Boks deserve their perfect 10 out of 10. Here’s why...

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CAPE TOWN – Willie le Roux 10/10: He, yesterday, played his best game this season, and what a time to do this! He was a winner under the high ball and also kicked very well ... how about that stunner of a kick behind England defence in the third quarter? When he is good, he’s great. And yesterday he reminded us of that. Cheslin Kolbe 10/10: This man has this insane ability to make us say ‘wow!’ every single time. Worked tirelessly overall, and that try ...well, wow! Lukhanyo Am 10/10: Telepathic. That’s what you call the understanding and play between him and Makazole Mapimpi building up to the winger’s try. Breathtaking! He also got the South Africans excited with that break in England half in the first 40. Top defensive performance. Damian de Allende 10/10: He’s been a nasty piece of work this entire year...for his opposition, that is. He was even better during the World Cup, and his performance in the final was no different. On defence, at the breakdown, in the carry, everywhere. He was amazing. Makazole Mapimpi 10/10: Us normal folk are fuelled by food and water, Mapimpi is fuelled by tries. That little chip he put in just showed his vision, his awareness, his attacking radar. Pure, pure class. He also chased kicks and took the aerial contest to England.

Handré Pollard 10/10: His individual tally of 22 points gave him the title of the second-highest points-scorer in a World Cup final. But who cares about stats now. He was solid overall, but we still need to give that boot of his a little extra credit.

Faf de Klerk 10/10: He deserved to celebrate like that, champagne-wet hair and all. His box kicks won’t have anybody complaining after that display. As always, his defence was superb.

Duane Vermeulen 10/10: You get beast mode, and then you get Duane. Thoroughly deserved that Man of the Match. He was a menace to the opposition and some of the hits he made were just brutal. He was a monster with ball in hand and a pest for the English on the ground.

Pieter-Steph du Toit 10/10: Just give him the World Rugby Player of the Year award already (and ask him to give Kolbe special rights to it as well). That is all.

Siya Kolisi 10/10: Sam and Tom who? Captain Siya’s presence at the breakdowns nullified the English duo. He could have missed nine and a half tackles and knocked the ball on a centimetre from the try line and it still wouldn’t have been enough to take anything away from the magic that was yesterday. The fact that he put in a huge shift on defence, making 12 tackles, was just another bonus. Inspiration personified.

Lood de Jager 10/10: Big carries, big tackles. His game was cut short through injury, but he certainly did well while he was on the field. Very well, actually.

Eben Etzebeth 10/10: He was a boss at the line-out and he had no less authority on defence in what could easily be coined his finest World Cup game.

Frans Malherbe 10/10: Scrummaging has never looked so sexy, you can thank rMalherbe and the rest of the front row for that. Away from the set-piece, he was also as big, just look at his tackle count (10)! That should say a lot about his game in open play.

Bongi Mbonambi 10/10: Pity he didn’t get to enjoy much of the game due to the head knock he took, but he certainly made those 20 or so minutes count. Flawless performance at the set piece. What a road he’s walked to that No 2 jumper.

Tendai Mtawarira 10/10: The front row deserves an extra point for the way they humiliated England at scrum time, actually, the entire pack does. But even when they weren’t packing down, Mtawarira made his presence felt.

Replacements:

Malcolm Marx 10/10: Solid when he came on for Mbonambi in the first half. Good at the line-out, a typically busy in open play.

Steven Kitshoff 10/10: South Africa’s depth is scary, just looking at the front-row replacements will tell you that. It was another strong performance from Kitshoff.

Vincent Koch 10/10: Last week he had South Africans going crazy with his scrummaging effort that ruined Wales’ scrum right after he came on. This week he showed that he can deliver week in, week out.

RG Snyman 10/10: There weren’t many of those lekker offloads from him, but he didn’t even have to show them off. Quality performance.

Franco Mostert 10/10: He was simply incredible when he came on, making 16 tackles in less than an hour. He also contributed monster carries.

Herschel Jantjies: Not enough time to be rated, but he gets a 10 because we know what he can do.

Frans Steyn: Not enough time to be rated. But as with Jantjies, he gets a 10 anyway.



Weekend Argus

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