After the announcement of 40 players from whom the 30-man squad for this year’s World Cup campaign will be drawn, Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli has nowhere left to hide.
Over the past 18 months the omission of key names from squads and teams has been ascribed to the need to see every possible combination in action. Now it seems that key names missing can start to look elsewhere for employment.
There is a kind of escape clause. Five of the 40 are officially in rehabilitation and, said Straeuli: ‘Injuries do happen in rugby and there are players on a shortlist who could still be included on the basis of injury.â€
There are, as has become customary, non sequiturs everywhere. Having been part of the mix all season, Sharks scrumhalf Craig Davidson has been discarded in favour of Fourie du Preez of the Bulls. Du Preez’s halfback partner at the Bulls, Derick Hougaard, has also received the call up, having apparently finally convinced everyone that he is a man, not a boy, and therefore has no need to be placed in cotton wool any longer.
Hougaard’s new status is in direct contrast to Bob Skinstad who will be pushing back the boundaries of medical science in an attempt to be fit for the World Cup. Skinstad’s broken arm will be subjected to decompression chambers and its owner will be given pure oxygen to try and speed up the recovery process.
It’s very hard not to get personal when Skinstad’s name comes up. He gets the bells and whistles treatment from SA Rugby despite the fact that no province deemed him good enough to employ on a temporary basis while he attempted to prove his match fitness to the national selectors. It was while playing club rugby for UCT that he broke his arm.
Straeuli’s extended squad includes only six players (Skinstad included) to cover the vital back row positions. Maybe this is where the escape clause kicks in. It would be pleasing to believe, for instance, that in the event of Skinstad failing to make the cut-off date for proving his fitness, Schalk Burger may get the call up.
Burger is the kind of precocious talent for whom normal rules do not apply. He somehow manages to make more tackles than anyone else while being both at the breakdown and in the back line. He has the kind of silky ball skills that marked out the youthful Skinstad and, like Skinstad at the same age, it is a matter of when, and not if, he captains his country.
For those who worry about rushing youngsters into the fray, it is worth remembering that two men who had unimpeachable Tri-Nations campaigns — Jaun Smith and Ashwin Willemse — played with Burger in last year’s Under-21 World Cup final at Ellis Park. Besides, World Cups come around too rarely to leave weapons of mass destruction at home.
The final squad is to be announced at the Supersport Show on August 30 and it is tempting to second-guess Straeuli. He doesn’t need six props, so out go Christo Bezuidenhout and CJ van der Linde. He doesn’t need five locks, but he can’t afford to lose players of colour, so out goes Bakkies Botha in favour of Quinton Davids. The same thinking should make room for Dale Santon, but the World Cup is no place for hookers who can only last 20 minutes, so out he goes with Lucas van Biljon.
The selection of Hougaard should mean the end for Louis Koen who has played many more Tests than his talent deserves. Fourie du Preez is the obvious scrumhalf discard and it is time for those who brought Thinus Delport back from Gloucester to admit the error of their ways.
Like Skinstad, logic flies out of the window in the case of Werner Greeff, still considered a God for the match-winning try against Australia a year ago. That means no room for Jacque Fourie and, to accommodate Russell it should also mean no room for Stefan Terblanche, an ever-present this year despite being over the hill.