Can South Africa win the World Cup? Yes, for a few reasons… but a couple of things need to fall in place as well.
There are 4 reasons why they can pull this off, again.
The first one is their collection of ridiculously massive and abrasive players. They wear down opposition teams with their physicality and take them back a few yards both on attack and defense.
The second one is their bomb squad. They don’t get weaker when their bench hits the field. It is the same level of player, just with renewed energy.
The third one is their front row. They are always able to field two sets of front rows in a game of equal quality. In most cases, they dominate the scrums and there are always a few scrum penalties in their favor, not to mention the penalties Marx gets at the rucks.
The fourth one is something that South Africa is not known for. An unpredictable and exciting attack from the back 3. They have a few combinations that they can deploy but the ones I would love to see most in the World Cup would be Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse, and Willie le Roux.
So far we have not seen a cohesive effort for even 60 minutes of a game, much less 80. If they can put it together for 75+ minutes of a game, they are going to make it very difficult for the opposition.
They were able to evolve in the 2019 World Cup and they are building up to it.
The many random combinations they are playing might look wreckless but I believe it is focused on giving at least 2.5 squads a good run before they select their final World Cup group.