revenge
Barney Spender Rugby
On a little side-street in downtown Biarritz there is a poorly-lit bar called Le Frre Jacques. Not an original name for a bar, but chosen perhaps because Jacques is also the name of the self-styled patron, a silver-haired, pot-bellied figure who shuffles around smiling, shaking hands with the customers, his friends, and accepting their offers of a small pastis.
With the amount of work he does around the bar, pouring a small pression occasionally for one of his mates, he can hardly be considered the true boss. For that we must look to his wife, Gislaine, a forceful lady whose hair is more silvery and belly more potted than her husband’s. But she fills the baguettes for her hungrier clients, blends the coffee, pours the wine and, significantly, takes all the money.
It is a good combination, a variation of the good cop-bad cop idea. He is popular. He pulls in the customers. People like to come and drink in his bar because he never takes money out of their hand. Grudgingly they pay his wife, perhaps even curse her in the act, but she doesn’t mind because she has the money and she knows that they will be back the next day for another chat with their mate Jacques. She gets her hands dirty because that is her role.
Combinations are crucial in every walk of life, not least on the rugby field and if South Africa are to repeat their 1992 performance and grab a win in Lyon on Saturday, then the combinations must work perfectly. Against Italy last week some did not.
The Azzurri’s first try came as a result of a line-out combination which went wrong, James Dalton’s throw flying way over Krynauw Otto’s head and into the arms of Julian Gardner, who must have thought it was Christmas. There was no excuse for it.
The second try, admittedly, came more from an individual error from James Small who failed to collect Dominguez’s up-and-under cleanly, but the third lay at the feet of the centres, Dick Muir and Andre Snyman, who both went to tackle the same man, so allowing an overlap for Paulo Vaccari to score.
These were the glaring errors because they led directly to scores, but there are others to consider. Nick Mallett, the coach, was quick to point to the shortcomings of Rassie Erasmus in the back row. “We need to have someone who will get stuck in and dig the ball out when the boots are flying. Rassie didn’t do that on Saturday,” he said.
Effectively, when he was meant to be filling the baguettes and taking the money, Erasmus, who certainly has the makings of an excellent player, was joking with the customers out front. Mind you, when it comes to fetchers, South Africa were unfortunate to lose Corne Krige before the tour began. The next best would be Francois Pienaar but, of course, like Joel Stransky and Fritz van Heerden, both of whom would strengthen this team, he is now stigmatised by the South African Rugby Football Union hierarchy. How silly.
The back row could be the area where the Test is won and lost. Last week, they were outplayed as a unit by the Italians until late in the game, which meant that Joost van der Westhuizen was deprived of the protection he needed to get the ball away quickly to unleash the backs. If they allow it to get bogged down, then the defence always has time to realign.
For their part, the French are still smarting at losing the series last year 2- 0. “For me it amounts to a revenge which would be truly personal,” says prop Christian Califano. “I still haven’t digested those two defeats, they are still terrible memories, especially the second Test when it wasn’t so much the result, losing a game we should have won, but the manner of it.”
And, let us not forget, they still believe that they should have been in the World Cup final. For all New Zealand’s sparkling play since, it is the Springboks who won that tournament; it is the Boks who stand to lose their crown.
According to the French captain Philippe St Andre, the Boks will begin as favourites. “Putting 60 points on the Australians is one hell of a victory. But let’s be clear, we will have our revenge; we want to rediscover our true souls.”
In their 11 previous encounters on French soil, the Boks have won nine. Their only defeat came in the second Test of their comeback tour in 1992 when they went down 29-16 in Paris after winning the opener in Lyon. In 1961, the two teams ground out a 0-0 draw; not too many of them around these days.
As to how things go this weekend, it is best to return to Gislaine, for she is not only patronne supreme, but also something of a sage, a Basque mix of Solomon and Sartre. Standing under the rugby shirts and posters of Serge Blanco, that adorn the walls, she points instead to a graphic photo of a bullfight, that other local passion.
“De temps en temps, le matador est encorn par le toro.” Occasionally, the matador ends up on the horns of the bull.
So which are the Boks? She shrugs, smiles and goes to wipe some glasses while her husband laughs in a corner. It’s a good combination, Jacques and Jill, and if the Boks can emulate them on Saturday, then it won’t be them that ends up on the horns of the bull. They need not lose their crown.