoiling work at the breakdown.

South Africa did not heed the warnings of their coach back then, Heyneke Meyer, and played fast and loose, expecting an easy win but instead falling right into Japan coach Eddie Jones’ diabolical plan. By choosing a team with so much experience, especially in the pack, Erasmus has ensured such folly is unlikely to happen again.

The Springboks have all spoken this week about bringing physicality to Wembley and they all mentioned targeting Japan’s quick ball at the breakdown.

“The breakdown will probably be the key battle and stopping their speed there will probably be the most important thing to get right. We’ve seen a lot of clips where their scrumhalf gets the ball out of the ruck in less than a second.

“So we will have to be nice and physical with our tackles,” veteran centre Damian de Allende said. “Japan’s set pieces have also improved a lot, so we will give them all the respect they deserve. It’s going to be fast, intense and physical, and that’s what I like.

“They got stuck into Australia last weekend and we know they will be very physical on Saturday. But if we are aggressive and disciplined then it should be a good day for us.”

If the Springboks are going to target Japan at the rucks, then yes, their discipline will need to be spot-on.

Wembley Stadium may be more a place for bookings than yellow cards, but given the injustice South Africa suffered at the hands of an Irish citing commissioner (Peter Ferguson) in Connacht recently, they will be anxious to keep Eoghan Cross of the Irish Rugby Football Union on their side.

And it seems they will be using brute force rather than quick, precise incisions to do the breakdown job because Kwagga Smith, on the bench, is the only loose forward who remotely resembles a classic openside.

Hooker Malcolm Marx will have to lead the charge in terms of jackals.

But apart from the negative motivation of making sure they don’t slip up again versus Japan, many of the players on Saturday have much to play for in terms of booking their spot in the team for the huge clash with France at Stade de France on November 8.