With a Test against the awesome All Blacks next weekend there doesn’t seem to be enough time to solve the Springbok problems or enough talent to plug the gaping holes left by injuries
RUGBY:Steve Morris
DESPITE the assurances of as respected a voice as the great Pinetree, Colin Meads, that Springbok rugby is at a high enough level right now to take on the All Blacks, this country’s present level of preparedness to take on the world’s top sides is not the major issue.
There is a pervasive feeling that the Springboks are on an upsurge after the slough of a series defeat – something we have heard for the last two seasons – the more immediate future of a tri-nations series against Australia and New Zealand must be looked at from the perspective of the 1999 World Cup in Wales.
This looming spectre has been used as both a target and an excuse by successive national coaches on the assumption that they have enough time and material to build towards repeating the success of Francois Pienaar’s side in 1995.
While Carel du Plessis has had as auspicious a start to his tenure in dropping two of three Tests to the British Lions as his predecessor Andre Markgraaff did in becoming the first coach to lose a home series to the All Blacks, both men can rightly claim that circumstances have not exactly favoured their selections.
Injury has been one of the major factors. Teams that lack a consistency of personnel, suffer equally from a muddying of purpose. To claim otherwise would be to shut your mind to reality.
Yet, equally, both coaches have been guilty of falling back on the comfort zone of the players from their own quarter of the country – Griquas in the case of Markgraaff and a potential bias towards Western Province by Du Plessis. This is arguably a very human trait. We all want people around us we know and understand. But it raises the question of whether either man was really big enough for the job when it was thrust on him – for Markgraaff through Kitch Christie’s ill health and for the untried Du Plessis when the glowering coach the players called Saddam Hussein reverted to the mangled, racially biased idiom of the era of the ox-wagon.
There can be no doubt that the old adage of growing six inches when you pull a Springbok jersey over your head still applies. There can also be no gainsaying a player like James Small publicly saying that he would die on the rugby field for his country. Commitment of the nature Small always gives to his game might expose an abnormal amount of flashpoints, but it is the type of murg en been approach any coach prays for.
National pride though is simply not enough. Professionalism – among the coaches as much as the players – has put paid to that. The cerebral way in which the Lions structured their tour under the guidance of the wily pair of coach Ian McGeechan and manager Fran Cotton gives ample proof to that, and even the face-saving 35-16 win at Ellis Park did little to disprove this.
Rather, the Lions series exposed the fact that our coaching methods have been left behind since Christie’s day. The solid logic and innovative thinking that won the World Cup has been discarded in favour of playing the type of predictable 1980s rugby that let this country down so badly when we were re- admitted to the international arena in 1992.
Added to this is the question that has been left hanging on the real strength in depth that the game in this country can claim ownership of.
Take out James Dalton and the front row does not operate at full potential. Leave out Mark Andrews and Kobus Wiese and the second row struggles to find its feet. Remove Hennie le Roux and Japie Mulder, and the midfield develops some sagging holes. Ignore Joel Stransky and the pivotal flyhalf slot becomes a staidly predictable one.
Immediately ahead lies the first of two confrontations with the tri-nations title holders at Ellis Park next Saturday. It is – as is always the case with a Test against the All Blacks – an awesome prospect. For, can the sleek abilities of Russell Bennett replace those of Andre Joubert at fullback at a stage when the Border player is busy growing into the game at international level in a straight man-to-man meeting with New Zealand’s Christian Cullen? There must be some wavering on this score.
The same doubts must surely exist about any combination of second-rowers taking on Robin Brooke and Ian Jones, or any variety of reshaped midfield holding back a Frank Bunce in full cry.
On the evidence of a systematic 30-13 All Black devastation of Australia in the Bledisloe Cup at Christchurch last weekend, we are in serious trouble. Especially when New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick expressed his unhappiness about the way his side relaxed around the half-way point.
More frightening still when you realise that all four All Black tries came from the loose forwards – two each for Zinzan Brooke and Josh Kronfeld. The New Zealanders under coach John Hart have built a side where the players and the purpose for their being on the field are, if not exactly inter- changeable, certainly often indistinguishable in the roles they perform.
There has been much spoken of a Springbok squad system. It is a method the Lions used with great success and one that the All Blacks have relied on for years.
It ensures that, while the designated substitute for any particular position may not get onto the Test field that often, he has security of tenure, is part of the side as a whole and is ready to fill in successfully at virtually any time.
This cannot be said to be the case with the Springboks. Certainly Du Plessis – admittedly severely strapped for a goalkicker – by-passed Boeta Wessels and brought the moderate flyhalf abilities of Jannie de Beer in from the outside.
In theory, the move worked, and South Africa got back on the winning side of the scoreboard, as indeed they should have done in the defeat at King’s Park in the second Test. But then De Beer didn’t have a marauding Kronfeld in his face against the Lions and even so managed to have two kicks charged down.
Du Plessis has made it his mission to become central to the development of rugby in this country from top to bottom, exposing and nurturing talent from the lower reaches all the way through to the national side. It is an admirable ambition and one that every rugby supporter in this country should be firmly behind.
Sadly, the prospect is that with the tri- nations series right on us and the defence of the World Cup now less than two years away, there is just not enough time or polished talent available. Pray then, that this is an analysis on paper that will be disproved in fact.