Facing the first of four Tests against the fearsome All Blacks and with a long list of injuries, the Springbok coach is justified in feeling a trifle nervous, but there is some comfort for him as well
RUGBY: Jon Swift
THERE has always been something special about a meeting between South Africa and New Zealand on the rugby field; an almost tangible coppery taste compounded of a mixture of fear and anticipation.
If you accept this as a reality, the near- desperation in the voice of Springbok coach Andre Markgraaff — pondering as he was his team’s desperate clinging on at Bloemfontein to beat the Australians 25-19 and weighing the chances of his injury-hit squad for this Saturday’s meeting with the All Blacks at Newlands — wasn’t that surprising.
Markgraaff, you sensed, was a man with an incipient ulcer. And why so? The All Blacks have already won the Sanzar Series, of which this Saturday’s encounter marks the closing episode. But ahead of that lies three Tests in as many weeks in a home series that perhaps even more than the World Cup final will decide the current world championship status within the game.
“It is,” said Markgraaff, perhaps stating the obvious, “a series we simply have to win.”
Just so from the point of view that the Amabokoboko had only just started regaining the rhythm and cohesion which led them to victory that tumultuous day at Ellis Park last June.
It is one of the anomalies of the modern game that the selection of 15 players and a reserve squad of six on the bench is simply not enough. The attrition of the game at professional level dictates that there should be more than one player of international potential for each position.
That the New Zealanders have arrived with an unprecedented swollen squad of 36 players clearly worries Markgraaff.
And well it should. Andre Joubert, such a key player in the South African battle plan, is suspect, as is Henry Honiball. Johan Ackermann, fast growing into the giant of the game he is destined to become, is out for the series, as is the ever-dependable prop Balie Swart.
Swart spent last weekend nursing a severe case of concussion after having to come off on half-time. It is credit to Dawie Theron’s ability — and, it must be added, Markgraaff’s insight in bringing the Griqua strongman into the reckoning — that losing Swart caused as few ripples as it did.
First-choice tighthead Marius Hurter is back in the team after missing the Bloemfontein match with an injury.
More worrisome though is the damage Ackermann did to the cruciate ligaments of his knee. The partnership the big Pretoria policeman is forging with Mark Andrews looked to be fast approaching maturity and Ackermann was settling into the hyper-pace of rugby at Test level.
Skipper Francois Pienaar left no doubts about Ackermann’s ability to take it at this level. “When he goes down you know he’s hurt,” was the way Pienaar put it.
Markgraaff was perhaps a little more graphic. “You know when the big man goes down, he’s really broken.” Indeed. Ackermann has, in a short space of time, started to become a vital cog in the coach’s perception of how the tight five should operate.
It was not the only problem Markgraaff faced, though, as a gastric upheaval swept through the South African side in Bloemfontein.
“Mark wanted to come off at half-time he was feeling so ill,” said Markgraaff. “I told him `no ways’, not after we had lost Johan so early.” It was, in retrospect, a performance of real grit from Andrews facing, as he was, John Eales in the lineout.
“Just the fact that Mark managed to get up and win ball was tremendous,” said the coach. One would have to agree with him.
We have no real shortage of Test-class locks. Hannes Strydom, who came on for Ackermann after 20 minutes, is just one. And it must be remembered that Strydom was in the World Cup-winning second row and widely regarded as one of the toughest locks around.
But it means re-establishing a partnership in the second row against the not inconsiderable threat posed by All Black veterans Robin Brooke and Ian Jones. The New Zealand pair have the sort of understanding that only protracted duty under the shell-fire of Test rugby generates. Fearsome opponents, then, for a revamped combination.
It will doubtless prove so this weekend. The Test itself has little to offer in terms of a result other than to either confirm the All Blacks as worthy winners of the initial three-nation tournament should they come out on top, or to again raise the question of how the Springboks managed to let New Zealand off the hook in the match they should have won in Christchurch.
But there is, for both sides, the underlying fact that victory in a Test which does not form part of the coming series, undoubtedly provides the vital edge for the three internationals which do.
It is, as Pienaar so emphatically points out, “one we want to win”. And, one believes, an edge the South Africans should take going into the rubber.
The reason for the brightness in the gloom is twofold.
The forwards are at last operating at pace and showing the cohesion that is needed against a side as powerful all-round as the New Zealanders. Australia showed that taking the game to the All Blacks has the effect of causing a misfire in the New Zealand engine-room.
And, even though it was in patches — patches caused perhaps by the gut rumblings in the heart of the South African scrum — the Springboks proved more than a match for the Wallabies in Bloemfontein.
Much credit here must go to Gary Teichmann and his skipper Pienaar. Pienaar, despite the criticism which has followed him throughout his career, is no ordinary player. He is committed and capable of doing the things which disrupt opposition at any time.
Teichmann, a classic No 8, grows with each outing in the green and gold, providing the cover which underpinned some shaky defence in the centre of the South African line against the Wallabies, and breaking the advantage line virtually every time he takes the ball forward.
All Black lynchpin Zinzan Brooke, inspired and unconventional as he might be, has no easy task ahead against the rangy Natalian.
But even more heartening than the power generated by the pack against the Wallabies was the first sign that the South Africans were allowing the game to flow to the fringes, using the backs and trying to penetrate rather than build the kind of defensive wall which has kept the All Black try-scorers at bay so successfully in recent outings.
This, one feels, has a lot to do with the re- inclusion of the cerebral Joel Stransky at flyhalf. The fact that his kicking is back on track is an exceptional bonus, as his 25 points against Australia so aptly showed. Stransky has the ability to give his backline the extra yard that becomes so vital against a pairing as wily as the New Zealand veterans Walter Little and Frank Bunce. Allow this duo any slack and you pay dearly.
One senses too that Markgraaff will be more than happy that Stransky is back on song from the tactical kicking aspect. And that Johan Roux has shown such pin-point accuracy behind the scrum for South Africa since taking over from the sadly out of form Joost van der Westhuizen at scrumhalf.
Van der Westhuizen came on for Roux in the second half against Australia. “We wanted to spread the ball wider and thought he was right to do it,” was the way Markgraaff summed up the tactical substitution. It was, though the coach was loath to admit it after the game, a mistake.
Just as taking the game to the New Zealand forwards is important to a South African victory, so is keeping All Black fullback Christian Cullen occupied in fielding the ball in his own half and turning the wingmen Jonah Lomu and Jeff Wilson integral to keeping the impetus going.
Worries yes. You do not go into any game against the All Blacks without some degree of apprehension. Fears? One doubts it. The Springboks have what it takes even in straitened times and without the first choices being immediately available.
There is also one other point worth mentioning. The Springbok discipline on the field showed few signs of cracking last weekend. Even the savage stomping Michael Brial tap-danced across Theron failed to light the infamous South African touch paper.
Against the All Blacks the side will need all the discipline they can muster. The match-winning boot of Andrew Mehrtens awaits — as it did in Christchurch — even the slightest indiscretion.
And so, while Markgraaff has every reason to swallow hard at the coppery taste in his mouth, he surely goes into the punishing schedule of four tests in as many weeks with the knowledge that his side can — and should — do what he so fervently wants them to… give the All Blacks a whipping.