Chasing the Sun 2 relives the night Springboks’ Ox Nche put South Africa on his back
The 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final against England was the first time in the Rassie Erasmus-Jacques Nienaber era that the Springboks looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
During the first hour of that thrilling match, the Springboks appeared to be in control. They couldn’t handle the English team’s kicking game, they were second in the physical stakes, and their set-piece wasn’t working.
It was similar to how the Springboks intimidate teams, with their powerful forwards controlling the tackles and utilizing their mastery of set pieces to win penalties and exert pressure on the opposition with territory and a constantly moving scoreboard.
But on that night in the Stade de France, the Springboks were nowhere, making uncharacteristic errors and appearing as though they had thrown all of their mental and physical strength into the previous week’s battle against France.
That is aptly demonstrated in Chasing the Sun 2, with the semi-final’s fly-on-the-wall appearance. It featured a shell-shocked team that Erasmus was grilling at halftime for not giving it their all.
During the first half of that evening, they did not resemble the Springboks he had trained since 2018.
The team’s scrum preparation was heavily emphasized in the days preceding the game. The way the forwards hammered each other to death, with scrum coach Daan Human taking them to what the Springboks like to call “the gutter” or “the dark place” when things go tough.
“Daan likes to get us into the dark place, because he knew in minute 80 or 75 is where a penalty can be won,” loosehead prop Steven Kitshoff remarked.
The scrum sessions looked absolutely brutal, as if a mere mortal would be snapped in half when thrown in the middle of it.
It brings new meaning to an immovable object colliding with an unstoppable force.
“It’s like a farmer, and you know I’m a farmer, if you don’t work the ground, you can’t expect there to be something at the end of the season if you don’t put in the hard work,” Human said.
Indeed, rain and grace are necessary, but everything is achievable with perseverance and hard work. The scrum is a powerful tool for our nation and team.
In essence, it built up the episode’s conclusion, in which the Springboks used this weapon to escape that “dark place” and enter the spotlight ahead of their World Cup matchup with the All Blacks the following week.
The most important player in that scrum chamber was replacement prop Retshegofaditswe Nche, also referred to as Ox Nche. Because of his outstanding scrum performances on that chilly, rainy evening in Saint Denis, Ox Nche has since gained cult status in South African rugby.
Nche hails from a village in Thaba’Nchu in the Free State. He came through Human’s hands from the age of 18, while the two were still in the Free State.
“It is quite challenging to scrum against Ox. He just seems to find a way in a strange way. According to Trevor Nyakane, a fellow Springbok front-row forward, “he probably has one of the strongest backs you get.”
“I don’t know if the guy can bend or not,” Erasmus continued. He appears to be a bar fridge.
Salads don’t win scrums! Ox Nche once wrote on Instagram while sharing a photo of himself enjoying a piece of cake.
“I try my best,” Nche remarked.
“I won’t kick someone in the poles. I won’t be the one to give the wing the final pass so they can try to score. I’m going to do all in my power to affect the game.
Ox Nche had his cake that evening in Paris and devoured it!
