Several familiar faces are missing from the South African team to meet Italy on Saturday – and their replacements have the talent to keep them on the sidelines, writes Andy Capostagno
Nine changes and four uncapped players on the bench. You could be forgiven for thinking that Nick Mallett has gone mad. But it is six months and one week since the Springbok coach last selected a Test side, and if a week is a long time in politics (particularly during the vote-counting process), six months is an aeon in rugby.
There has been time, for instance, to reflect on the reasons why the Boks lost their unbeaten record under Mallett in the lacklustre display against England. Too many players with patched-up injuries, a “clubbish” atmosphere in the camp, an underestimation of the presence England bring to a game at Twickenham.
It had been very different in Cape Town earlier last year, when the Boks beat the England third team 18-0. And it will be very different at Telkom Park against an Italian team missing their world-class half-back pair of Alessandro Troncon and Diego Dominguez.
Italy are a team in transition, and to expect a few grizzled veterans and gifted youngsters to triumph in South Africa against the world champions is asking far too much. Last year there were complaints about understrength northern hemisphere teams coming to this country. After Saturday the debate may rage again.
But, injuries notwithstanding, Italy have done their hosts the honour of bringing their best players, it’s just that that will not be good enough. The Boks are unlikely to run riot; it is their first outing of the season and the team needs time to get to know itself. But they will win and win well, new faces and all.
Which is why it was so surprising that when the World Cup contracts ran out last year, the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu), having complained of penury as a direct result of those contracts, promptly signed up the top 25 players in the country along largely similar lines. It makes no sense because in a collision sport such as rugby union form is temporary, fitness even more so. Mallett has made soothing noises about the future of the players he has decided not to use against Italy on Saturday. But the fact of the matter is that possession is nine-tenths of the law.
Eighteen months ago it would have seemed unthinkable for the Boks to do without Henry Honiball, Joost van der Westhuizen, Mark Andrews, Os du Randt and Andre Snyman. But all five find themselves injured at precisely the wrong time.
And while fitness is the only reason any Bok side would start without Du Randt and Van der Westhuizen, for the other three, and several more, it could spell the end of the line. Which is not to say that for Honiball, Andrews and Snyman there is no rugby left in the tank, but that the players who have taken their places will take some shifting.
Andrews is the most capped player in Springbok history, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that a series of shoulder injuries over the past two years would have shortened his Test career if there had been a single viable alternative. Well, now there are two. Selborne Boome has been rewarded for a prodigious Super 12, and breathing down his neck on the bench is Albert van den Berg. Both have youth and athleticism on their side, which most coaches will willingly trade for experience.
Andrews is only 27 years old and his time may come again, but one suspects not in the short term. The same can be said for Snyman, who has looked less impressive outside Pieter Muller and Christian Stewart than he did when he first came to prominence as the pace alongside the grey matter of Dick Muir.
But whither 33-year-old Henry Honiball? As has been well documented, Honiball is Mallett’s talisman, the keystone around which he builds his teams. But as has also been well documented, Honiball missed the 1995 World Cup with injury and could well be in the same unfortunate position this time around.
Which would be a problem were it not for Gaffie du Toit and Braam van Straaten. Mallett has said that Van Straaten is likely to play in next week’s second Test in Durban even if Du Toit has a blinder. I beg leave to doubt. Having happily discarded the plot to turn Du Toit into a fullback, Mallett may find that a window of opportunity opens up at Telkom Park on Saturday.
This time last year the Griqua flyhalf won his only cap against Ireland in Bloemfontein. It is fair to say that he did not cover himself in glory and he also picked up an injury which set him back. If Du Toit fluffs his lines against Italy there will be no shortage of wiseacres saying, “Told you so.”
But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that, given a second chance, he will take to Test rugby like a duck to water. Du Toit has what it takes to remind us all that the finest sight in the game is a breaking flyhalf, and outside him on the right wing the purists can look forward to more genius from another debutant, Breyton Paulse.
It is three years since Paulse scored four tries on his debut for the Springbok midweek side against Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes. His coach that day was Nick Mallett, then assistant to Andre Markgraaff in the national set-up. Since then Paulse has been in and out of both the Springbok and Western Province squad, but when picked he has fulfilled the task of wings throughout history, scoring at least a try per match.
It is a crying shame that it has taken so long for Paulse’s genius to be rewarded, especially now that his presence will be seen in some quarters as a sop to the quota system. He is, quite simply, the best wing in the country, just as, in 1995, Chester Williams was.
Mallett may have preferred to take his tried and trusted troops into the most important season in South African history, but events have conspired against him. He may soon find cause to celebrate that fact, as with the likes of Paulse, Du Toit and Boome the Springboks may lose the odd game, but when they win, they will win gloriously.