Andy Capostagno Rugby
Even Nick Mallett has admitted it. “We cannot claim to be the underdogs on this tour”, he said on Tuesday night, and the Springbok coach is absolutely right. Mallett has built a rod for his own back in this season of unprecedented success for the national side, and a Grand Slam of four tour Test wins will not be enough to satisfy the critics. South Africa must not only win, they must win well – which will not be easy against teams who will, on the whole, be more interested in damage limitation than the castles in the air philosophy of actually believing the Tri- Nations champions can be beaten.
Bearing in mind that the World Cup is just less than 12 months distant, this tour could not have been better planned. It will acquaint some of the more callow members of the squad with soft grounds, long grass, numb extremities and rain.
And although the uncapped Griquas pair of Robert Markram and Lourens Venter probably feel they saw enough rain in their Currie Cup semi-final defeat by Western Province to last a lifetime, they ain’t seen nothing yet.
And even the more experienced members of the squad need reminding that it is one thing to beat teams such as New Zealand and Australia, who spend more time trying to create than destroy, quite another to subdue teams such as Ireland and Wales who overflow with passion, but shop at the same ideas market as Baby Jake Matlala’s hairdresser.
That is perhaps unfair on Wales who have a new coach (Graham Henry) and a new attitude (if you once heard a Max Boyce song you can play for Wales). Henry has adopted the same motto for coaching the Dragons as Jack Charlton once used for coaching the Irish soccer team: patriotism is nice, but winning is nicer.
Thus Shane Howarth, a nice New Zealand boy, will probably start at fly-half against South Africa. One can only imagine what that will do to the self esteem of a nation that produced Barry John, Phil Bennett, Cliff Morgan and Jonathan Davies.
And the same thing is happening all over the British Isles. England coach Clive Woodward was bullish about the prospect of facing the Springboks at Twickenham when his third team had only lost 18-0 to the men in green and gold at Newlands in July. The same Woodward could not wait to get the 31-year-old Jeremy Thompson into his squad when he discovered that the former Natalian had English qualifications.
For as much as British officials deny the gulf between the hemispheres, admiration of southern hemisphere players knows no bounds among the coaches. Thompson signed to play for Francois Pienaar’s Saracens when he perceived that he was no longer up with the pace at Super 12 and Currie Cup level for the Sharks. But if we are to believe Woodward, he is still a better outside centre prospect than anyone else currently available for England.
Equally Dion O’Cuinneagain has walked into the Irish Test side after seeing no prospect in trying to oust first Andrew Aitken and then Bobby Skinstad from the Western Province team. And the much travelled Luke Smith has now found a flag of Scottish convenience with which he hopes to compete in the next World Cup. The sad thing is that his safety-first kicking game at fly-half may be just what Scotland want. So although the conditions will be unfamiliar to some of Mallett’s tourists, at least they will be able to praat die taal (speak the language) with a few of the opposition.
So the main problem that the class of 1998 will have to contend with is an over familiarity with the opposition and a tendency to believe that less than your best will still be good enough. They should prepare for the trip by watching a few videos of the last team to complete a successful Grand Slam tour, the 1984 Australians.
That team was largely unheralded, principally because in those far off, pre- Super 12 days British rugby supporters were almost entirely ignorant of the game played south of Marseilles. So the great Mark Ella at fly-half was something of a revelation and there were three rather promising youngsters called Nick Farr-Jones, Michael Lynagh and David Campese who opened a few eyes, too. They played a fast, close passing game which, seven years down the line, resulted in winning the World Cup against England at Twickenham.
This Springbok side has the ability to make the British forget about that tour. It has a wonderful blend of the rapier and the broadsword, a captain who has just walked away with the player of the year award and a coach who has a fine disregard for the claptrap which accompanies sport these days, and a gift for quietly and efficiently getting things done.
The national side has achieved much this year, but Mallett will only really enjoy his Christmas if he can carve the words “Grand Slam” above his fireplace. Expect him to come back through customs next month with a fine, Sheffield Steel whittling knife.