There were some stutters in Tuesday’s match, but there were signs that the new Springbok team can live up to South Africa’s world champions status
RUGBY: Jon Swift
ANDRE MARKGRAAFF, the man charged with shaping the South African rugby side, was at some pains to dispel any idea of the South African XV playing festival rugby in Durban on Tuesday. That was one the new Springbok coach got 100% right.
It is of some concern that the best our selectors can come up with battled to come to some sort of cohesive understanding or concentrated endeavour for close on an hour against the South African Barbarians at a rain-lashed King’s Park.
True, the final scoreline read 50-11, but the scoreline did somewhat flatter to deceive. That said though, the result doesn’t mean anything in real terms. The national squad had been trained almost to a standstill during the week and it was, of necessity, all experimental stuff anyway.
In the analysis, Markgraaff will have Francois Pienaar and his men hard at it again this week. But he will not be too displeased with what eventually transpired in Durban, though, surely, he will be looking for something to jumpstart what looks like the makings of a really good team a little earlier in the proceedings.
Of more relevance was the superb handling of a soap- slick ball evidenced by the backs, the ball retention and running off the ball and the towering performance of the lock pairing of Steve Atherton and Johann Ackermann.
Atherton has never played better and Ackermann has that unexplainable aptitude to raise his game at just the right time and, given his comparative inexperience at top level, raises a somewhat frightening spectre of just how good he will be when he gets the adrenaline jolt of pulling the green and gold over his head.
To return to the handling, it is worth noting that James Small was superb in this regard, turning in a stirring performance at fullback and was full value for both his tries. When Andre Joubert returns to his rightful role as the final line of defence, the backline takes on a comprehensively solid look. More so now that Pieter Hendriks has grafted on the dimension of added inventiveness and upped workrate to his deserved reputation as one of the world’s best finishers close to the line.
Ironically, it was the saddening injury to Christiaan Scholtz which brought the best of the backline players into the match when Hennie le Roux ran on in the No 16 jersey. Suddenly there was some sparkle and flow. Le Roux remains the owner of one of the surest pairs of hands in the game and is among the world’s best broken field runners.
But there are areas of individual concern too for Markgraaff as he takes a South African team into a Test for the first time when the Amabokoboko run out against Fiji at Loftus Versfeld on Tuesday night.
There were long spells when it looked like the South African squad members had yet to meet one another in playing terms rather than gathering this impression from the hastily-assembled BaaBaas. For, while Fiji — willing exponents of the ball-in-the-hand game which has made them such formidable opponents in sevens and firm and faithful believers in the big hit school of tackling philosophy — cannot be taken as an easy warm-up, the real priority is to prepare for the Sanzar series against Australia and New Zealand.
And given that the Fijians are here without two of the most exciting players around — wingers Joeli Vidiri and Paula Bale have both decided to concentrate on making the All Black squad — South Africa must start as favourites to break Markgraaff’s coaching duck.
But more to the point is whether the Springboks can breathe some fire into their play and find some direction. This was sadly lacking in many areas of play against the BaaBaas.
It took the not inconsiderable talents of Joost van der Westhuizen to lift the game out of the damp rut it was busy digging itself deeper into, though one would hesitate to point any fingers at Wayne Fyvie’s invitation side, who truly played their collective hearts out.
Van der Westhuizen, now one of the most experienced of our internationals, continues to grow with the modern game and the new restrictions on the loose forwards breaking off the set pieces have turned him into a menace of major stature.
There is also that delicious streak of devilry about the way he plays the game; seeking out the seemingly impossible options and making them work through the imprint of his own determined brand of eccentricity.
Of great concern though, is the continuing slump in the kicking form of Joel Stransky. He is a proven matchwinner and his slickness at pivot was there for all to see when he had the ball to hand. But as soon as he lines up a kick, everything seems to go wrong and not even a series of coaching sessions from Naas Botha seems able to lift him out of this pall of uncertainty.
One would hope that Markgraaff perseveres and lets Stransky play himself out of the slump. The man deserves it and — on top form — the country can hardly be without him in this vital role.
There must also be some thought given before the Fijians, Wallabies and All Blacks are lined up in the Springbok sights about the tardiness the tight five showed in imprinting any real measure of authority.
It would be carping in the extreme to single out any individual in the engine-room as the direct culprit, though one would suspect that Marius Hurter does not represent first choice at tight-head to partner Os du Randt when, if you will pardon the pun, push comes to shove.
John Allan’s renaissance as a Test hooker is one of such jubilant buoyancy that one wonders how he lost his place initially. Allan’s workrate was immense and his throwing in at the line-out near faultless.
There is also no questioning his physical abilities. Uli Schmidt will vouch for that after coming off second best in a face-to-face with Allan before he retired. And even All Black Sean Fitzpatrick is an admirer of the tough Natalian.
But the workrate delivered by the tight five before Van der Westhuizen opened things up in the second half must surely be improved on in Test conditions.
The failure to build up an early head of steam meant that Pienaar, Andre Venter and Gary Teichmann did not have the freedom to produce the type of marauding play that Springbok loose forwards are capable of.
Teichmann in particular played superbly in the conditions and both he and Pienaar attack the loose ball as men possessed.
So, though Markgraaff will doubtless be doing a fair amount of thinking over the weekend, he and his fellow selectors cannot be too pessimistic about the Amabokoboko’s chances.
There is a fine side there just waiting to come in out of the rain. The rugby public should not be too quick to criticise. And, after all, we are the World Cup champions aren’t we?