There are many talented claimants to the No 8 jersey in the Springbok team, but a specialist flanker has been selected to fill that position
Rugby: Jon Swift
WE HAVE reached the ridiculous situation in this country where we have five international players at eighthman: two of them discards, one on the bench, another back in his rightful position, and the last of the full house still to make his international debut with a number 8 on his back.
There are undoubtedly other issues which will come to the fore during the two-test tour, but none is seemingly more pressing right now than the problem this country has in settling on someone of both substance and permanence to anchor the back of the scrum.
It is well at this point to run the microscope over the claimants to this crucial position one at a time before the 21-man team leaves for the Test against Italy in Rome on November 12 and the one-off Test against England at Twickenham which follows.
It must first be said that national coach Kitch Christie has not always followed the path of the righteous according to the more vociferous sections of the terraces. But then Christie has yet to put a foot wrong.
It is evident that under Christie, the international career of Tiaan Strauss is over. The Western Province strongman is unquestionably the form eighthman of the season and, despite losing the Currie Cup on the sodden surface of King’s Park last weekend, has shown himself to be an inspired leader in dragging his side back from the brink of anonymity to the very cusp of triumph.
But the adventurous nature which beats so strongly in the Strauss breast, means that he still tends to isolate himself from the rest of his forwards at crucial times, a trait which has no part in the more robotic format of the modern international game. Of the five contenders, he was perhaps the most deserving, probably the least likely to be considered.
Ironically, it was Gary Teichmann, Strauss’ opposite number in that enthralling battle at King’s Park last weekend, who can feel hardest done by as the changes were rung yet again. Teichmann has had a superb season, earning his first Test cap against the Welsh at Ellis Park and leading Natal to a 25-17 victory in the final.
As the man in the saddle — and the scorer of a fine try in his debut — Teichmann has some reason to feel aggrieved. He had waited a long time for his first Test after touring Argentina as a No 8 and playing as flank in the Wednesday side.
It is of more than passing interest to note that it was the moving of Mark Andrews — originally selected to tour as a flanker — to lock forward that had much to do with Teichmann’s dirt-tracking from the side of the scrum in the rearranged touring party.
Then it was the chance of the bustling Transvaler, Rudolf Straeuli, to hold the selectors’ eye. He grabbed that chance and played seemingly above himself, showing on the tour to Scotland and Wales that he was a player with the class to grace an international.
Straeuli was the first choice for the World Cup squad – – sans both Strauss and Teichmann — but it was a paper preference which was not to last. It could not have slipped Teichmann’s notice — along with everyone else — that, having been switched from the side of the scrum to the second row, Andrews was again strategically repositioned at the back of the scrum for the World Cup semi-final against France and the tumultuous finale against New Zealand at Ellis Park.
The roundabout turned another revolution for the one- off Test against the Welsh at Ellis Park and Andrews was switched back to his more accustomed — and it would be argued more effective — role in the second row.
Teichmann finally got his chance to pull on a green and gold jersey for the kick-off in a Test. There was an almost audible sigh among the country’s rugby followers. At last, here was a specialist doing his job. But in the Currie Cup rigours which lay ahead, the first hints that Teichmann was yesterday’s man were spelled out when Transvaal coach Ray Mordt, Christie’s deputy and acolyte in the province’s glory days, moved skipper Francois Pienaar to the back of the scrum.
It was an experiment which met with mixed fortunes, but obviously enough success to convince Christie to carry on with the switch at national level. In truth, though, the switch has done a number of things. It has moved Ruben Kruger to his rightful side of the scrum and opened the way for Fritz van Heerden, one of the revelations of the season, to come back into the Bok side in the No 7 uniform.
Pienaar may not be a natural No 8 — his momentary hesitations as he re-orients himself tend to show this — but he is both a fine forward and the best skipper we have. In harness with Kruger and the towering Van Heerden, the trio threatens to instigate a reign of terror among opponents which Attila would be proud of.
And while there is a just argument for having a specialist No 8, it must again be pointed out that Christie has yet to soil his britches in public and that a team — especially a Test team — is an ever- changing and evolving entity.
Here, the swopping of Balie Swart back to loosehead to fill the shoes of the injured Os du Randt and Garry Pagel, is another example. Swart was swopped to tight- head for the World Cup from his preferred role as a loosehead. But with Du Randt and Pagel non-starters, Christie has brought back Tommie Laubscher to provide the cornerstone up front.
It is worth repeating that Laubscher was originally a Christie invention, brought in to fill the problem tight-head role after the coach canvassed all the top frontrowers in the provincial competition on the strongest man around. Laubscher they said. And Laubscher it was. They are joined by the only uncapaped player in the touring party, Western Province prop Toks van der Linde at the expense of World Cup deputy Marius Hurter. It is a selection to be applauded.
For the rest, Christie has kept faith with the nucleus of his World Cup campaign.
The livewire James Dalton and his provincial standby Chris Roussouw fill the two hooking berths. Dalton has all the potential to become the world’s premier hooker. He has youth, mobility, is devastatingly effective in the loose and has the fire of a winner in his soul. What he needs to graft onto this is calm in tight situations, to which he reacts like a cheap Chinese firecracker –hence his suspension in the brawl of Boet Erasmus against Canada in the World Cup — and the ability to find his jumpers without a sextant and a calculator. Hopefully continued experience will give him both attributes in time.
Andrews and the massive Kobus Wiese make up the second row. Wiese is perhaps a trifle lucky to make the tour after poleaxing Derwyn Jones in the Welsh Test and sitting out the suspension that the subsequent citing cost him. But he is a fine forward. Robust and willing … and Hannes Strydom is on the injury list.
The backs probably presented Christie with fewer problems. James Small keeps his place alongside Chester Williams, the man he ruled out of the Welsh Test through some fancy footsteps in a Currie Cup clash, and Jacques Olivier sits it out on the bench as one of the more able standbys in world rugby.
Japie Mulder and Hennie le Roux hold their places in the centre as do Joel Stransky and Joost van der Westhuizen at halfback, and Andre Joubert in the No 15 jersey he has made his personal property.
There are few surprises here. Small is arguably still coming back to his best form, but he is still the most deadly finisher in rugby and a talented footballer to boot. Stransky had a below par Cup final, where he was out-shadowed and out-thought by Natal’s Gallic gremlin, Thierry Lacroix. But he remains the best option this country has and his pattern of play ensures that the Boks’ strengths are magnified and weaknesses minimised.
In all, there is a look of a mixture of power and purpose about the latest Bok selection which bodes no good for the minnows of Italy and should cause more than a ripple in the pond where the sharks of England lie circling in wait to inflict the first mauling of the world champions.
But for Christie, reluctantly it would seem, back in his accustomed harness, and Pienaar, wearing the bridles of a position so new to him at this level that the leather still creaks, there is some hard work ahead.
We await the outcome of the upcoming tour with some trepidation.