Springboks highlights package for 2025 is endless but flogging of France takes the cake

It is a measure of how consistently good the Springboks were in 2025 that it is difficult to nail down one iconic performance from their 14-Test season.

Just two Test matches were lost — against the Wallabies in Johannesburg and the All Blacks at Eden Park — and among the 12 wins there were some outstanding displays.

In trying to crown a season-defining match, we also have to take into account that the Boks used contrasting methods to defeat their opponents.

In this eighth season under Rassie Erasmus, the Boks are a substantially different side from the one that started gingerly under the new coach in 2018.

In those early days it was all about the box kick and forward strangulation, but now the Boks can use a variety of methods to subdue and outwit the opposition — whether running them off their feet, as in the thrashing of the Pumas in Durban; smashing the opposition scrum to smithereens in Dublin; taking Italy to the gutter for a street fight in Turin; or putting all the components slickly together to outclass the All Blacks in Wellington and France in Paris.

To pick a “Best Performance Award”, we obviously have to take into consideration the quality of the opposition. Thus, we preclude the mountains of points scored against Japan at Wembley and Wales in Cardiff.

I quite like the Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu-inspired 67-30 defeat of Argentina at Kings Park, and one of the flyhalf’s three tries that evening is among my tries of the year. I’m talking about the one where he kicked long into space and then outstripped the cover defence — not to mention his own support — to gather and dive over.

But 30 points were conceded in that match, including the scarcely believable Cheslin Kolbe drop-out to Santiago Chocobares, so it cannot be classified as a complete performance.

At the beginning of the year, a date circled in red on the calendar would have been the showdown with the All Blacks in Auckland. A big box for the Boks to tick was winning at Eden Park for the first time since 1937, while ending an All Black reign at the ground that stretched over more than 100 matches.

But the Boks started that game lethargically and gifted the Kiwis 14 early points. That made it difficult to win the match. Still, they finished strongly, a caution of what was to come the following week in Wellington.

The Kiwis were blown away by a near-perfect performance of poise, power and precision, with Manie Libbok and Feinberg-Mngomezulu pulling the strings. Towards the end of the record 43-10 walloping, the All Blacks were looking to the referee as a beaten boxer looks to his corner in the hope of a white towel.

Former All Blacks accused their team of giving up the fight, but it was more a case of the players being rendered bemused and bewildered by the class of the Boks.

That performance is in my top three for the year.

Second place must be the physical humiliation meted out to the Irish at the Aviva Stadium. The Boks and Ireland have had some beef for a long time, certainly going back to their pool game at the 2023 World Cup, where Ireland got over the line and arrogantly rubbed it in the faces of the South Africans.

There was also last year’s ill-tempered series in South Africa. In the second Test, in Durban, several Boks suffered broken limbs because of overzealous Irish play.

So the performance in Dublin towards the end of the November tour was personal. The Boks quite possibly were not even focused on winning the game. Their prime objective was to hurt the Irishmen, with the feeling that victory would follow if they got that right.

And they got it right with interest, as the Irish were sent reeling, their pride in tatters and their bodies broken.

The game of the year? We are getting there, folks.

It has to be the silencing of the French lambs at the Stade de France — a stadium the Boks find to their liking. They won the 2007 World Cup at the Parisian venue, and in 2023 they won three knockout games there by a single point, including, of course, the quarter-final against France.

The French had not stopped whining since they were “robbed of the World Cup”. This encounter had “revenge” written all over it in bright red capitals. After a pre-match fireworks display worthy of a World Cup final, the match kicked off to an ear-splitting racket, but the Stade de France dissolved into silence when the Boks delivered a stunning masterclass — even without the red-carded Lood de Jager.

The French had baited the Boks all week, but the Boks did their talking on the pitch with a performance that had the world wondering whether this was the best rugby team of all time.