What we learned from the Springboks' win over Japan

Here, Boksquad looks at five talking points following the World Champions' big win. 

The green wall

The speedy Japanese attack was always going to put the Boks' defensive line under pressure. But boy oh boy did the Boks front up. The green wall was near impassable, coming from a quick tap 5m out was Japan's only try.

The Springboks make 148 tackles with an incredible 91% success rate, a statistic that will no doubt draw a wide smile from the defence coach Jerry Flannery.

Topping the tackle count was the relentless Lood de Jager, who put in another huge shift with 20 tackles in his 68 minutes. Perhaps equally industrious was replacement hooker Johan Grobbelaar with 12 scalps in 35 minutes.  

Starboy shines bright

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu continues to prove that he is a generational talent. The young flyhalf created and scored the first try with an accurate chip, then showed his tackle-busting skills to score the second. 

But aside from his collection of 16 points, it's Feinberg-Mngomezulu's attitude and battle stats are impressive. The 23-year-old does not shy away from defence, putting his body on the line for seven tackles. He also beat six defenders - a match-high - and racked up 117 running metres. The playmaker was calm under pressure, made excellent decisions and was accurate kicking out of hand. 

With sniper Handre Pollard and the mercurial Manie Libbok waiting in the wings, it will be interesting to see which way Bok management goes against France. 

Who will fill Ox Nche's massive boots?

The immovable prop hobbled off the field in the 18th minute after falling awkwardly in a ruck and Erasmus has since confirmed he will be out for the rest of the season. 

Nche has been an absolute powerhouse for the Boks and the Sharks, running out in no less than 26 matches last season. His absence will be felt. In addition, the Boks are without fellow loosehead Jan-Hendrick Wessels following his controversial nine-week ban (reduced to eight on appeal), leaving them a touch light in the key position.

As damaging as Thomas du Toit has been at scrumtime, he has not enjoyed being moved to loosehead. That leaves the relatively inexperienced duo of Gerhard Steenekamp - who replaced Nche on Saturday - and newcomer Boan Venter. The pair have 12 and five caps respectively. 

Is there an echo in here?

Wembley drew a crowd of just over 23 000 for the spectacle, with the scores a of red empty seats a stark indicator of what could have been. 

On Saturday, 30 minutes south of Wembley, England hosted the Wallabies at Twickenham with over 80 000-strong in the bleachers. Obviously, it's not ideal to have two big fixtures on the same day in London. 

And the popular Boks are used to drawing big crowds in England. Just last month, over 70 000 came to watch them defend their Rugby Championship crown against Argentina. 

This lack of cohesion in scheduling brings to light Rassie Erasmus' call for a global season.  

Set piece dominance

It was a vintage performance from the Bok forwards. Granted, Japan weren't going to be a massive test upfront. The Boks combined for 442 post-contact metres, almost double that of Japan.

The loose trio of captain Siya Kolisi, Jasper Wiese and Franco Mostert notched up 17 carries, most of which were dominant. The scrum was as solid as ever - even with Nche's early departure - and Malcom Marx will be pleased with his lineouts. The Boks won 17/19 lineouts, a vast improvement on a worrying trend that was developing during the Rugby Championship. 

One lineout resulted in a maul try and centre-cum-flanker Andre Esterhuizen could have had a second maul try if it wasn't for RG Snyman's unfortunate double-banking in the second stanza.

The Boks will need to reproduce this effort against the physical France next week if they are to prevent any Rugby World Cup redemption stroylines.