Mapimpi’s toxic reaction after scoring try mars great Bok win
It should have been a moment of joy yet it turned ugly rapidly. This was mean-spirited from Springboks wing Makazole Mapimpi who finished off a pretty decent South African try-scoring effort in the second half.
Sadly he ruined it with his toxic reaction to the try, apparently giving innocent Jordie Barrett some verbals into his facial plate. Sad beyond tears and regret.
The Bully Boks of course went on to win the game, but how history will view Mapimpi’s action remains unclear.
Jacques strangely didn’t even mention the incident in the post-match presser.
“When the top three sides in the world play each other, you expect close margins,” said Nienaber.
“We were 20 seconds away from winning in that first game against Australia and two minutes away from victory against New Zealand last weekend.
“This time around, we got the crucial points in the last play of the match, that is how tight it was. There was a lot of noise from the outside and some justified critical comments amongst that.
“But the players never stopped working hard, going through the processes, doing the reviews, making new plans. So, I am pretty pleased for them.”
Nienaber applauded the other teams in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship: “This is such a great competition to play in and we are so happy to be back playing it, after we lost out in 2020.
“The different playing styles and mentalities from our SANZAAR opponents makes every match a challenging one.
“Everyone brings a different risk appetite to the game. It is great for us to play these pressure cooker games as it gives you good exposure to what you can expect in a Rugby World Cup. There are good learnings in there,” Nienaber added.
The Bok coach admitted that one of those learnings – a better use of his substitutes – made a difference in victory over the All Blacks.
Nienaber replaced the whole front row after 38 minutes and started the second half with Frans Steyn at fullback. He also gave Elton Jantjies a solid run with the left-footer rewarding him with well-taken drop goal – his first in green and gold – and the match-winning penalty goal.
“As I mentioned last week, I wanted to use Elton, but then had the injury to Marco van Staden which prevented that as we might have finished the game with 14 players [if Van Staden’s injury worsened],” said Nienaber.
“This time I decided to use them much earlier and I think we were doing much better today in that regard.
“Elton was awesome when he came on, and Frans Steyn was brilliant. Willie did some good things, and did make some mistakes, but I wanted to bring in Frans for the 50/22 kicks. He trained well with us and did very well when called upon.”
Nienaber also explained why he replaced the front row before the halftime whistle.
“We see them as a combination and the minutes played will never be the same. The moment we felt the first group has done their job; we will bring on the second group,” he said.
“Today they emptied their tanks after 38 minutes and I replaced them when they did their job. After last week, I decided we should make use of our subs and I thought they were all excellent tonight.”
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