There is something unashamedly Old Testament about South Africa’s first-choice pack, possibly because its most accomplished components are more ancient than Moses, so it comes as some surprise that Rassie Erasmus, the high priest of rugby rhetoric, should suddenly take issue with one of the union game’s tablet-of-stone commandments: “Thou Shalt Not Win World Cups By Attacking, But By Defending”.

According to the coach, who has helped himself to more than one global title in recent years, his team’s unexpected Ellis Park defeat at the hands of the Wallabies in the opening round of the Rugby ...