The toughest season in Springbok history has two games left and it is some measure of the renaissance achieved under coach Jake White that both games could be lost and no one would be calling for his head.
White’s team lost just once in the Tri-Nations and came within five minutes of winning that game against New Zealand. Victory there would have installed them as the number one ranked team in the world, but who wants an accolade like that, anyway, two years prior to a World Cup?
It is by now well known that New Zealand habitually peak between World Cups and the stellar year being enjoyed by Graham Henry’s men suggests that the men in black are at it again. Henry has so much strength in depth to call on that he was able to make 15 changes to the side that thrashed Wales and still do likewise to Ireland.
It is White’s stated aim to build a similar capability with the Springboks and a slew of injuries has enabled him to experiment more than he would otherwise have been willing to do. Hence Saturday’s game against Wales features a halfback combination that Nostradamus’s smarter brother could not have predicted even six weeks ago.
Scrumhalf Michael Claassens owes his selection to the aforementioned injury crisis. He toured with White’s team last year for similar reasons and the idea that he is in Saturday’s team because of his familiarity with his flyhalf is laughable. If Claassens has played two games with Meyer Bosman outside him, that is a lot.
Free State’s first-choice flyhalf all year was not Bosman, but Willem de Waal, a player who falls into the category of one-trick-pony as far as White is concerned.
”Why should I fly over a player who isn’t going to play?” was the coach’s response to questions about flyhalf backup. It can safely be assumed that White considers the Bulls pair of Derrick Hougaard and Morne Steyn in the same damning light.
So Bosman gets his chance, apparently because of one double-skip pass off the left hand and a few hefty tackles in the Currie Cup final. One of the hallmarks of White’s tenure has been an ability to spot talent, Bryan Habana being one classic example. But it is asking an awful lot of Bosman to do what Habana did and step from age-group rugby into a Test match and dominate from the word go.
For one thing, Habana was a dominant force in age-group rugby, scoring spectacular tries from the outside centre position on an almost weekly basis.
Bosman, by contrast, has been a fairly pedestrian performer in the Cheetahs under-21 ranks since moving to Bloemfontein from George 18 months ago.
Crucially, perhaps, he lacks pace, while White’s argument that he may be the new Henry Honiball because he is tall and well built would carry more weight were it not for the fact that Nick Mallett said something similar in 1998 about Gaffie du Toit.
It is pointless carping about the selection of Bosman, however, for White painted himself into a corner the moment he invited the 20-year-old on tour. Pressure makes diamonds and it is not inconceivable that Bosman may turn out to be one of those priceless players who play better in Test matches than they do in provincial games.
One major thing in the youngster’s favour is the fact that he is more than likely to have an armchair ride. The All Black pack pushed their Welsh counterparts all over the Millennium stadium two weeks ago and this Springbok pack is far better than that Kiwi one.
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then for most South Africans the 40 minutes Schalk Burger spent on the bench in the Test against Argentina turned mild affection for the blond flanker into unrequited love. The Boks won the second half 18-3 after struggling desperately in the first half and Burger’s influence made the difference.
But any back row is only as good as the tight five in front of it and it is here that the Springbok game has taken a quantum leap this year. CJ van der Linde has matured into a top quality tight head prop and everything else has fallen into place as a direct result. No one any longer questions lock Victor Matfield’s commitment to the cause and when the weakest part of the tight five is a player as good as Bakkies Botha the coach is permitted the odd self-satisfied smirk.
Given that the Boks have rarely given of their best at the Millennium stadium, few have dared to suggest that Saturday will be anything other than a stern test for the tourists. But White has made it clear to his team, and in particular his underperforming backs, that he expects more than most.
This may be a Springbok team shorn of half a dozen big names, but the same is true of their opponents, and Wales have far fewer options as replacements than White. It’s high time this gifted team gave some poor nation a hiding and this is the week for it to happen.