RUGBY: Jon Swift
A SCANT three weeks separates South Africa from the first Test as world champions — on September 2 the World Cup holders face Wales at Ellis Park.
On the face of it, Wales do not present an insurmountable hurdle. The game is currently at a nadir in the principality and the revamped national side is faced with a coach who has lost the players’ confidence and a deluge of withdrawals, threatened withdrawals and disciplinary banishments.
Wales have already lost four of their original tour party, fullback Wayne Proctor, prop Spencer John and loose forwards Emyr Lewis and Andy Moore — the last two dropped for missing a practice.
On top of this Neil Jenkins, of the extraordinary ears and twitching preliminaries to his kicks, has threatened to withdraw unless he is considered only at flyhalf and not used at centre — a berth he filled in the World Cup — or fullback.
But if the virtually new-look Wales — only half their World Cup squad are due to return to this country — have their problems, the selection of the South African side is not without headaches for the national
The on-going spate of signings and non-signings is just one of the factors which will inevitably make the life of national coach Kitch Christie and his selection panel even more difficult.
First choice lock Hannes Strydom is unavailable for Test duty at Ellis Park due to a nagging knee injury. On the face of it, this is not insurmountable and probably means Natal’s Mark Andrews and Strydom’s Transvaal teammate Kobus Wiese will probably lock the
Both are fine forwards and did more than enough during the World Cup to justify wearing the green and gold again. But drafting Andrews back into the second row cuts the option Christie employed against France and New Zealand in the last two matches of the World Cup where Strydom and Wiese locked the scrum and Andrews came in at No 8 to bolster the line-out ahead of Rudolph Straeuli.
But with Straeuli out of favour at provincial level and Francois Pienaar wearing the No 8 jersey for Transvaal in his place, it would seem doubtful that Christie will recall the man who made such an impression on the tour of Wales and Scotland to the national side from the substitutes’ bench.
With Transvaal — as is the case with Northern Transvaal — not in action this weekend and Christie scheduled to name his squad of 21 on Saturday evening, Straeuli has no chance to underline any vague claim he might have.
It is hardly credible that Pienaar will be moved to the back of the scrum for the Test, but there is just the outside possibility that Transvaal’s Charles Rossouw could come into the side and partner Ruben Kruger at flank with Pienaar making up the loose trio.
It must be recognised at this point that despite hasty meetings between the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu), the six Test unions and the Players Association, the game remains in turmoil and only the Transvaal players and the bulk of the Springbok World Cup squad can be said to be fully committed — or indeed any more than loosely affiliated — to Sarfu.
It is a state of affairs not conducive to ease of selection, but if the selectors stick to a recognised specialist No 8 it would leave Gary Teichmann as the leading contender at the back of the scrum on current Currie Cup form.
But with Teichmann captaining a Natal team fully committed through the newly formed Players Association to Kerry Packer’s World Rugby Corporation, there is no saying that he will even be considered.
At least Teichmann has another chance to showcase the use he is making of his undoubted talents in Port Elizabeth this weekend when Natal take on Eastern Province at Boet Erasmus.
The other scheduled game this weekend — current wooden spoonists Free State go to Cape Town to take on Western Province at Newlands — gives Joel Stransky another chance to shake off any claims Transvaal’s Hennie le Roux might have to the Springbok flyhalf berth.
In the 26 minutes substituting for Jannie de Beer against Free State and in the loss against Natal last weekend, Le Roux has had little chance to mount such a challenge and switch from the centre position where Christie has preferred him .
And, like all the Transvaal and Blue Bull players, he lacks an outing this weekend to make any sort of playing statement.
We await the announcement of the squad with some