Transvaal’s players are now being properly paid, but they have to perform to justify those high salaries
RUGBY: Jon Swift
TO ANALYSE the current problems within the Transvaal team, you have to go back to the euphoria which greeted the South African side — the bulk of that side Transvalers — winning the World Cup last June.
It signalled the start of the professional era in the game of rugby union — and brought with that new wave a host of problems often associated with sudden success and instant riches. Transvaal’s decline inevitably followed.
That the players deserved a fair share of the rewards was a cogent argument then and it remains equally so now. But in the size and scope of the contracts hastily awarded the World Cup squad to head off a player revolution, the seeds of future headaches were irretrievably sown.
There are three things which count in evaluating the worth of any professional sportsman in monetary terms — performance, performance and performance.
This sadly has not been the case with Transvaal. Here, the disastrous tour of New Zealand and Australia where the much vaunted side lost four out of four, were decimated by injury and suffered the indignity of having both prop Johan le Roux and hooker James Dalton banned for on-field offences, is not the prime factor.
Northern Transvaal, with Natal this country’s best chance for a semi-final spot, fared little better Down Under, winning only one of their four matches.
The lacklustre showing by Transvaal against a struggling Western Province on their home turf — hastily relaid though it might have been — at Ellis Park is the criterion by which Francois Pienaar’s team must be judged.
For even though the home side outscored Province two tries to one, the number of mistakes they made to allow a seemingly revitalised Joel Stransky to kick them out of the game, was not one you would have expected from a team which fielded 10 Springboks — substitute Gavin Johnson bringing up the international double figures when he came on for the injured Louis van Rensburg.
Coach Grizz Wylie had no option but to hone the edge of his selectorial axe. Out went Dalton to make way for Chris Rossouw at hooker and give some much-needed direction on the throw-in at the lineout to Hannes Strydom and Phillip Schutte, and also to make way for a specialist No 8 in Gerhard Combrinck.
Out went Japie Barnard to make way for Ian Hattingh in the front row. As a retreaded lock, Hattingh offers a much-needed extra dimension at the front of the lineout.
Out went Jopie Adlam, whose sheer guts did not outweigh the string of bad options he exercised against Province, to make way for Springbok Johan Roux. Adlam will be back though. He has the makings of a fine scrumhalf and being dropped is as much part of the process of experience at top level as is taking a pounding from the opposition.
This Friday night, the new-look Transvaal take on arch foes Northerns at their Loftus Versfeld stamping ground. There is no room for complacency in a match against the Blue Bulls in Pretoria.
In many ways, the form of the Northern Transvaal side — equally beset by the type of injuries to key players as was Transvaal’s lot on tour — and that of Transvaal, points directly to the expectations of our national side in the coming tests against New Zealand and Australia.
And while the home-and-away internationals against the Wallabies under the Sanzar banner are still subject to litigation before they become reality, there is little doubt that the All Blacks are champing at the bit to reverse the World Cup final defeat.
The form of the Auckland Blues —like Transvaal, Auckland deliver the bulk of players to the national side and include Counties player Jonah Lomu — is a direct pointer to what the Amabokoboko can expect in New Zealand. By the same token, Transvaal’s form points at just what a tough task new national coach Andre Markgraaff has ahead of him when he has to weigh up the current performances of many of his professionals.
And perhaps it is time for a number of those professionals to relegate the World Cup victory to history, concentrate on the present and ponder the reality that the only thing that counts is performance … performance … performance.