Jasper Wiese colossal as Springboks crunch Pumas
Jasper Wiese firmly announced his arrival to Test rugby, in just his fourth appearance for the Springboks, as he put in a phenomenal Man of the Match performance against Argentina, writes Oliver Keohane.
The Springboks made ten changes to the side that won the series decider against the British & Irish Lions, and still emphatically and clinically beat Argentina in their opening game of the Rugby Championship. Nearly every individual in the Springbok side had a good outing, but none more so than Jasper Wiese, who confirmed that the Test arena is where he will thrive.
I wrote before the British & Irish Lions series began that Jasper Wiese must start in the absence of Duane Vermeulen, as he is the closest the Springboks have to a like-for-like replacement. Kwagga Smith struggled at 8 in the first Test, before Wiese replaced him for the remaining two, where he was industrious, physical and impactful.
Today though, in a Test match no less physical than the Lions series, but perhaps less tight, Wiese thrived with the freedom of ball in hand, held up the defensive line brilliantly and showed the skills of a fullback under every high ball and kick-off.
Duane Vermeulen’s value is not just in his physicality, but in his versatility. The subtlety to Vermeulen’s game is the safety net which he offers the back three under the high ball and from broken play, his security from kick off and his defensive arrangement. Wiese’s performance today was so reminiscent of all these qualities that make Duane Vermeulen the special player that he is.
At Test level, a good performance is first and foremost an error-free one, because the margins are just that small. On Saturday night Wiese made no mistakes in his most complete Test match yet.
He collected every kick off with ease, and made meters from nearly every one of them too. He dropped back brilliantly on defence to field high balls, but was equally present tackling on the front line. At one stage, Wiese tackled an entire Puma’s pod of three forwards by himself and drove them back too.
Wiese did all the basics right and he did them very well, but not at the expense of the quality that earned him national selection in the first place; his ball carrying. Wiese made 73 running meters, second only to Cobus Reinach, who racked up most of those metres in a long range try.
Wiese’s running metres were made aggressively and he beat the first defender in a lot of his carries, while making a gainline success in nearly every one of them too. As physical as he was, he also ran clever lines, and his varied running combined with his raw power gave the Springboks go-forward every time he touched the ball. He carried from first receiver, broken play, and linked in the centres in a prime display of the ball-in-hand versatility required of an international Number 8.
There are certain performances from players that elevate the individuals around them, and tonight was one such performance from Jasper Wiese. For the 60 minutes that Wiese was on the field, he looked like he had arrived home, and every time he made a tackle, fielded a kick or carried the ball up, one gained a sense of confidence as a spectator that seemed to be emulated by the Springbok players on the field.
32-12 is a huge statement of the depth in the Springbok camp, but Jasper Wiese’s performance was as big in defining his role as the next Number 8, after Duane Vermeulen.
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